Politics

(WASHINGTON) — With Russia making its first moves in an expected spring offensive, the U.S. and allies are scrambling to get enough ammunition to Ukraine to fight off what could prove to be a decisive assault — and to launch an offensive of its own.

As much of the war has shifted to major artillery battles in the eastern part of the country and Ukraine burns through rounds at a high rate, the U.S. and allies have had to significantly boost production of critical ammunition.

But a key question is whether enough can be produced and delivered in time.

A short-term and long-term problem

Last month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stolenberg said, “The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of ammunition and depleting allied stockpiles. The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain. For example, the waiting time for large caliber ammunition has increased from 12 to 28 months.”

Last week, Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told his E.U. counterparts, in a letter obtained by the Financial Times, that Kyiv needed 250,000 artillery shells a month. He also said that his forces were firing only about a fifth of the rounds he said they would ordinarily use.

Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program, tweeted, “The single most important thing the EU can do to support Ukraine is to produce more artillery rounds. More artillery rounds will give Ukraine a better chance at achieving a breakthrough in its future offensives and to reduce Russia’s advantages in an attritional fight.”

A top Pentagon official says it’s both a short-term and long-term problem.

“What the Ukraine conflict showed is that, frankly, our defense industrial base was not at the level that we needed it to be to generate munitions,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, told American lawmakers last week.

“Those are going to matter a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, because even if the conflict in Ukraine dies down, and nobody can predict whether that will happen, Ukraine is going to need a military that can defend the territory it has clawed back,” he said.

US companies ramping up production

U.S. Army officials and manufacturing companies in the U.S say they are confident they can meet Ukraine’s needs, despite it blowing through U.S supplies much faster than expected.

Asked on Wednesday whether the U.S. was caught off guard by how much ammunition aid Ukraine needed and whether it was playing catch-up, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, Doug Bush, said, “I believe we are keeping up with the demand. No other country has done what the United States has done here, in terms of having the stocks in advance, having them in the right condition to provide for our ally, moving them there, and sustaining them.”

Bush noted that while it is “appropriate for Americans to always ask questions about what we could have done better,” he said he was personally “astounded” at what the Army has been able to accomplish.

Currently, a munitions plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, has increased its production of artillery shells from 15,000 to 70,000 shells a month.

And Lockheed Martin, which makes the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) the U.S. has sent to Ukraine, is doubling its production of the launchers from 48 to 96 per year, executives say.

Officials at the company’s Camden, Arkansas, factory say they are confident they can keep up with the increased pace.

“We’re in a place now where we can meet the capacity demand,” Jay Price, vice president of precision fire at Lockheed Martin, told ABC News during a recent visit. “We won’t have to work around the clock. We ebb and flow. We want to make all of our deliveries on time. So, if we have to work weekends or if we have to go [to] a second shift, we’ll do that.”

HIMARS have been credited as having an important role in Ukraine’s defense against Russia. The truck-like mobile rocket launchers are able to set up, fire and relocate in a matter of minutes after launching as many as six rockets toward a target.

The launchers have been particularly effective in fighting Russia’s offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine by allowing Ukrainian forces to strategically attack specific Russian supply and ammunition depots as far as fifty miles from the front lines, slowing their ability to make advances. The system was also crucial in forcing Russia to withdraw from Kherson.

A Ukrainian official who spoke with ABC News in February confirmed that Ukraine’s ability to strike targets with high precision has been thanks to support provided by the U.S., which has so far sent 20 of its own HIMARS systems to Ukraine as part of some $29.3 billion in total security aid to date.

A $2 billion military package for Ukraine announced by the Pentagon on Feb. 24 also includes more Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLR) rockets that are fired from the HIMARS launcher.

The United States has also contracted to provide Ukraine with 20 additional newly built HIMARS that will be part of the ramped-up production at the factory in Camden.

Giving Ukraine the ‘best chance of being successful’

On Friday, the administration announced another $400 million aid package that included additional ammunition for HIMARS, additional 155mm artillery rounds and more 105mm artillery rounds.

In Tallinn, Estonia, two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke of the importance of the continuing security assistance to Ukraine as it prepares for Russia’s “upcoming offensive” in the spring.

“We’re going to provide them all the support that we can possibly provide them so that they can have the best chance of being successful in the upcoming offensive,” he said then.

Back at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Camden, Dennis Truelove, a product manager retiring this week after nearly 42 years, said he deeply believes in the capability of HIMARS and what he described as its fundamental purpose.

“In Camden, Arkansas, our production workers produce a weapons system that is second to none anywhere in the world,” Truelove told ABC News. “Somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s grandson, nephew, niece — lives depend on the decisions that our production workers make on a daily basis at our facilities.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw was evasive at times Thursday when asked direct questions from senators, despite his assurances that he and his company were committed to helping the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, affected by a toxic train derailment last month.

He appeared to dodge in responding to a number of “yes” or “no” questions during a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works committee hearing on the incident, which has sparked a number of health and environmental threats and triggered a political fallout.

