Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida, characterized Buttigieg’s actions as “part of a two-year pattern.”
Sen. Marco Rubio has called for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s resignation after the incident with the derailed train in East Palestine, Ohio.
On February 3rd, ten cars carrying vinyl chloride derailed off a Norfolk Southern train that had 50 cars. After the derailment, a cloud of smoke rose into the sky as toxic substances leaked onto the ground.
To prevent a catastrophic chemical reaction, officials used a carefully calibrated chemical discharge. Before the discharge, residents were evacuated, but they are now welcome to return.
Though Buttigieg hasn’t visited East Palestine, a DOT representative told Fox News Digital that “The EPA Regional Administrator and the EPA Administrator are in town, and within hours of the incident, FRA and PHMS employees were already on the scene. The DOT is assisting the [National Transportation Safety Board] in their investigation.”
On Wednesday, Rubio wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden in which he claimed that Buttigieg had “downplayed and disregarded crisis after crisis” while focusing on “issues of little consequence to our nation’s transportation system.”
As Buttigieg put it, “at no point has that been more clear than the previous two weeks.” “Until his willful blindness was no longer an option, Secretary Buttigieg denied the tragedy in East Palestine, Ohio. He has acknowledged the tragedy, but he still refuses to accept responsibility for maintaining the security of the country’s train network. The chain of events leading up to the crash suggests a serious failure of oversight and requires the participation of the nation’s top transportation authority.”
This, according to Rubio, is “part of a two-year trend.”
“In 2021, Secretary Buttigieg was not present at all during the catastrophic disruptions to marine and surface transportation. Last year, Secretary Buttigieg skipped town in the thick of a potential rail strike to visit Portugal’s wine area on vacation. Serious and chronic problems across the DOT are not being adequately fixed, as seen by numerous system failures and near misses in commercial aviation, notably the one that shut down air traffic in Florida in January “A statement made by Rubio.
Also, Senator Nelson of Florida does not “have trust that Secretary Buttigieg is capable of keeping the American people secure.”
Buttigieg seemed to blame both the Trump administration and Congress for the catastrophe.
On Tuesday, Buttigieg claimed that the Trump administration had “restricted” his agency by causing the Department of Transportation to abandon plans to mandate ECP brakes for trains transporting certain hazardous substances.
Transportation officials at the time believed there was insufficient evidence to support the technology’s claims of value.
While “we are using the authorities we do have to keep people safe,” Mayor Buttigieg noted that “we are bound by law on some aspects of rail regulation” (such as the brake rule revoked by the Trump administration in 2018 due to a statute approved by Congress in 2015).