Downey (left) and Acosta (right). Images from Wikimedia and NCPC.

The Obama administration has named two of the federal representatives to the WMATA Board of Directors, the Washington Post reports.

Mortimer Downey will be a voting member. He served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation for the Clinton Administration, headed the Obama transition’s transportation agency review team, and is now a transportation consultant.

Marcel Acosta was named as an alternate member; he is the Executive Director of the National Capital Planning Commission and formerly worked for the Chicago Transit Authority.

According to the Post, Downey rides the system regularly from his home in Vienna. Acosta lives in DC and does not own a car. The law requires at least one of the four to be a regular rider, and many have suggested that all four ought to be regular riders (as should jurisdictional members as well).

They have not completed their selection for the other two members, one voting and one alternate. The Post article says that the administration accelerated these two appointments to the new members could participate in the important budget decisions at the Board meeting on Thursday. Hopefully Downey and Acosta will be attending Wednesday’s public hearing to start hearing rider opinions on these issues.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.