Those stout souls doing the rounds and shaking hands within the beltway report that both Congress and the FAA ( now headed by the ex-chief of ALPA) are falling over themselves in an attempt to preempt regulatory change with reference to duty regs. The Colgan crash has been something of an impetuous. Also in the pipeline is a minimum of 1500 hrs and an A.T.P. requirement to occupy the right seat when operating under FAR 121.
A Republican administration headed by Old Man McCain and Bimbo Palin would most certainly have maintained the less than satisfactory status quo which favored profit over safety (" Well golly" says Sarah. "Gotta protect those share holders even if the passengers do occasionally end up kinda dead. Ya know, I can see Russia from my deck! "). But Republicans are yesterday's news and changes are a coming. There's political capital here, and I both suspect and hope that it's going to be spent.