[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 99 (Wednesday, June 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S1988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Rail Safety

  Now, Mr. President, on trains and safety on the tracks, after the 
tragic derailment in East Palestine in February and several other 
derailments in recent months, I called on the FRA to launch an 
investigation into the safety practices of all class I freight 
railroads.
  I have good news. The FRA has just announced that they will heed my 
call and do a thorough investigation of safety practices within all 
class I freight railroads. They will investigate the culture of 
misconduct within the class I rail companies and issue a report on 
their findings just as they did for Norfolk Southern.
  I thank them for their attention on this very critical issue. These 
assessments by the FRA will be a good first step to identifying the 
problems in individual rail companies as well as the endemic problems 
permeating across the industry. In the last 5 years alone, there have 
been over 26,500 accidents and incidents, almost 13,000 injuries, and 
over 2,750 fatalities attributed to rail incidents--2,750 fatalities. 
That is close to 10 a day. But instead of prioritizing--no, it is not 
close to 10 a day, because it is over the last 5 years, but it is a 
lot. OK.
  But, instead of prioritizing safety, the rail industry has cut over 
30,000 employees from the workforce--roughly 20 percent. Instead of 
prioritizing safety, the rail industry has prioritized stock buybacks 
to wealthy stock shareholders and lobbied for loosened regulations--
billions of dollars in stock buybacks instead of money going to safety, 
instead of money going to hire the necessary employees to keep the 
rails safe.
  So it is clear that there is an alarming trend of the rail industry's 
putting profits over people, which reinforces the need for a full audit 
of industry practice. I hope that the rail companies will take heed of 
the FRA's assessment and make the changes needed to protect our 
communities.
  In the meantime, I want to thank my colleagues Senators Brown and 
Vance, as well as Senators Casey and Fetterman, for their work on the 
bipartisan Railway Safety Act. This legislation was reported out of 
committee last month, and I look forward to working with colleagues on 
both sides to move it forward.