Railway reform bill clears Senate Commerce Committee in bipartisan vote

A bipartisan railway reform bill, written in the wake of the February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, cleared a key Senate committee Wednesday.

The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday voted 16-11 to advance the Railway Safety Act of 2023, sponsored by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R). Vance and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) joined every Democrat on the panel in voting to advance the measure.

The bill includes several provisions that rail worker unions repeatedly called for in 2022, eventually threatening a strike until legislation signed by President Biden compelled them to accept a White House-brokered agreement. It would require two-man crews on trains, a major union demand.

It would also require increased proliferation of hot-box detectors, the sensors on tracks that monitor heat. Sensors indicated a wheel bearing on the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine rapidly overheated ahead of the accident, but it was too late to avert a crash by the time it reached the threshold to stop the train.

“Today’s vote was a bipartisan victory for railway safety in America,” Vance said in a statement. “The tragedy in East Palestine can never be undone, but with the advancement of this legislation, we are moving one step closer to ensuring this never happens again.”

“Today, we are one step closer to making railroads safer. We built a broad, bipartisan coalition that agree on these commonsense safety measures that will finally hold big railroad companies like Norfolk Southern accountable. I’ll continue working with members of both parties to get this done and make sure disastrous derailments like the one in East Palestine never happen again,” Brown said.

Both President Biden and former President Trump have endorsed Vance and Brown’s legislation, while Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Roger Marshall (Kans.) and Mike Braun (Ind.) announced their backing of the legislation Monday.

The Feb. 3 derailment spilled several cars of hazardous chemicals in the town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, including vinyl chloride, a substance used in production of plastics. The Environmental Protection Agency has invoked the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, which holds Norfolk Southern responsible for the cleanup and cost of damages.