“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 such as reducing train lengths, shortening the distance between hotbox detectors on freight lines, notifying local officials in advance 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. I hope it can get done in the next Congress.”

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, had introduced the act along with Brown on March 1, 2023. It was placed on the Senate legislative calendar last December.

Though Brown may feign optimism that the next Congress will pick up what this one dropped, it has already been on that calendar for a year without being brought to the floor.

The House of Representatives has been just as apathetic about improving rail safety, with similar inaction on its version of the act.

“Imagine if a train derailed and released a toxic fireball into the sky nearby your home and your family. Would you be OK with keeping weak safety rules that failed so miserably?” said U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.

For goodness sake, Deluzio even tried a catchy acronym — the Decreasing Emergency Railroad Accident Instances Locally Act or the DERAIL Act — to get one of his proposals moving. It, in addition to the Assistance for Local Heroes During Train Crises Act and East Palestine Health Impact Monitoring Act of 2024, is also stalled.

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.