Three Years After East Palestine, The Fight Over Railway Legislation Chugs Along

WASHINGTON—Donald Trump showed up in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 with thousands of water bottles and a message for the anxious citizens: they deserved better than the lethargic federal response they had received from President Joe Biden’s administration to the toxic train derailment in their village.

“In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal,” then-candidate Trump told the people of East Palestine, flanked by then-Senator JD Vance and local officials. That train derailment had caused toxic chemicals to spill from train cars, killing animals, setting fires, and causing residents to become sick with a gruesome array of illnesses.

That moment has been widely considered an “inflection point” in the president’s journey back to the White House. Journalist Salena Zito, who trudged through the toxic mud of East Palestine that day with Trump and Vance, said it was the critical day in Trump’s comeback.

“If he is able to resurrect the magic of 2016, understanding the forgotten man and woman and the dignity of work, it started here, the day he showed up when Biden refused,” Zito wrote.

This week marked three years since the toxic train derailment, and both Trump and the senator who joined him that day are now in the White House. Yet the signature piece of legislation written in response, which Vance co-sponsored, still hasn’t been passed by Congress, and was considered largely defeated by the railway industry.

The Railway Safety Act mandates the Transportation Department issue safety regulations for trains carrying hazardous materials. It gained strong bipartisan momentum and was loudly backed by Trump, who used it as an attack line in his political fight against Biden.

A fish lies dead following a train derailment prompting health concerns on February 20, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. (Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

“Crooked Joe Biden has still not visited the incredible Patriots of East Palestine, and Mayor Pete [Buttigieg] couldn’t get out of there fast enough. But that’s ok — our movement will be their voice, and we will NEVER forget them,” Trump promised as he campaigned in 2024. “JD Vance has been working hard in the Senate to make sure nothing like this EVER happens again, and that’s why it’s so important for Congress to pass his Railway Safety Act. JD’s terrific bill has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

The topic is now back on the table in Congress. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill gathered this week, calling for the act to pass the bill out of committee, or into the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill.

“Every single week of the year, there’s a derailment,” said Republican Michael Rulli of Ohio, who represents East Palestine and co-sponsored the 2025 version of the bill. “We only heard about Palestine because we had all these chemicals on it. And the way we handled it was horrific. We got to do better. We got to keep pressure on Congress, on both chambers and both sides of the political aisle so we can do better.”

“We’re holding people accountable,” added Democrat Emilia Sykes, also from Ohio, “primarily the railroad operators, for any issues that they may be having and provide advice and guidance.”

Smoke rises from a derailed cargo train in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 4, 2023.  (Photo by DUSTIN FRANZ/AFP via Getty Images)

One of the groups opposing the bill is Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom — a fact seen as a net positive by those in Trump world who want the bill to finally advance. If the former vice president opposes something, it only makes it more of a priority for Trump’s White House, one senior official told The Daily Wire.

“Anyone that wants the Trump administration to support a piece of legislation should pay Mike Pence’s think tank and its lobbying arm to oppose it,” the senior White House official told The Daily Wire.

Advancing American Freedom, along with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, organized a group of think tank leaders who wrote to Congress on January 29 opposing the inclusion of the Railway Safety Act “in any surface transportation reauthorization legislation.”

“Surface transportation bills are intended to modernize infrastructure, improve mobility, and support economic growth,” the groups wrote. “As such, they are not an appropriate vehicle for resurrecting rail mandates that have repeatedly failed to advance through Congress on their own merits and have even been set aside by the committees of jurisdiction due to concerns about cost, feasibility, and unintended consequences.”

The letter suggests that the Railway Safety Act’s regulations would “amount to a vote against affordability,” urging Congress to “keep RSA-style mandates out of surface transportation reauthorization and instead pursue policies that advance safety, affordability, and economic growth through flexibility, innovation, and sound governance.”

John Shelton, Vice President of Policy at Advancing American Freedom, argued to The Daily Wire: “We know how to bring costs down and improve rail safety through automation and deregulation. We saw it work during the first Trump administration. Rather than turn our backs on those successes, we should lean further into that same formula.”

The think tanks are joined in their opposition by the railroad lobby, which also opposes the bill.

“We value our ongoing partnership with the Administration and share a commitment to advancing its domestic agenda — strengthening U.S. manufacturing, onshoring critical supply chains, driving down costs for consumers and businesses, accelerating innovation, and pursuing smart regulatory reform,” Ted Greener, senior vice president of communications at the Association of American Railroads, told The Daily Wire.

Greener argues that the Transportation Department’s move to expand field testing of automated track inspection technology “reflects the right, data-driven path forward,” calling the Railway Safety Act “repeatedly rejected, including by current congressional leaders.”

Still, a Republican strategist close to the White House sees a future for the bill. They argued that the Railway Safety Act has long been championed by both the president and the vice president.

“It’s a rare piece of legislation that is popular with both the MAGA populist base and the broader electorate,” the strategist suggested, “and would give the administration a strong bipartisan political win.”