Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is finally talking about the Ohio train disaster. But in a move that shocked no one, he passed the buck and tried to blame former President Donald Trump and his administration.
Buttigieg said: “In the wake of the East Palestine derailment and its impact on hundreds of residents, we’re seeing lots of newfound or renewed (and welcome) interest in our work on rail safety, so I wanted to share more about what we’ve been doing in this area:
“We are making historic investments on rail safety through funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, work that accelerates this year and continue in the years to come. In June we announced $120 million in grants to help improve railway safety.
“The infrastructure law created a new program that provides $3 billion dedicated to eliminating at-grade rail crossings to reduce crashes and save lives.
🚨NEWS: Responding to @LeverNews reporting and pressure from Democratic officials, @SecretaryPete now insists he has no power to improve safety and reduce the risk of derailments.
Legal experts & former regulators say that’s false. https://t.co/mrkM2BOvxm
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) February 15, 2023
“We will announce awards for the first round of projects this summer.
“Our priority is to prevent transportation incidents, but when they do occur and hazardous material is involved, we want first responders to be prepared.
“We recently awarded $32.4 M in grants to strengthen local efforts to respond to hazmat incidents.
“Good regulation & effective enforcement are key to lowering the risk of rail incidents, injuries & fatalities.
“DOT is continually updating & enforcing our rail regulations to make trains safer & push the injury rate toward zero.
“We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe.”
“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.”
We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe.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
In the wake of the East Palestine derailment and its impact on hundreds of residents, we’re seeing lots of newfound or renewed (and welcome) interest in our work on rail safety, so I wanted to share more about what we’ve been doing in this area:
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) February 14, 2023
The infrastructure law created a new program that provides $3 billion dedicated to eliminating at-grade rail crossings to reduce crashes and save lives. We will announce awards for the first round of projects this summer. https://t.co/inv8BUXyqf
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) February 14, 2023
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