A Year After Ohio Train Derailment, Dem Makes Another Plea For Rail Safety Bill

WASHINGTON ― Saturday marks one 12 months since a Norfolk Southern freight practice carrying hazardous supplies derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spreading poisonous chemical substances all around the neighborhood.

And in that point, Congress has accomplished “absolutely nothing” to make railroads safer, and retains failing to behave on bipartisan laws to stop one thing like that from occurring once more, Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) mentioned in a Thursday speech on the House flooring.

He made the identical level once more in a Friday letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

The Ohio practice derailment “significantly impacted the lives of my constituents across the state line in Beaver Country, Pennsylvania,” Deluzio wrote to Johnson. “I have spent the past year fighting to make freight rail safer for folks like us. It is long past time that Congress takes bipartisan action.”

“Accordingly, I ask that you bring the Railway Safety Act to the floor for a vote before Congress adjourns for the August recess,” he mentioned.

This invoice, which Deluzio launched final March with Republican Rep. Nick LaLota (N.Y.), has a wild, bipartisan mixture of supporters. The Senate model is led by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R), together with cosponsors Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). The invoice has each Democratic and GOP supporters in each chambers. The Biden administration backs it. So does former President Donald Trump.

But it hasn’t gone wherever. The House hasn’t touched the Railway Safety Act because it was launched practically a 12 months in the past. In the Senate, after months of inaction, it was lastly reported out of committee in December and is now ready to be scheduled for a flooring vote.

The reality {that a} invoice with this a lot help in each events, in each chambers, hasn’t moved for this lengthy is simply bizarre.

Deluzio advised HuffPost he doesn’t get it both, besides to say he suspects influential rail corporations have been lobbying members of Congress to not take any motion that will imply extra rules on their enterprise or eat into their earnings.

“I can’t answer for House Republican leaders,” he mentioned. “We’re just sick and tired of being treated like collateral damage in the way of corporate profits.”

Democrats have accused Norfolk Southern of prioritizing earnings over security. From 2018 to 2023, the rail firm paid its shareholders practically $18 billion by inventory buybacks and dividends, in accordance with Democratic House committee workers.

In testimony earlier than Congress final March, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan apologized for the East Palestine practice derailment and vowed to donate tens of millions of {dollars} to assist the city get well. But he didn’t lend any help to the invoice imposing harder security necessities.

Deluzio’s invoice would impose a lot of new security reforms on the rail business, together with new necessities for wayside defect detectors — sensors positioned alongside the rails that notify practice operators of issues like overheated bearings. The crew working the practice within the East Palestine derailment received a warning from these detectors, however not in time to cease the practice earlier than three dozen automobiles flew off the tracks and caught on fireplace, in accordance with a National Transportation Safety Board report.

The invoice would additionally improve fines for wrongdoing dedicated by rail carriers, beef up security procedures for trains which are carrying hazardous supplies and create new necessities to stop blocked railroad crossings.

In his letter to Johnson, Deluzio mentioned the laws is the direct results of a number of conversations he’d had with folks in communities damage by the Ohio practice derailment. He once more accused railroad corporations of utilizing their affect to stop the invoice from transferring.

The railroad foyer has been telling members of Congress “to do nothing to make rail safer and risk cutting into their profits,” wrote the Pennsylvania Democrat. “Since introducing this bill over 10 months ago, that is exactly what has happened: nothing.”

A Johnson spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been touting actions that his division has taken to enhance rail security, like calling on massive rail operators like Amtrak to hitch a confidential whistleblower program to report issues of safety and inspecting some 40,000 rail automobiles, greater than 75,000 miles of monitor and hundreds of wayside detectors.

But there’s a restrict to how a lot Buttigieg can do with out Congress appearing, and earlier this week he known as out lawmakers for letting the Railway Safety Act languish.

“One year later, Congress still has not acted to pass the bipartisan Railway Safety Act, which would be a decisive victory for rail worker safety and the ability to hold railroad corporations accountable,” Buttigieg mentioned in a Thursday name with rail labor leaders. “Any congressional leader from any party who is serious about rail safety should show it by supporting this legislation.”

It’s not clear when the Senate plans to take up its model of the invoice. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) mentioned he didn’t have a particular timeline to share. But he emphasised that it’s on their radar.

“This is a priority to get done,” Schumer mentioned in an announcement. “Of course, we have to also work to pass the supplemental and keep the government funded.”