Shaw declined to say if Norfolk Southern would compensate people in East Palestine and other affected communities for any long-term medical costs, including medical testing, or economic damages. He also declined to commit to supporting the proposed bipartisan Railway Safety Act.

Instead, he repeatedly answered lawmakers’ specific questions on those points by saying the company is “committed to doing what’s right.”

As the three-hour hearing ended, committee chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., said some of Shaw’s answers didn’t adequately address his and his colleague’s questions.

“One of the things I’m concerned about, I’m not a big fan, as I said Mr. Shaw, of yes-no answers. That’s not usually my style. But I didn’t think we heard as many unequivocal answers — ‘yeses’ — as I might like to have, and we might want to revisit that at another time,” Carper said.

He began the panel’s probing of Shaw by asking him if Norfolk Southern would compensate the people of Ohio and Pennsylvania for possible long-term medical costs and economic damages resulting from this disaster, to which Shaw responded by saying his team would do “more than less” to clean up the area.

“Senator, we’re committed to doing what’s right for the folks of East Palestine and the community. That’s been my personal commitment since the day after this happened. I pulled my team together. And I told my team we are going to do more than less with the environmental cleanup, and we’re going to do more than less with the citizens of East Palestine,” Shaw said.

A follow-up question touched on Norfolk Southern’s commitment to paying for long-term medical testing for people with known or suspected exposure to the leak of dangerous chemicals.

“I’m committed to doing what’s right. You know, we’re gonna be there today, tomorrow, a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now,” Shaw said.

At one point, Carper pointedly asked Shaw, “Yes or no: Will you commit that Norfolk Southern will be there for as long as it takes to make East Palestine, Ohio, Darlington Township in Pennsylvania, and the surrounding communities whole from this disaster?”

Shaw declined to answer with a “yes” or “no.”

“I’m terribly sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the folks of that community. And yes, it’s my personal commitment that’s Norfolk Southern that we’re going to be there for as long as it takes to help East Palestine thrive and recover,” he said. “That’s my personal commitment.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who is currently hospitalized to receive treatment for clinical depression, submitted a question for Shaw, inquiring if the CEO would support the recently-proposed bipartisan Railway Safety Act.

Shaw indicated that he’d support parts of the legislation, saying he’d commit to “the legislative intent to make rail safer,” without saying, “yes.”

He said during the hearing that Norfolk Southern had invested in several new initiatives to enhance safety which included more hotbox detectors and installing its first new wayside detector on Wednesday.

Shaw declined to say whether Norfolk Southern would commit to providing families compensation for decreased property values as a result of the crash when questioned by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., instead rearticulating that the company was “committed to do what’s right.”

“Well, what’s right is a family that had a home worth $100,000 that is now worth $50,000 will probably never be able to sell that home for 100,000 again. Will you compensate that family for that loss?” Markey aske.

“I’m committed to what’s right, if –,” Shaw said again, as Markey interrupted, saying, “That is the right thing to do. These are the people who are innocent victims, Mr. Shaw. These people were just there at home and all of a sudden, their small businesses, their homes are forever going to have been diminished in value. Norfolk Southern owes these people. It’s an accident that is basically under the responsibility of Norfolk Southern, not these families.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pushed Shaw on whether he would commit to giving his employees guaranteed paid sick leave, and was not satisfied with the CEO’s response.

Shaw also said that “everything is on the table” when Sanders asked about Norfolk Southern’s responsibility in covering health care needs for East Palestine residents.

“Senator, I share your focus on our employees, I will commit to continuing to discuss with them important quality of life issues, with our local craft colleagues,’ Shaw said.

“With all due respect, you sound like a politician, Mr. Shaw,” Sanders replied.

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(WASHINGTON) — There’s optimism in the Republican conference about the health of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after lawmakers were briefed on McConnell’s condition by his longtime aide and current chief of staff, Sharon Soderstrom, during a closed-door lunch on Thursday.

Sodesterom told the members that her boss is alert, talking and expected to make a full recovery from a fall and concussion he suffered while attending a dinner at a Washington hotel on Wednesday night.

“Wish him well. He’s a tough old crow, so my money is on Mitch,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Republican in the chamber and a doctor, confirmed that McConnell, who is 81, has been up and speaking.

“He’s gonna be observed, which is a concussion protocol,” Barrasso said. “I expect him to make a full recovery and be back here next week.”

“I’m told he’s in good spirits, so that tells me that he’s recovering well,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also a physician.

When asked if it is unusual to keep McConnell in the hospital for multiple days, Cassidy said he would not “second-guess the doctors. He is the majority leader, right? So it may just be that it’s a little dose of being extra careful. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Another doctor-turned-senator, Kansas Republican Roger Marshall, said that the care McConnell is receiving is “typical” of a concussion. He “absolutely” expects McConnell to make a full recovery, he said.

It remains unclear when McConnell will return to the Senate. Some Republicans are optimistic it could be as soon as next week.

“Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event Wednesday evening and has been admitted to the hospital and is being treated for a concussion. He is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment,” McConnell’s communications director, David Popp, told ABC News Thursday afternoon in a statement. “The Leader is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said after Thursday’s conference lunch that “hopefully he’ll be back next Tuesday when kind of we’re up and running.”

