(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Bureau of Prisons “has not been able to identify the prevalence and scope of inmate-on-staff sexual harassment,” a new report released by the Justice Department’s inspector general found, adding that the problem is “widespread” and affects female officers.
But the Bureau of Prisons does not keep accurate data of these incidents, according to the IG.
“Despite the inadequacy of BOP data on inmate-on-staff sexual harassment, we were able to determine that inmate-on-staff sexual harassment occurs across BOP institutions and that BOP staff believe that it particularly affects women,” the report said. “Additionally, inmate-on-staff sexual harassment has negative effects on both the BOP and its staff that can lead to unsafe work environments and can cause staff emotional and physical stress.”
The problem, according to the IG, is “widespread” and has an acute impact on female employees.
“Despite the incompleteness of BOP data regarding inmate-on-staff sexual harassment, we were able to determine that inmate-on-staff sexual harassment occurs across BOP institutions and that BOP staff believe that it particularly affects female employees,” the IG report said.
A survey of BOP staff done by the inspector general found that 47% of female officers had an inmate expose themselves to that officer and 34% of female officers reported inmates stalking them. Comparatively, only 1.8% of male officers reported inmates stalking them.
Between 2015 and 2021, the IG found that there were at least 12,127 offenses related to sexual acts between inmates and staff victims.
“We found that high security facilities had a substantially higher average number of sanctioned incidents each month compared to administrative security facilities, low security facilities, and the component-wide averages for the most severe prohibited act codes,” the IG report said.
In turn, these instances negatively affect the Bureau of Prisons, specifically the morale of officers, the IG said.
“Throughout this evaluation, we found that when inmate-on-staff sexual harassment is not appropriately and consistently addressed and mitigated it could harm the reputation and credibility of the BOP and that BOP staff believe that it also compromises the safety and security of BOP staff and reduces staff morale,” the report said.
The Bureau of Prisons told ABC News in a statement its mission is to “operate facilities that are safe, secure, and humane. We take seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted in our custody, as well as maintain the safety of correctional staff and the community.
“The BOP has zero-tolerance for all forms of sexual activity, including sexual abuse and sexual harassment within our facilities,” its BOP said. “The protection and safety of all staff is a top priority of our agency. BOP has a robust collection of resources for managing inmate sexual misconduct toward staff.”
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Hundreds of students across Florida walked out Thursday in protest against Gov. Ron DeSantis and his policies concerning higher education.
Students walked out of their classrooms at the University of South Florida, University of Florida, Florida State University, and more in opposition of his efforts. Some high school students also joined in on the statewide walkout.
DeSantis recently announced plans to ban colleges and universities from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory.
Critical race theory is a discipline that seeks to understand how racism has shaped U.S. laws and how those laws have continued to impact the lives of non-white people.
DeSantis also signed the so-called “Stop WOKE” Act into law in 2022, which restricts race-related curriculum and conversation in workplaces, schools and colleges. However, it has been temporarily blocked from being implemented in colleges and universities. The law is still being battled out in court.
“I think people want to see true academics and they want to get rid of some of the political window dressing that seems to accompany all this,” DeSantis said at a January news conference about the effort.
Students protesting DeSantis say they value their academic freedom and liken the efforts of his administration to censorship.
“We want to take these classes and for the state to come in and say, ‘Well, we might not want to allow you to have that’ … At what point are college students going to be considered adults by the state of Florida?” Jonathon Chavez, president of College Democrats at USF, told ABC News.
He continued, “We want to make our own decisions and our education, how we want to better ourselves. We think it’s quite silly that the state would try to restrict that.”
DeSantis’ office did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Dream Defenders, a group of Black and brown anti-racism activists, are hosting “Black History teach-ins” amid the walkouts to combat the plethora of efforts from DeSantis to restrict race-related education.
“Ron DeSantis has been on a rampage. He’s banning books and flags in classrooms everywhere. He’s making sure our history isn’t getting taught. He’s getting rid of teachers, professors and faculty that look like us and support us,” said Nailah Summers, the co-executive director of the Dream Defenders, who publicly called for a statewide day of action, along with the newly formed Stand for Freedom, a coalition of student organizations spanning Florida’s college campuses. “He’s made it harder to protest, harder to vote, and harder to live in Florida.”
DeSantis’ administration is also under fire by demonstrators for reportedly requiring state schools to provide information about gender-affirming care they’ve provided for students.
