Several Republicans in Congress have called for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s resignation over his response to the mess in East Palestine, Ohio. A 38-car train derailment on Feb. 3 led to a chemical spill there, a controlled burn, a temporary evacuation of much of that town of almost 5,000, as well as disputes over possible soil and air contamination.
In response to the same problem, some Republicans have sponsored legislation that would give Buttigieg unprecedented powers. Logically, doing both things might be counterproductive, but some GOP officials have done just that.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote a protest letter to President Joe Biden urging him to “request the immediate resignation of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Buttigieg, who has repeatedly demonstrated a gross level of incompetence and apathy that is detrimental to the safety and prosperity of the American people.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was more succinct. He retweeted the news clip of a tin-eared Buttigieg saying, “Look, I was mayor of my hometown for eight years. We dealt with a lot of disasters,” and replied simply, “Resign.”
At the same time, Rubio and Hawley, along with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), have co-sponsored legislation that critics charge would amount to giving Buttigieg and his successors almost sun god-like powers over the railroads. The Railway Safety Act of 2023, which Rubio, Hawley, and Vance introduced, along with Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Bob Casey (D-PA), is the sort of bill that likely will not sound so radical to people who have little familiarity with railroad regulatory matters.
For instance, who in their right mind could ever object to uniform and more stringent safety requirements for transporting “hazardous materials”? Yet the things the federal government considers to be in that category are quite broad, including asphalt and alcohol, to stick just to the As. It could, in theory, be the wrong approach to regulate vinyl chloride and hooch in the same way.
Critics charge that the act is both overbroad and beside the point. Ken Blackwell is a former Cincinnati mayor and former Ohio secretary of state who isn’t buying this proposed legislative solution to the problem. “[P]olicy recommendations presented by Secretary Buttigieg last month — and co-signed by a few Republicans in legislation introduced this week — is not going to make trains any safer,” he wrote in a Townhall column. “Instead of helping the people of Ohio and communities that may be affected by future accidents, the Secretary’s so-called solutions are merely a repackaging of longtime progressive pet priorities for a special interest particularly close with this Administration: Organized labor.”
Two disputes between labor unions and the railroads have to do with future train crew cabin sizes and inspectors. Unions want at least two-man crews working in the front of trains regardless of the technology available, and they want to push back against efforts to automate track and train inspection.
The bill sides with the unions, even though neither of these matters was an issue in the East Palestine derailment. The train that derailed had a three-man crew, and it was an automated detector that picked up a problem with the overheated wheel bearing.
The breadth of the legislation is also a problem for critics. Dominic Pino, Thomas L. Rhodes fellow at the National Review Institute, noted that, in many cases, the bill gives Buttigieg what he has asked for and that, in other areas, “the bill even goes further than what Buttigieg called for.”
One section of the bill instructs that “the Secretary,” that is, Buttigieg, “shall include requirements regarding (1) train length and weight; (2) train consist; (3) route analysis and selection; (4) speed restrictions; (5) track standards; (6) track, bridge, and rail car maintenance; (7) signaling and train control; (8) response plans; and (9) any other requirements that the Secretary determines are necessary,” which is the legislative equivalent of carte blanche for him to do whatever he wishes.
“Perhaps these senators would like a different secretary of transportation,” Pino granted before warning that “Buttigieg is the guy right now, and he’s the one who will be exercising the new powers this bill gives him.”
