[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 42 (Monday, March 6, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S648-S649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Rail Safety

  Madam President, now on rail safety, it is a busy time for the 
Senate, as we get to the bottom of what went wrong last month in East 
Palestine.
  Last week, my colleagues Senator Brown, a Democrat, and Senator 
Vance, a Republican, introduced the bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 
2023. I promise to work with them and with colleagues on both sides to 
push this bill forward.
  This Thursday, the Environment and Public Works Committee, under the 
able leadership of Chairman Carper, will also hear from Norfolk 
Southern's CEO Alan Shaw. I expect a candid, honest, clear-eyed 
discussion about how we can prevent another East Palestine in the 
future. And while I am glad that Norfolk Southern's CEO is testifying, 
we cannot have an open debate, an honest debate, in Congress about rail 
safety unless Republicans acknowledge how they spent years opposing 
safety rules intended to prevent accidents similar to the one in Ohio.
  The story of rail safety deregulation over the last decade has been a 
disturbing tale of Republicans placing profits over people and currying 
favor with the rail lobby, all at the expense of workers' and families' 
safety.
  As far back as the Obama administration, Republicans pushed numerous 
bills to weaken environmental standards, delay safety upgrades, and 
even prohibit--prohibit--Federal funding for Amtrak.
  Under President Trump's watch, it became easier to transport 
flammable liquids and hazardous materials without proper oversight. 
Under President Trump's watch, it also became easier to cut back on 
staffing requirements while operating a train. And it was the Trump 
administration that killed proposals to expand electronic brake 
requirements across the industry. The reason for that delay? The Trump 
administration thought it was ``not economically justified.''
  You can't come up with a better slogan for Republicans' attitude 
toward rail safety than this: not economically

[[Page S649]]

justified. Imagine the message that sends to small towns across America 
like East Palestine, with rail lines running right through them.
  I want to be clear. A full investigation into the cause of the East 
Palestine derailment must be complete before we know the specifics 
behind the accident, but it doesn't take an expert to see that, if you 
spend years trying to cut back safety regulations, if you spend years 
doing the bidding of the rail lobby, then, in the long run, communities 
like East Palestine are at greater risk of accidents--and so are so 
many of my communities in upstate New York, where two of the major 
national rail lines run through the State, one across the center of the 
State near where the Erie Canal ran, going through Buffalo, Rochester, 
Syracuse, Utica, Albany, and down the Hudson River; and the other 
across the southern tier.
  In fact, now, this weekend, we saw yet another Norfolk Southern 
derailment in Ohio, near Springfield. Thank God, nobody was hurt.
  So I look forward to hearing from Norfolk Southern's CEO this week. I 
look forward to working with both sides to increase rail safety through 
legislation. But Republicans need to acknowledge that accidents like 
the one in East Palestine don't happen out of the blue. They become 
more likely when maximizing profits is crowned king above everything 
else, even above people's safety.