“At our schools, we found that transgender students [had stopped] receiving those services”, said Chavez. “They don’t know what that is going to be used for. They’re scared that it might be used to restrict them further. And that’s a very real and tangible outcome for a very simple request.”
(WASHINGTON) — Making semiconductors in the U.S. is critical for national security, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters on Wednesday, ahead of a speech she’ll give on supporting domestic manufacturing.
Raimondo’s remarks at Georgetown University on Thursday will focus on the importance of semiconductors after Congress passed the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act last year. The Commerce Department is responsible for implementing the bipartisan legislation, in what Raimondo said Wednesday was an effort to bring back more of the semiconductor industry to the U.S., where it began.
“Over the past few decades, we as a country have taken our eye off the ball and let chip manufacturing [go] overseas,” she said.
In 2001, the U.S. had more than 300,000 semiconductor jobs but has lost one third of those in the past 20 years, Raimondo explained. She cited lower labor costs in other countries and a lack of private investments in manufacturing.
Semiconductors are essential computer chips for numerous everyday items, such as refrigerators, dishwashers, cars, smartphones and more. They are primarily made internationally right now, largely in Taiwan.
But the CHIPS and Science Act gives the U.S. an opportunity to make investments that are “consequential for America’s future,” Raimondo said. The legislation directs tens of billions to spur research in and development of the domestic semiconductor industry.
Raimondo linked the need for the chips to the shortage of them seen during the supply chain crunch in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that when people needed product, whether it was chips or anything else that we couldn’t get during the pandemic, and then realized how utterly reliant we are — in the case of chips, on a single company in Taiwan; or in the case of other things, China — we realized that’s just not good for our security and stability,” Raimondo said. “And so we’ve decided we had to make some changes.”
The semiconductor shortage had broader economic effects in the U.S., hurting other kinds of manufacturing, Raimondo said.
“Last year, because Ford didn’t have access to enough chips, even for simple things like windshield wipers, their workers in places like Michigan and Indiana only worked a full week three times in the year,” she said.
But by 2030, the secretary wants to make America the largest producer of semiconductors in the world, and she said she intends to help do that by increasing production capabilities and increasing research and innovation.
Raimondo, echoing other administration officials, said that the CHIPS Act has moved into a key phase of being implemented well so the law is effective.
“What we’re out to do here is to ensure that at the end of implementation, the United States of America is the only country in the world where every company capable of producing leading-edge chips will have a significant research and development and high-volume manufacturing presence in our country,” she said.
Next week, the Commerce Department will roll out the application process for companies to apply for federal funds allocated in the CHIPS and Science Act.
(WASHINGTON) — In the face of some harsh blowback, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Georgia Republican, has tripled down on her proposal for a “national divorce”– splitting the country according to political ideology into “red” Republican states and “blue” Democratic states.
After the Civil War, the Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional for a state to secede, which would make it impossible for her plan to be implemented.
But Greene, who has been touting the idea since 2021 when she wanted to halt “brainwashed” Californians from moving to states like Florida, is gaining new attention for the concept, now that she has become a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene wrote in a separate tweet on Presidents Day.
“Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
She’s been invited to explain how she claims it would work on Fox News’ “Hannity” program as well as on other conservative outlets.
“The last thing I ever want to see in America is a civil war,” she told Sean Hannity. “No one wants that — at least everyone I know would never want that — but it’s going that direction, and we have to do something about it.”
On conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s show on Tuesday, Greene laid out another part of her proposal: allowing red states to block Democrats from voting if they came from a blue state.
“Red states can choose in how they allow people to vote in their states,” Greene said. “What I think would be something that some red states could propose is: well, okay, if Democrat voters choose to flee these blue states where they cannot tolerate the living conditions, they don’t want their children taught these horrible things, and they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support, well once they move to a red state, guess what, maybe you don’t get to vote for five years.”
Her proposition was promptly dismissed by current and former GOP lawmakers, including Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, who told the Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday, “I think Abraham Lincoln dealt with that kind of insanity …”We’re not going to divide the country. It’s united we stand and divided we fall.”
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., lambasted Greene on Monday, highlighting the unconstitutionality of Greene’s proposal.
“Our country is governed by the Constitution,” Cheney tweeted. “You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie.”
