When a Chinese spy balloon traversed the United States, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) , introduced Wednesday by Vance, Brown, Rubio and Hawley, along with Pennsylvania Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, would create new safety requirements for all trains carrying hazardous materials, require trains to have crews of at least two people, and massively increase penalties for safety violations.
Brown praised Vance’s response to the derailment on Tuesday.
“I can’t say we’re partners yet because we don’t know each other that well, but we are working together on this,” Brown told HuffPost. “He’s been there a number of times, he’s talked to the same people I’ve talked to.”
It’s unclear whether the Vance-Brown “Railway Safety Act of 2023” could make it through both the Senate and the Republican-controlled House, but there’s no doubt its bipartisan backing gives it a better chance than most bills.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said he would work to get the bill passed, calling the measure “precisely the kind of proposal we need to see in Congress: a bipartisan rail safety bill, one that includes provisions relevant to the accident that happened a month ago.”
In the meantime, Vance is also getting rave reviews for his efforts to draw attention to the disastrous derailment.
“When you jabbed that stick into that body of water and it turned every color of the rainbow, millions of people saw that video,” Fox Host Jesse Waters said during an interview with Vance this week. “I was personally moved by that. The whole country was.”
