The Hill reports:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is calling for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to resign after coming under fire for the department’s oversight of the U.S. rail system following a train derailment in Ohio that has spilled toxins into the environment.
“Secretary Buttigieg refused to acknowledge the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, until his intentional ignorance was no longer tenable,” Rubio said in a letter addressed to President Biden, urging him to request Buttigieg’s resignation.
“Even after acknowledging the tragedy, he continues to deflect any accountability for the safety of our nation’s rail system,” Rubio added.
Read the full article.
We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe. https://t.co/xRyyYpGOwd
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) February 14, 2023
👋🏽 @tedcruz. So do you support reinstating the rail safety rules that Trump repealed—while Norfolk Southern executives made millions and spent billions on stock buybacks— and expanding the safety rules to cover trains that carry these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? https://t.co/wxTBwL8Sfz
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 14, 2023
It was deregulation under Trump, and irresponsible management by the rail companies, that are primarily responsible for these train derailments.
So much for Jim Jordan’s derailed logic. pic.twitter.com/PpnXo0mXg7
— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) February 15, 2023
Norfolk Southern is part of a lobby group that successfully pressed President Donald Trump to repeal a 2015 rule requiring newer, safer electronic braking systems in some trains transporting hazardous materials.https://t.co/Y0n3U137r3
— The Lever (@LeverNews) February 11, 2023