Another former Republican member of Congress, moderate Adam Kinzinger, who, like Cheney, was a member of the Jan. 6 committee and left Congress just over a month ago, asked his party:
“Every Republican elected official needs to be asked and must give an answer: do you support a “national divorce” aka a civil war? One word answer, no misdirect, not ‘this is what the media always does.’
“Do you agree with the leader of the party, MTG?”
McCarthy has not commented publicly on Greene’s proposal.
But the Georgia Republican has remained steadfast, lashing back at some of her most vocal critics.
“People agree with me and not the RINO governor of Utah,” MTG tweeted alongside a news story outlining remarks from Utah’s GOP Gov. Spencer Cox calling Greene’s rhetoric “evil.”
She also argued her “national divorce” idea was not equivalent to a “civil war.”
“People saying national divorce is a bad idea because the left will never stop trying to control us literally make the case for national divorce,” she said in a tweet on Wednesday.
“We don’t want a civil war. We’re not surrendering. We’re tired of complaining with no change and want to protect our way of life,” she said.
In recent years, there have been several succession efforts at the state level, including reorganizing state lines to accommodate outlier counties.
The Idaho House passed a bill in 2022 that would allow a conservative portion of eastern Oregon to join Idaho. Later, some Republican lawmakers in Maryland proposed three of the state’s three counties break off and join West Virginia.
In both those cases, proponents claimed the rural, conservative counties they said desired to secede felt disconnected to their states’ liberal leadership.
But the idea of succession has also been floated around by national leaders in the past.
In California, after Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown discussed furthering the state’s own foreign policy initiatives. During the days of the fiscally conservative “tea party” movement, similar ideas were floated by national figures.
“We’ve got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to dissolve it,” Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry said in 2009, before adding, “But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what may come out of that?”
(WASHINGTON) — A divide in Congress over the debt ceiling threatens to plunge the U.S. economy into disarray, drawing attention to a looming question: How has the nation’s debt ballooned to $31.4 trillion and what can be done to shrink it?
In fact, economists expect the U.S. debt to grow significantly. In a report last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the federal debt will grow nearly $20 trillion by the end of 2033.
A group of Republican lawmakers has indicated it would not raise the debt limit unless Democrats agree to significant spending cuts; the Biden administration, however, has said it will not take part in policy negotiations conditioned upon the periodic borrowing hike.
Since yearly spending by the federal government exceeds tax revenue, the U.S. has accrued tens of trillions of dollars in debt, almost all of it in the last two decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
In order to reverse that trend and achieve an annual surplus, the U.S. would need to either impose a dramatic tax increase or spending cut, or a combination of the two, amounting to a monumental shift in U.S. fiscal policy, experts told ABC News.
Short of that, the U.S. could still make significant but less transformative policy changes in an effort to achieve annual fiscal balance, in which the costs incurred by the government equal the amount of money it raises, allowing the country to stop adding to its debt, they added.
“The car is going off the cliff,” Kent Smetters, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business who formerly worked at the Congressional Budget Office, told ABC News. “There are pretty big changes needed going forward.”
To be sure, experts differ over the risks posed by the nation’s growing debt. Some economists dismiss concerns about the rising debt as overblown, while others acknowledge that the debt threatens U.S. fiscal health but say the problem should not concern policymakers during lean economic periods.
The last budget surplus for the federal government occurred in 2001. Every year since then, the U.S. has spent more money than it has brought in, deepening the nation’s financial hole. Last fiscal year, interest payments on the nation’s debt amounted to $395.5 billion, or 6.8% of federal spending, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
The trend has resulted from a combination of tax cuts and spending increases overseen by both major parties, experts said.
In the wake of fiscal crises such as the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 outbreak, the federal government spent trillions to stimulate economic growth and support people who had lost their jobs or faced other financial setbacks. Meanwhile the War on Terror, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will ultimately cost the federal government more than $8 trillion, according to a study released by researchers at Brown University in 2021.
Rather than raise taxes to pay for those expenses, the U.S. imposed tax cuts, including two measures signed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and later made permanent in partial form by President Barack Obama. Between 2001 and 2018, those tax cuts added roughly $5.6 trillion to the federal debt, the liberal think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found.
The ballooning debt is “absolutely bipartisan,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Washington, told ABC News. “There is a lot of finger pointing but they may as well all point the fingers at themselves.”
