“This is why people hate Washington.”

Outgoing U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, had good reason to speak his mind this week when lawmakers dropped the ball on the Railway Safety Act. Inspired by the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine on Feb. 3, 2023, the act would have enhanced existing rail safety regulations and added mandates reducing train lengths, shortening the distance between hotbox detectors on freight lines, notifying local officials of trains carrying hazardous cargo and a minimum two-person crew on every locomotive.

But, as the Lisbon Morning Journal reports, nearly all legislation proposed in the wake of the rail disaster appears to have stalled. President Joe Biden was able to sign only the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, which made derailment-related compensation tax exempt.

“We had bipartisan legislation that would have ensured that what happened in East Palestine would never happen again — to any community,” Brown said after the Railway Safety Act stalled. “I’m angry for the people of East Palestine that it didn’t get done. I’m angry that the rail lobby, which has controlled this town for more than a century, still has too much influence over my colleagues.”

If Brown is right, if the problem is the rail industry’s influence over our elected officials, what will it take to get them to understand where their priorities SHOULD lie? We must hope the next Congress does see reason, so that perhaps we do not have to find out.