The first—and perhaps most revealing—reactions on Capitol Hill to the toxic train derailment in Ohio played out in passive-aggressive Twitter exchanges between powerful officials.
On Feb. 13, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tweeted that congressional inquiry and “direct action” from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were needed to “address this tragedy.”
“Fully agree,” replied Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Omar’s ideological opposite.
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Buttigieg then chimed in. “Glad to see newfound bipartisan agreement here,” he tweeted at Cruz. “We could start by discussing immediate steps Congress could take to address rail safety & reduce constraints on USDOT in this area. Give us a call, we can do some good work.”
As the disaster in East Palestine quickly becomes fodder for political agendas in Washington, the more quietly considered question is whether policymakers will be capable of doing any “good work” to prevent similar debacles in the future.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have signaled they’re game to work together on a legislative response, leading some to believe there’s a moment for bipartisan compromise in regulating a key industry that rarely receives broad scrutiny.
But it won’t be easy. The rest of the exchange between Cruz and Omar shows why.
With the waving emoji, Omar replied to Cruz: “So do you support reinstating the rail safety rules that Trump repealed—while Norfolk Southern executives made millions and spent billions on stock buybacks—and expanding the safety rules to cover trains that carry these chemicals?”
Cruz did not reply to Omar. But he did so indirectly on Thursday, with a statement in response to the first federal report on the derailment.
More than anything, the Texas Republican pointed the finger at Democrats—especially Buttigieg—for their response, arguing it was “all designed to blame the incident on President Trump.” And he emphasized that he would work on solutions to address the disaster’s “root causes,” not “simply advance narrow political interests.”
Both parties seem eager to tee off on Norfolk Southern, the rail giant whose cars derailed on Feb. 3 in northeast Ohio, releasing toxic chemicals into the air, water and soil.
But for some Republicans, there is simply too much political upside in turning the Ohio train disaster into a weapon to bludgeon prominent Democrats like Buttigieg, a likely future presidential candidate. Interest in engaging on the issue, for many, may evaporate when the cameras move on.
Democrats, meanwhile, haven’t allowed Republicans to press that case without repeatedly pointing out the deregulation of the freight rail industry over the years—particularly during the Trump administration, which repealed Obama-era rules requiring the industry to put better-quality brakes on trains carrying explosive chemicals.
The exact reasons behind the derailment are not yet known. The National Transit Safety Board issued an initial report on Friday saying the crash was “entirely preventable,” but it will take them weeks or months to investigate fully.
Democratic officials and lawmakers clearly view this as a moment to push for broader rail safety measures, even if they are not ultimately fully responsive to what caused the crash. Last week, Buttigieg called on Congress to take up five proposals to boost safety. They include allowing the DOT to increase fines on rail companies for violating safety rules, improving braking systems, and speeding up the implementation of safer rail cars for carrying dangerous chemicals.
Despite the GOP attacks, Buttigieg’s department is sounding optimistic about potential cooperation in Congress—even as it not-so-subtly drives home the GOP’s recent history on the issue.
“The Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine has sparked a bipartisan conversation about rail safety even among Members of Congress who previously worked with the rail industry to stymie commonsense regulations,” said Kerry Arndt, a DOT spokesperson.
Since Buttigieg laid out his rail safety proposals, Arndt said, “our Department has heard from numerous lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are interested in working together to get something done. This is a welcome first step in what must be a long-term commitment to safety and accountability.”
On Capitol Hill, the relevant committees are circumspect as they wait for more information. “The important thing is to learn exactly what happened, what factors played a role in the accident, and what factors did not,” said a GOP aide to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “The Committee is staying engaged on this issue, but no one should jump to any conclusions or act without all the facts.”
In a divided Congress, however, the risk for reform is that the issue overheats long before the facts are known, scuttling their ability to finally address a serious problem.
“Right now, there’s a blame game going on, with Democrats saying it was the fault of the railroad and the Trump administration; and the GOP is saying it was the railroad and the Biden administration’s fault,” said Kevin Kosar, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “Which side is winning the messaging war is unclear.”
Many Democrats are upset that this derailment, which is causing serious stress on the affected area, has escalated into a “messaging war.”
Some, like Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), readily admit that Buttigieg could have spoken out quicker on the crisis and traveled sooner to East Palestine. But he expressed the frustration of many Democrats that the GOP political apparatus has revved up to attack Buttigieg—while Republican lawmakers dismiss accountability for the Trump administration’s actions as political posturing.
“We have to break out of the partisan silliness and tackle this problem honestly,” said Huffman, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee that focuses on railway safety.
“Democrats are ready to do that without too much shaming of Republicans,” Huffman said. “The question is whether our GOP colleagues can handle the task of fixing a problem they created during the Trump years.”
The intervention of Trump himself into the East Palestine crisis doesn’t exactly make that task easy. The former president and 2024 candidate visited the small Ohio town last week, saying Biden and his administration had shown “indifference and betrayal” to the community in the wake of the train disaster.
Ironically, Trump’s most high-profile companion in East Palestine that day might be key in any bipartisan rail safety efforts. Newly elected Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) has criticized the administration, but he’s also made clear to some Democrats that he’s serious about engaging on policy.
For instance, in a joint letter to Buttigieg on Feb. 15, Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) posed questions that Democratic lawmakers would like to see answered, while expressing concern about the fact that current rules allow just two fully trained workers to manage a 150-car train.
Lawmakers focused their inquiries on precision-scheduled railroading, a cost-cutting tactic used by the industry that can cause overheating in machinery. In fact, the early NTSB report released last week pointed to overheating as a cause of the disaster. Buttigieg has been critical of the tactic in criticizing Norfolk Southern.
Both Rubio and Vance’s offices did not respond to requests for comment about the prospects for bipartisan action and where, if at all, they agreed with Buttigieg on possible policy steps forward.
As lawmakers return from a two-week recess on Monday, though, what’s likely to command the most attention is GOP efforts to attack the administration.
On Friday, the House Oversight Committee sent a blistering letter to Buttigieg, asking him for information about the allegedly slow pace of the NTSB’s investigation. There was, however, one small problem: NTSB is independent and not part of the Department of Transportation.
“Still, of course,” Buttigieg tweeted, “we will fully review this and respond appropriately.”