Achieving annual surpluses, in which the U.S. spends less money than it brings in through taxes and other means, would demand “one of the most dramatic policy shifts that we’ve ever had,” MacGuineas said.
In all, the federal government would need savings of between $10 billion and $20 billion over the next decade to start delivering annual surpluses, MacGuineas said. “We haven’t seen savings of that magnitude in decades, perhaps ever,” she added.
Pursuing a more modest goal, the U.S. could aim to achieve fiscal balance, reaching a point at which its annual expenses equal the amount that it brings in, experts said.
To reach balance within a decade, all spending would need to be slashed by about one-quarter and the necessary cuts would grow to 85% if defense, veterans, Social Security and Medicare spending were considered off limits, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Washington said.
A budget model at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that achieving fiscal balance would require the federal government to hike tax revenues by over 40% or cut expenditures by 30%, or some combination of the two.
Smetters, of the Wharton School, said fiscal balance is akin to a credit card holder who succeeds in meeting his or her monthly payments, even if the level of debt remains unchanged.
“Without balance, the government at some point will fail to be able to make its full interest payments on the debt,” Smetters said. “It doesn’t get us down to zero debt. It just gets us to a level of balance where everything is sustainable.”
The debt will likely grow before Congress addresses it, McGuineas said, citing what she described as a gridlocked political environment in Washington, D.C.
“Long-term compromise and tradeoffs have been cast aside in this dangerously polarized moment,” she said. “It’s precarious in this country right now.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden told ABC News anchor David Muir in a new interview that it was a “big mistake” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to temporarily suspend Russia’s participation in the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries.
“It’s a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible. But I don’t read into that that he’s thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that,” Biden told Muir in Poland on Wednesday, before the president flew back to Washington.
Biden said he was “not sure what else he [Putin] was able to say in his speech at the moment, but I think it’s a mistake and I’m confident we’ll be able to work it out.”
Putin declared on Tuesday that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, first signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, which implements caps on the number of nuclear weapons deployed by each country and inspections of nuclear sites.
The Russian leader said that he was temporarily suspending participation in the agreement over support by the U.S. and other NATO allies for Ukraine, which has been fending off Moscow’s brutal invasion for about a year.
“They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” Putin said in a speech Tuesday, repeating a phrase American officials have used to describe their desired result in Ukraine.
Putin insisted that Russia was not withdrawing from the pact altogether, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the nuclear weapons cap would still be respected. But the decision nonetheless dismayed Washington, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday calling it “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.”
“I think it matters that we continue to act responsibly in this area,” Blinken told reporters. “It’s also something the rest of the world expects of us.”
Biden this week made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, before rallying support among allies in Poland to keep up aid to the war-torn country.
“Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased; they must be opposed. Autocrats only understand one word, ‘No!'” Biden said in Warsaw. “‘No, no, no. You will not take my country. No, you will not take my freedom. No, you will not take my future.'”
(WASHINGTON) — A close-up photo of the Chinese spy balloon, taken mid-air from a U-2 spy plane, has been released by the U.S. military
The photo was taken on Friday, Feb. 3 as the balloon flew over the American Midwest at an altitude of 60,000 feet — as the U-2 spy plane trailed it flew across the continental United States.
The image shows the U2 spy plane flying just above the balloon with the pilot’s helmet seen in the foreground.
U-2 spy planes are usually one-seater aircraft but the U-2 that was flying alongside the balloon was a two-seater trainer.
The photo was taken by the other pilot sitting in the second seat.
Visible in the balloon’s white fabric is a silhouette of the U-2 aircraft and below it is the payload that carried reconnaissance sensors, antennae, and solar power panels.
That payload was described as being equal in length to three school buses.
The day after the photo was taken the balloon was shot down on Feb. 4 over U.S. territorial waters off of South Carolina.
A two-week recovery operation off the coast of South Carolina recovered most of the balloon and its payload that is now being analyzed by the FBI.
The incident created a domestic and international political firestorm.
(WASHINGTON) — Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner have been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith, ABC News has learned.
The subpoena for the couple is specifically related to the special counsel’s probe of Jan. 6 and the activities leading up to that day by the former president and his allies regarding efforts to overturn the election, sources told ABC News.
A spokesperson for Trump and Kushner did not respond to ABC News.
The news was first reported by The New York Times.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday toured the Ohio town near where a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed Feb. 3.
