Rep. Sykes Statement On President Biden’s Visit To East Palestine
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Ahead of President Biden’s visit to East Palestine, the location of a tragic toxic train derailment in February 2023, U.S. Representative Emilia Sykes (OH-13) issued the following statement:
“I’m glad that President Biden accepted the invitation of Mayor Conaway and is visiting the site of the train derailment that devastated the community of East Palestine and its way of life due to the decisions of Norfolk Southern to put profits over people. During my multiple visits to East Palestine last year alongside U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and former Rep. Bill Johnson, I saw firsthand the work of Federal, State, and local partners to clean up the area and provide support and resources to the community, work that continues to this day.
“Now, it’s Congress’ responsibility to act to prevent another derailment from upending another community. It’s been one year since I introduced the bipartisan RAIL Act to improve rail safety, hold negligent rail companies accountable, and keep our communities safe, but the House Majority has refused to consider it. I’ll keep fighting to uphold the will of Americans from across the political spectrum who demand commonsense rail safety legislation now. While the federal government has an important role in preventing future toxic train derailments and promoting rail safety, Norfolk Southern is responsible and we must continue to hold them accountable for their actions that devastated this community,” said Rep. Sykes.
In addition to leading the RAIL Act, Rep. Sykes recently voted in support of the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, which exempts East Palestine train derailment relief payments from federal taxes. On February 16, 2023, Rep. Sykes also signed a letter with Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. J.D. Vance, and former Rep. Bill Johnson to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) encouraging them to continue to provide the resources and support necessary to the state of Ohio to help the affected community assess and address the public health impacts of the derailment. This included continuing to coordinate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others to monitor data from air, soil, and water testing to monitor and assess any public health risk.