Vance says passing rail safety bill ‘viable’

By Ellie Borst, Mike Lee | 02/03/2025 04:19 PM EST

The vice president and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin were in East Palestine, Ohio, to mark the two-year anniversary of the fiery derailment there.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (right) listens to Vice President JD Vance as he speaks during a visit to the East Palestine Fire Department in East Palestine, Ohio.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (right) listens to Vice President JD Vance as he speaks during a visit to the East Palestine Fire Department in East Palestine, Ohio, on Monday. Rebecca Droke/Pool Photo via AP

The Trump administration is still on board with legislation on rail safety, Vice President JD Vance said on the two-year anniversary of the fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Vance, who co-sponsored the bipartisan “Railway Safety Act” as a Republican senator representing Ohio, said during a press conference in the town Monday that passing the previously stalled bill “is a very viable and a very reasonable goal.” Railroad unions and some congressional Democrats said the industry had effectively killed the legislation last year.

Vance, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and other U.S. lawmakers met with residents and community leaders to survey the cleanup progress, which they criticized as too slow under the Biden administration.

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On Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in the small town on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, spilling tons of dangerous chemicals into the environment. Three days later, officials involved in the response conducted a “controlled burn” of five cars carrying the cancer-causing chemical vinyl chloride, sending a plume of dark gray smoke into the air.

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