Rail Safety Bill Clears Key Hurdle
Railway Safety Act is approved by House committee, aiming to prevent derailments like the tragedy in East Palestine, Ohio
Long-delayed safety legislation, emboldened by the tragic East Palestine, Ohio train derailment more than three years ago, is closer to becoming law.
Last week, on May 21, the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure adopted measures to shore up safety of the nation’s freight trains by requiring two-man crews on high-hazard trains, better protections to identify defects on trains, and mandating much greater oversight by the Secretary of Transportation over the nation’s privately owned railroads, especially over high-hazard trains.
The entire bill was amended to the BUILD America 250 Act before it passed out of the House Committee by a vote of 54-11. It’s headed to the full House for a vote, and then to the Senate.
In East Palestine, Ohio – the site of one of America’s worst railroad crashes – an investigation revealed that a wheel bearing on one of the train cars had overheated and ignited a fire under the car – a fire that was visible on a Ring camera 20 miles before the train cars derailed on February 3, 2023.
“That disaster did not happen in a vacuum,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, the committee member who introduced the changes. “It exposed serious weaknesses in the freight rails industry safety practices, particularly when it comes to transporting hazardous materials through our communities.”
The safety measures were part of the Railway Safety Act, introduced by Rep. Nehls and modeled on a bill of the same name introduced in March 2023 by then Ohio Senator, JD Vance.
At the markup of the BUILD Act, Rep. Nehls said that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been on the scene of 53 rail accidents since 2024 – accidents that have involved 17 deaths and 10 injuries. Of these, he said, 27 were “worker-related.”
The NTSB saw a 33% increase in rail investigations in 2025 compared to 2024.
The railroads subject to the new safety measures are what’s called the Class 1 railroads – the six major companies that operate trains between states. They are: CSX, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe), Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
Through their association, the American Association of Railroads, they opposed the new protections, while the railroad workers’ union supported them.
The new safety measures also include a confidential reporting system that Class 1 railroads will be required to adopt and that will allow employees of railroads to report dangerous incidents and close-calls without fear of reprisals.
Rep. Nehls said his amendment would help prevent wheel bearing failures by requiring Class 1 railroads to “deploy better detection technology and install additional sensors near populated areas” and would improve safety by prohibiting arbitrary time limits on safety inspections.
But Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, opposed the Nehls railway safety language, saying the provision to require a crew of at least two people wouldn’t have mattered for East Palestine as there were three people in the cab of the Norfolk Southern train that derailed there.
“What’s more, we don’t need anybody in the cab,” he said on May 21. “With today’s technology and positive train control, these trains can be run from the dispatch center. That’s a fact. We don’t need anybody else in the cab.”
While former president Joe Biden did not travel to East Palestine until a year after the derailment, Vance visited the village multiple times in the days, weeks, and months after Feb. 3, 2023.
On the two-year anniversary in February of 2025, Vice President Vance told reporters that he was hopeful that the city of East Palestine would be “more prosperous than it was before this disaster happened in the first place,” after cleanup and through the rebuilding process.
“That’s not going to happen overnight,” Vance continued. “Of course, I’m a realist about this, but I just want the people to know here that President Trump, me, and the entire administration are committed to ensuring that their government does right by them and will keep on working at it in the months and the years to come.”
Vance remains committed. In a May 19 post on X, he wrote: “President Trump is keeping his promise to the people of East Palestine. The Trump Administration will never forget you. Our message to Congress is clear: pass the Railway Safety Act.”
Ahead of last week’s vote, President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. both urged members of the Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure to approve the proposed upgraded safety measures.
“I have long said that the horrific tragedy that beset East Palestine in 2023, along with Sleepy Joe Biden’s utterly incompetent response, must NEVER happen again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on May 19, imploring all Republicans on the committee to vote for the Nehls amendment.
Kennedy, a longtime environmental lawyer who represented multiple families who were victims of the East Palestine disaster, wrote on X: “East Palestine reminded the country that a single derailment can devastate an entire community’s health, environment, and future…I’ve spent decades fighting to protect communities from toxic chemical exposure, and the families in East Palestine deserve lasting accountability and stronger safeguards to prevent this from ever happening again.”
What happened in East Palestine?
Life abruptly changed in East Palestine, Ohio, at about 9 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2023. That’s when 38 of the 151 cars that were part of the Norfolk Southern train heading east towards the Pennsylvania border derailed, including 11 that contained flammable chemicals including vinyl chloride and butyl acylate.
Several cars caught fire and burned, sending huge clouds of black smoke into the air and releasing toxic chemicals.
Three days after the crash, a Norfolk Southern contractor detonated five of the nine cars carrying hazardous material that hadn’t derailed, sending a massive cloud of black smoke into the sky that was visible for miles and that was later likened to a mushroom cloud created by a nuclear bomb.
The dark cloud of chemical-filled smoke could be seen for miles.
In the detonation, the train cars spilled the rest of their contents into a drainage ditch connecting to Sulphur Run, a stream that flows through the heart of East Palestine.
Two years on, in 2025, East Palestine residents still complained about a toxic smell in the air, burning eyes, headaches, and rashes among other health ailments, even though federal and state agencies had repeatedly said tests showed that the air and water were safe.
Now, with the bill through the House committee, President Trump, VP Vance and HHS Secretary Kennedy hope it will pass the full House and Senate when it comes up for vote later this year.
Related reading:
 | A guest post by
|
Fixed it for you -
The safety measures were part of the Railway Safety Act, introduced by SHERROD BROWN in 2023. In 2024 SETH MOULTON and Troy Nehls introduced a House version, sometimes referred to as the "Railroad Safety Enhancement Act."
Incorrect Louderback verbiage: "The safety measures were part of the Railway Safety Act, introduced by Rep. Nehls and modeled on a bill of the same name introduced in March 2023 by then ..."
After Trump tweeted out memes of himself as Jesus Christ, Troy Nehls said, “I believe that Donald Trump is better than sliced bread. I think he’s almost the second coming, in my opinion." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-sycophant-troy-nehls-flirts-with-idolatry-to-defend-donald-trump/)
During the January 22, 2026 Congressional hearing into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents and role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Nehls blamed the attack on United States Capitol Police (USCP).