US Senate Majority Leader Schumer calls on Norfolk Southern to testify on Ohio train derailment

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called on the chief of Norfolk Southern Railway to testify to Congress over what happened in the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The train wreck resulted in the spill of dangerous chemicals.

In a speech at the US Senate on Monday, Schumer called on Norfolk Southern Railway’s Chief Executive Alan Shaw to testify before Congress on what resulted in the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine.

The accident in northeastern Ohio led to a spill of dangerous chemicals and forced thousands of residents to evacuate as railroad crews sought to clean and burn off the chemicals that spilled. While there were no deaths or casualties, residents demanded answers about the possible health risks from exposure to the chemicals.

“The fault for this disaster lies first and foremost with Norfolk Southern,” said Schumer, adding that Shaw “needs to come before the Senate, answer questions under oath, and explain to the American people exactly what went wrong and how they will prevent accidents like this from happening.”

Schumer went on to criticize Norfolk Southern, one of the top five railways in the country, for using strong profits to prioritize stock buybacks instead of “putting that money to safety.” Schumer also said that former President Donald Trump, who rolled back the Obama-era safety regulations, “blamed everyone but himself” for the incident as the Trump administration loosened the regulations.

However, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg of a “catalog of crises under his watch.” such as the train derailment and other similar incidents, and failing to attend to “basic elements of his day job.” McConnell said Buttigieg was spending his time “pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives.”

Buttigieg has since responded to McConnell’s accusation on Twitter, citing the Brent Spence Bridge in McConnell’s state of Kentucky that is being funded for repairs under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as “hardly being a ‘woke initiative.’”

“And Leader McConnell could be enormously helpful by joining us in standing up to the railroad industry lobby to make hazardous trains safer,” said Buttigieg.

Buttigieg told CNN that the “freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington. I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them.”