Sporting one of his trademark red “Make America Great Again” hats, the GOP presidential candidate delivered remarks at the East Palestine Fire House, telling residents “loud and clear you are not forgotten” while slamming current President Joe Biden’s response to the incident.
“Over the past few weeks the community has shown the tough and resilient heart of America- This is really America right here,” Trump said, while flanked by East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, GOP Ohio Rep. Bill Johnson and GOP Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, members of the firehouse and local officials. “Unfortunately, as you know, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal in some cases.”
“They were doing nothing for you,” Trump said, while claiming that the federal response was beefed up only in response to the announcement of his campaign trip, a claim the White House says is false.
“What this community needs now are not excuse … but answers and results,” Trump said, while also praising local responders.
Trump had earlier toured Little Beaver Creek — an Ohio river tributary near the site of the derailment three weeks ago — where he also met with supporters who had gathered on the edge of the muddy lot. Trump also said his team had coordinated the delivery of thousands of bottles of water and cleaning supplies for the community— including “Trump water.”
The trip comes amid an intense political showdown between the former president and the current one and his administration, which critics claim failed to quickly address the gravity of the health and environmental concerns resulting from the incident.
The White House has responded that the Environmental Protections Agency and Department of Transportation employees had been on the ground since “day one.”
“Congressional Republicans and former Trump Administration officials owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections as well as EPA powers to rapidly contain spills,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.
Trump’s visit comes as news that Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday will meet in East Palestine with community members affected by the train derailment on the same day the National Transportation Safety Board is set to release its preliminary investigative report on the incident.
“As the secretary said, he would go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts,” an administration official said. “The Secretary is going now that the EPA has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase.
Buttigieg has faced intense criticism from political opponents who said his first response to the crash — 10 days after it occurred — along with the lack of any in-person visit — was insulting to the majority Trump-voting county.
A DOT spokesperson had told ABC News of the secretary’s conversations with Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro about his plans to visit the location once preliminary local investigations were underway.
“His visit coincides with the NTSB issuing its initial findings on the investigation into the cause of the derailment and will allow the Secretary to hear from USDOT investigators who were on the ground within hours of the derailment to support the NTSB’s investigation.”
–ABC News’ Olivia Rubin, Amanda Maile Ben Gittleson and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — The politics around the Feb. 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border intensified this week with attention only growing on East Palestine from local, state and national leaders, among others.
Former President Donald Trump is slated to visit the area on Wednesday as East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway lambasted President Joe Biden for a surprise trip to Ukraine on Monday instead of the Ohio village — a stop Conaway called the “biggest slap in the face” as his community reels from the fiery crash more than two weeks ago.
Conaway later said he would welcome Biden.
“You have a president going to Ukraine and you have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help,” Trump said on Monday during a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, days after he announced his upcoming trip to the site.
“The people of East Palestine need help. I’ll see you on Wednesday!” Trump wrote on in a statement on Saturday.
It remains unclear where he will appear in the area or with whom and what he will say.
In the days following the crash of about 50 cars of a freight train carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses, uproar has ensued from Republicans and some Democrats at the response, particularly from the Biden administration — who has repeatedly sought to highlight an array of steps being taken.
Conservative media personalities have been quick to try and link the absence of Biden administration representatives in the area — not including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan — to their claim that the president wants to neglect the area because of its politics, which Democrats have rejected.
“East Palestine is a poor, white town that voted for Trump. So honestly, who cares? No one in the Biden administration did care and that’s an atrocity,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said recently.
The White House has said they would dispatch Federal Emergency Management Agency relief to East Palestine on Saturday, despite acknowledgement even from Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, that the state did not expect help from the agency that is “most typically involved with disasters where there is tremendous home or property damage,” like fallout from hurricanes or floods.
Trump quickly tried to take credit for the action: “Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there. This is good news because we got them to ‘move,'” Trump said on social media.
Democrats, however, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, sought to place some blame on Trump for the train derailment because his administration withdrew regulations connected to “high hazard” trains, along with other EPA regulations related to harmful toxins and emissions.
The EPA administrator, Regan, came to East Palestine on Thursday, as the first Biden administration agency head to visit. Regan visited again on Tuesday — a day ahead of Trump’s scheduled trip — and reiterated that the administration has employed the EPA and Department of Transportation personnel on the ground since “day one” to support state and local emergency and environmental response efforts.
