With Congress returning to work this week, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) is calling on leadership to act on rail safety legislation.
In a Sept. 8 press release, Deluzio said that the proposed Railway Safety Act legislation, which he introduced earlier this year with U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), has “significant bipartisan momentum.”
The bill was introduced in response to the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. A companion to legislation in the Senate, the House bill would institute requirements for wayside defect detectors, increase fines for wrongdoing committed by rail carriers, enhance safety procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials and establish a permanent requirement for trains to operate with at least two-person crews.
“While Norfolk Southern and the big railroads would like Congress and the public to forget this tragedy, the scary truth is that without strong legislation to make freight rail safer, what happened in East Palestine could happen anywhere. We cannot trust the railroads to protect our communities,” Deluzio said.