LOWELLVILLE — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said he expects the rail safety bill he is co-sponsoring — in response to the East Palestine train derailment disaster — to be approved by the Senate in early May, but is uncertain about its fate in the House of Representatives.

“We think we’ll get 15 to 20 Republican votes” in the Senate, Brown, D-Cleveland, said Monday while in Lowellville to tout the bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023.

Brown said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “has promised to put it on the floor” for a vote and President Joe Biden, also a Democrat, has “promised to sign it.”

The House vote is “unclear, but we have bipartisan support in the House. We don’t know if we had enough to get (Republican House Speaker Kevin) McCarthy to schedule it. That’s the challenge.”

The bipartisan bill was introduced March 1 in response to the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine that released toxic chemicals.

Along with U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Cincinnati, Brown is the lead co-sponsor of the bill that calls for several safety regulation changes.

The bill would enhance safety procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials, require railroads to create disaster plans, mandate telling emergency response commissions what hazardous materials are going through their states, establish requirements for wayside defect detectors, create a permanent requirement for railroads to operate with at least two-person crews, strengthen inspection requirements and increase fines for wrongdoing by rail carriers.

POWERFUL LOBBYISTS

Brown said Monday he was confident the Senate was going to approve the bill by early May. But he remains concerned that the Republican-controlled House won’t act on it.

“The railroads and the banks for 100 years have been the most powerful lobbyists in the country,” Brown said. “They’ve gotten their way with Congress and the regulators. That’s why this is going to be so hard” to get it passed in the House.

There are two bills in the House on rail safety including one that is identical to the Senate bill sponsored by U.S. Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.

The other bill, the Reducing Accidents in Locomotives (RAIL) Act, has bipartisan support from Ohio members of the House and is co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, whose district includes East Palestine, and U.S. Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes, D-Akron. That bill is similar to the Brown-Vance bill, but doesn’t require two-person crews and gives rail companies an extra three years to phase out older tanker cars.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said at a March 22 Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing that he supported parts of the Brown-Vance bill though he largely spoke in non-specifics.

“Railroads say we want to do the right thing, we want a good bill, we support a lot of this, but they’re not endorsing it so we’ll see,” Brown said.

Brown said railroad officials said: “We have to study it and let’s look at it some more and by the time the study is done, the public’s moved on. We’re not going to let them delay.”

While Brown said that “it shouldn’t take a train derailment for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people we serve,” he acknowledged that until the East Palestine disaster it wasn’t something on the radar of many people.

Standing by railroad tracks in Lowellville, Brown said, “People that live here, the trains go by — they just figure they’re safe. Well, we learned a lesson. I plead guilty to that too. None of us paid enough attention to rail safety.”

OTHER INPUT

Joining Brown in Lowellville on Monday was Clyde Whitaker, legislative director for the Ohio State SMART-TD (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers’ Transportation Division), who testified in support of the bill at the March 22 Senate hearing.

On Monday, he called the legislation the “most major milestone railroad safety bill we’ve had in decades.”

Whitaker added: “This bill will protect workers. It will also hold the railroads more accountable.”

Whitaker said railroad companies are more interested in profits than safety or protecting workers.

“We’ve seen first-hand what the railroads are capable of,” he said.

Whitaker said he was “very confident (the bill) will go through the Senate. Speaking to House members, I think it can go through. It’s going to be more of a challenge in the House. If legislators want to preach safety and they believe in protecting communities then they need to support this bill.”

Lowellville Mayor James Iudiciani Sr. said getting the bill passed is important. Train tracks run through the heart of his village.

Had the derailment happened in Lowellville, “it would be devastating” as it was in East Palestine.

“This bill is so much needed to make sure that it’s safe” for communities, he said.

Also Monday, Brown, Vance and the two senators from Pennsylvania, both Democrats, penned a letter to officials with the National Institute of Health urging them to help assess and activate resources to respond to the health concerns of residents of East Palestine and surrounding communities.

dskolnick@vindy.com