PAC company Norfolk Southern has donated more than $ 375,000 to members of the Senate committee set to grill the chief executive of the railway on Friday about the toxic derailment of one of the company’s trains in East Palestine, Ohio.
Seven of the nine Republicans and four of the 10 Democrats who sit on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have paid campaign checks from PACs during their careers, according to a HuffPost review of Federal Election Commission records dating back to 2000. Republican leaders’ campaign committees and PACs have collected $304,000 from Norfolk Southern, while Democrats have received $75,000.
The donation shows how Norfolk Southern, and the railroad industry more broadly, has increased its influence in Washington and used it to block rail safety measures sought by regulators, unions and consumer advocates. Committee Republicans, in particular, have often spoken out against the regulations and support the transportation of hazardous materials by rail.
However, it is unlikely that cash will add to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw’s reception on Thursday morning. Members of both parties tended to aggressively question Shaw about the cause of the accident and how the company would help clean up areas around East Palestine, where residents fear soil, air and water have been contaminated after controlled explosions. a train of cars carrying dangerous chemicals.
Shaw was set to open his testimony with an apology and said the company had pledged a $20 million “down payment” to help East Palestine recover.
“We’re not done until we get it right,” he said written testimony obtained by Reuters. “We apologize for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities.”
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the committee, pledged earlier this week to “hold South Norfolk accountable” at the hearing. Biden administration officials and Democrats want to keep the focus on Norfolk Southern and are generally wary of Republicans using the hearings to take shots at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who admitted mishandling the political element of the responseor President Joe Biden, who has yet to commit to East Palestine.
For example, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.), the ranking Republican on the panel, called the federal response to the derailment “miserable” earlier this month.
Carper and Capito have taken money from the Norfolk Southern PAC. Carper was the Democrat who received the most money, banking just over $30,000. Capito received $60,000.
Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin (Md.) and Ed Markey (Mass.) each received $15,000, while Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) received one $5,000 donation in 2020.
The remaining senators on the Democratic side of the aisle — Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and John Fetterman (Pa.) — never accepted . money from Norfolk Southern, and at least Kelly and Fetterman didn’t take the company’s PAC money at all.
Republicans have taken in larger amounts: Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.) raised $77,500 from a PAC; Sen. John Boozman (Ark.) has pocketed $60,500; Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) has earned $56,000 and Sen. Dan Sullivan (Alaska) received $40,000. Sens. Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.) and Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) took home smaller amounts of $6,000 and $4,000, respectively.
The only Republicans who have yet to receive a check from Norfolk Southern’s corporate PAC are Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, who only joined the chamber in January.
More broadly, data from campaign finance nonprofit OpenSecrets found Norfolk Southern’s PAC has donated more to Republicans than Democrats in every election cycle from 2012 to 2020.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which determined wheel bearing overheated causing derailment, already open a special investigation to railway safety practices.
Testifying along with Shaw will be officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, local water sanitation officials and local emergency response officials. Ohio Senators, Republican JD Vance and Democrat Sherrod Brown (D), who are working on a bipartisan rail safety bill in response to the disaster, will also testify.
Brown and Vance’s legislation would mandate two-man rail crews — a rail union priority — and increase fines for safety violations, a move Buttigieg also supported. It will also require more frequent safety inspections and increased use of sensors that can detect overheated wheel bearings.
House Republicans, including top members of the House Transportation Committee, have doubts of the need for any new regulations. Some Senate Republicans, including Capito, have said they are open to discussing bipartisan legislation.
Another proposal, from Rep. Chris DeLuzio, a Democrat who represents the Pennsylvania region close to East Palestine, will dismiss the relevant requirements as a “flammable train”. Currently, federal law only gives that designation, which requires trains to stay below 50 miles per hour, to trains with 35 or more cars carrying flammable liquids.
The train that derailed in East Palestine had only three cars carrying flammable liquids, less than the federal border.
Republicans on the committee, however, support transporting flammable liquids by rail. Capito, for example, has supported transporting liquefied natural gas by rail after the Biden administration placed a moratorium on the practice through 2021.