Biden himself has said little on the topic, though the White House has said he’s offered federal assistance to Ohio Gov. DeWine and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. On Tuesday after a high-profile speech in Ukraine, Biden provided his first direct update to his involvement in East Palestine, tweeting that he had just spoken with DeWine, Shapiro, Brown, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, Mayor Conaway and Regan about the ongoing crisis.
“We’ll continue to hold rail companies accountable when they fail to put safety first. But first, we’ve got Norfolk Southern’s mess to clean. I want affected residents to know that we’ve got your back. And as I said to your govs, they’ll have every resource that they need,” Biden said.
In a series of tweets, Biden reiterated an earlier announcement from the EPA which ordered Norfolk Southern, to pay for the clean-up and disposal of hazardous materials related to the derailment.
“This is common sense. This is their mess. They should clean it up,” Biden said, before noting that his administration were on the ground working in “lockstep” with state and local officials just “hours” after the trail derailed.
Biden also echoed Buttigieg’s plea for rail companies and lawmakers to embrace safety regulations– improvements that have been resisted, according to the transportation secretary. A day before Trump’s visit to East Palestine, Biden also noted the EPA and train related regulation rollbacks made by his predecessor’s administration.
“The @USDOT has made clear to rail companies that their pattern of resisting safety regulations has got to change. Congress should join us in implementing rail safety measures,” Biden said on Twitter. “For years, elected officials – including the last admin – have limited our ability to implement and strengthen rail safety measures. Heck, many of the elected officials pointing fingers right now want to dismantle the EPA – the agency that is making sure this clean up happens.”
While uneasiness and concern remains among community members, state and local leaders joined together on during a press conference in East Palestine on Tuesday to offer their reassurances.
DeWine, Shapiro, Johnson, Conaway and Regan touted their ability to put partisan politics aside and work together in holding Norfolk Southern accountable, they said, for environmental and safety violations. (The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating what led to the derailment.)
“We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine. We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so,” the rail company said in a statement to ABC News.
“I think it’s important to point out that a Republican congressman and a Democratic congressman who are here, a Republican governor and a Democratic governor who have been working together on this matter, since the moments after that train derailed …This is how government is supposed to work and both working together with the Biden administration to make sure we draw down whatever federal resources there are, whatever federal help that they need, the good people of Ohio and Pennsylvania can know that we’ve put any kind of partisan politics aside,” Shapiro said at Tuesday’s press conference.
“This is not a place for conspiracy theories or political games,” Shapiro said. “This is a place where the good people of Pennsylvania and Ohio deserve answers, deserve accountability and deserve public servants.”
The politicians stressed to the public that the city’s water supply has shown to be safe — at least so far — and that testing would continue.
During the same press conference, Conaway said he “stood by” comments he made on Fox News on Monday night, during which he called Biden’s trip to Kyiv “the biggest slap in the face that tells you right now, he doesn’t care about us.”
“He can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning and one of the briefings that he was in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us, and I’m furious,” Conaway told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday.
On Tuesday, however, Conaway said Biden would be welcomed into the community.
“I would never turn anybody away, if he wants to come visit come visit. We don’t want to be political pawns,” Conaway said at the joint press conference.
“He’s more welcome to come if he wants to come. I was very frustrated last night. If you’re talking about the comments I made last night, I was very frustrated. And, you know, I stand by those comments,” the mayor said.
More heat on Transportation Secretary Buttigieg
Buttigieg also ramped up his response to the train derailment this week with pressure from the DOT for Congress to take action, a multipart push to hold the freight rail industry accountable and a strongly worded letter to Norfolk Southern, in which he accused the company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over safety.
The transportation secretary has faced his own intense criticism. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio even wrote to Biden, calling on Buttigieg to resign.
Buttigieg responded to some of the criticism on a Monday night press call, saying that some of the most critical lawmakers were also some who have tried to “block or weaken rail safety standards” in the past.
He has maintained that he plans on visiting East Palestine when the independent NTSB investigation is finished.
“I am planning to go, and our folks were on the ground from the first hours. I do want to stress that the NTSB needs to be able to do its work independently. But when I go, the focus is going to be on action,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday on Good Morning America.
On Tuesday, DeWine also called for Congress to take a sharper look at rail standards — something he and Shapiro have talked at length about, he said.
