Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance returned to East Palestine, Ohio, two years after a toxic train derailment upended the community and left residents still struggling to recover.
The vice president called for the rebuilding of East Palestine and sent the well wishes of President Donald Trump, who is in Washington and dealing with a possible trade war.
“There are a few reasons why we come back, of course, on the second anniversary of the disaster,” Vance said. “I think the first is just a signal to the people here in East Palestine that we will not forget you.”
Two years ago to the day, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the Buckeye State and caught fire. Five of the train cars contained vinyl chloride, which led to a controlled burn of the toxic chemicals. Vance, then a newly elected Ohio senator, visited the scene in the aftermath.
He later visited East Palestine with Trump, who was out of office then.
“I talked to the president about this visit a couple of days ago. The president loves this community,” the vice president said. “Of course, he visited himself personally, and President Trump just wanted to deliver a message that this community will not be forgotten, will not be left behind, and we are in it for the long haul in East Palestine.”
Vance didn’t announce new federal funding for East Palestine, but he offered some support for the Railway Safety Act, legislation he championed as a senator, as a possible solution.
The bill would impose hefty fines on businesses, improve technology to help prevent future train catastrophes, and require trains to communicate with first responders about any dangerous materials.
“I sponsored the Railway Safety Act because I thought then, and I still think now, that we could do a lot better,” Vance said. “We could have smarter regulations that actually empower the railways to experiment with technology that will make their business safer, but most importantly, make these communities safer.”
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Jon Husted (R-OH), and possible Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were among the leaders who met with Vance on Monday.
DeWine passed over Ramaswamy and selected Husted as the person to replace Vance when he became vice president.
Vance also pledged a “transparent” process as the community is still reeling from the devastating derailment.
“The environmental cleanup has to get done. It’s a tragedy and a shame that it wasn’t done during the last administration,” Vance said. “But I guarantee we’re going to finish the cleanup during this administration under the great leadership of Lee Zeldin, our new EPA administrator, who stands behind me.”
The vice president embraced a disaster declaration for the community only if it was necessary when asked by a reporter.
“A disaster declaration may have been very helpful 18 months ago. I don’t know that it’s still helpful today,” he said. “And so what I’m going to do is, I’m going to ask the governor behind me, I’m going to talk to Lee about this, and I’m going to say, ‘Is a disaster declaration still helpful?’ Because if the answer is ‘yes,’ then I’m going to take that message back to Washington.”
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But the answer could be “no,” Vance said.
“Because we’re not in the same phase of this thing now that we were two years ago, thank God for that. We’re going to do right by the community,” he said. “That answer may not be the same as it was 18 months ago, but we’re still going to work at it.”
