The House Oversight Committee on Friday sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg demanding answers about the derailment of a train filled with toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month.
The partial derailment of the Norfolk Southern train on February 3 led to the release of dangerous chemicals, including vinyl chloride. Authorities conducted a controlled burn of the train to prevent a larger explosion. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) dispatched disaster-support team units to the site last Friday.
Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) and committee Republicans told Buttigieg on Friday that the committee “is deeply concerned by DOT’s slow pace in resolving this matter.”
“This incident is an environmental and public health emergency that now threatens Americans across state lines,” reads the letter obtained by National Review. “Despite the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) responsibility to ensure safe and reliable transport in the United States, you ignored the catastrophe for over a week. The American people deserve answers as to what caused the derailment, and DOT needs to provide an explanation for its leadership’s apathy in the face of this emergency.”
The committee gave Buttigieg a March 10 deadline to turn over the requested documents and information, which includes documents and communications regarding Buttigieg’s public response to the train derailment, as well as any evidence that can show when the transportation secretary learned of the train derailment and any guidance he was given regarding what his response should be.
Other requested information includes documents and communications regarding any change to DOT train maintenance and procedures since President Biden took office, “including but not limited to those for trains carrying hazardous materials,” as well as all documents and communications regarding NTSB’s progress on the cause of the derailment and all documents and communications regarding the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration handling of hazardous materials in the derailment.
“The infrastructure failure that caused the derailment has led to an environmental disaster,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that the toxic chemicals that were carried in the railcar “may still be present in the area, with residents reporting dead animals, strong odors, burning sensations, rashes, and watery eyes.”
Buttigieg visited the site of the train derailment for the first time on Thursday. He has worked to shift blame for the derailment onto former president Donald Trump.
“We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” Buttigieg said last Wednesday. “And of course, I’m always ready to work with Congress on furthering (or in some cases, restoring) our capacity to address rail safety issues.”
However, NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy clarified that the pending braking rule scrapped by the Trump administration would not have impacted the train that derailed.
“As Secretary of Transportation, you must provide transparency to the American public on this matter,” the committee wrote to Buttigieg on Friday. “Instead, you have attempted to blame others for infrastructure that is within DOT’s ambit of responsibilities.”
The lawmakers noted that under Buttigieg’s leadership, DOT supported President Biden’s infrastructure bill “which included billions of dollars devoted to revamping America’s railways in an effort to make them safer and more efficient.”
“Yet America now faces one of transportation’s largest failures, even while DOT seems to not lack available funding,” the group wrote. “In America, over 1,000 trains derail every year.”
Trump visited the site of the derailment on Wednesday, leaving the White House to explain why Biden has not scheduled a trip to the site.
Asked whether the president plans to visit East Palestine, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday: “I just don’t have anything to share. I know there’s a lot of interest on that.”
“I mean, I think what folks should understand and folks should I think feel at ease is that the president has taken this very seriously,” she added.