Congressional Republicans kept attacking the Biden administration for what they call a slow response to the Ohio rail disaster — but yesterday, some GOP lawmakers urged their colleagues not to “rush” laws putting new strictures on freight rail. “Because if we can stretch it out long enough, we’ll be rewarded by the railroad donors, amirite?” Via Politico:
That means Democrats may face trouble getting a divided Congress to adopt the rail safety proposals that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent to Capitol Hill last week, including tougher braking requirements. And while a handful of Republican senators have expressed interest in bipartisan legislation on freight trains, others said they need more information first on what went wrong in East Palestine.
The latter include the chair of the House committee that oversees transportation, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and the rail panel chair, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas).
[…] “A lot of people have a lot of ideas right now,” Nehls told POLITICO. “The NTSB had their preliminary report. There’ll be more information coming.”
They’re not subtle. They will drag their feet and do whatever they have to do to prevent any meaningful regulation to replace the ones Trump stripped:
“A lot of people have a lot of ideas right now,” Nehls told POLITICO. “The NTSB had their preliminary report. There’ll be more information coming.”
One of DOT’s requests for Congress is an increase in the maximum penalties to railroads for safety violations — an idea Nehls dismissed, instead praising the industry’s safety record.
“The rail industry has a very high success rate of moving hazardous material — to the point of 99-percent-plus,” Nehls said. “Let’s not have more burdensome regulations and all this other stuff.”
“Very high success rate.” Except when they don’t. Apparently lack of conscience is a plus when you’re a Republican. Via Wikipedia:
Nehls moved to Fort Bend County, Texas, in 1994, and joined the police department of Richmond, Texas.[5] In 1998, he was fired for reasons including destruction of evidence.[6]