“Just knowing him, I’m sure he’s watching C-SPAN,” Rubio said.

While McConnell recovers, he has a care package on the way. Every year, right around the time of the Iditarod, the famed sled dog race, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski hosts a smorgasbord of her state’s favorite foods — salmon, her mom’s recipe for halibut and reindeer sausage.

McConnell, she said, loves the halibut.

“When I saw the news last night that the leader was in the hospital, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s going to miss his favorite lunch!’ So I made sure that he had a little to-go pack to make sure that it’s gonna lift his spirits,” Murkowski told ABC News.

“They just said that, you know, he’s in good spirits,” Murkowski continued. “Hopefully now he’ll be in better spirits,” she said. “What we’re all doing is just making sure that he follows doctor’s orders.”

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy described his party’s Senate leader — the longest-serving person ever in that role — as “tough as a boot … He’s gonna be fine.”

“The report was very encouraging,” said Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

McConnell’s Kentucky colleague, Sen. Rand Paul, said senators had learned nothing more than what was released publicly but repeatedly said, “We wish him well.”

The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, South Dakota’s John Thune, said he did not want to “speculate” on whether the chamber was preparing to run without McConnell present next week.

“We’ll get him back as soon as possible. I think it’s just a question of when,” Thune said.

In either case, his absence will be felt.

“He is essential to the leadership of how the Senate works. There’s a lot of negotiations that take place between [Democratic] leader [Chuck] Schumer and leader McConnell as to what will come to the fore and what will be the process,” Cassidy said, “and no one does it better than Mitch. And so we’re looking forward to him coming back quickly.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Amid a flurry of activity from House Republicans regarding Jan. 6, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy sharing security footage from the U.S. Capitol attack exclusively with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, a Republican-led committee has now launched a formal probe into the riot two years ago and the select committee that subsequently investigated it in the last Congress.

Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk — whom the House select committee on Jan. 6 had suggested was linked to a tour through parts of the Capitol on the day before the attack — will lead the new probe focusing on reviewing the security failures of that day and the earlier committee’s work, Loudermilk’s office confirmed to ABC News.

The House Administration Committee has also created an online portal to collect tips from the public.

“The Subcommittee on Oversight is dedicated to following the facts, not a particular political narrative. We are focused on finding out what really happened on January 6 so we can ensure it never happens again,” Loudermilk said in a statement to ABC News.

The news was first reported by CNN.

In a letter late last year, McCarthy wrote to the then-chairman of the Jan. 6 select committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., telling his panel to preserve all the evidence and records it had and said that Republicans intended to hold hearings about the security failures on Jan. 6 once they took the House.

Prior to retaking the majority, some Republicans teased for months their plans to investigate the investigators on the Jan. 6 committee, which issued a final report late last year after approximately 18 months of work, nine public hearings and hundreds of interviews.

The Jan. 6 committee also referred former President Donald Trump and others to the Justice Department for “possible prosecution … including for assisting and providing aid and comfort to an insurrection,” as described in the report.

The committee called Trump the “central cause” of the riot. He denies wrongdoing.

ABC News reported on Wednesday that Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are planning a visit with some defendants who are being held in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The U.S. Capitol Police chief, Tom Manger, wrote in a letter last year to the House Administration Committee that there is no evidence Loudermilk gave “recognizance” tours before the riot.

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(LANSING, Mich.) — The Michigan legislature has voted to repeal a nearly century-old law criminalizing abortion.

The Michigan Senate passed HB 4006 on Wednesday, which revokes the 1931 ban on abortion, less than a week after it passed the state House on March 2.

The bill, which is just a single sentence, now heads to the desk of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is expected to sign it into law.

Specifically, the bill repeals Section 750.14, which makes it a felony — punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 — to administer drugs that induce a miscarriage unless the mother’s life is in danger.

It also repeals Section 750.15, which makes it a misdemeanor to advertise, publish, or sell “any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs” that can cause an abortion.

The bills were passed in both chambers largely on party lines, with the vote passing in the Senate 20-18 and 58-50 in the House last week, with two Republicans joining all 56 Democrats.

“Today’s repeal of this antiquated law is a victory for millions of Michigan residents who, like myself, value bodily integrity and personal freedom,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “The people of this state can rest assured that their elected officials will not sit idly by in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, and will fight to ensure that residents’ health, safety, and wellbeing is safeguarded from harmful legislation.”

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, there was confusion over whether the 1931 law went back into effect.

However, a state judge ruled in September that the ban is unconstitutional, barring any state prosecutors from enforcing it.

Whitmer’s office did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment.

Anti-abortion groups criticized the passing of the legislation and described the repeal of the 1931 law as “radical.”

“Today’s reckless vote takes us down an increasingly dangerous path, and Michiganders are watching,” Barbara Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan said in statement. “This sweeping removal of common-sense health and safety protections that have been in place for decades further demonstrates the radical pro-abortion stance to which the majority of our elected officials have come to subscribe.”

The statement continued, “This position puts viable human life and women’s health second to an increasingly radical agenda that knows no boundaries.”

The repeal comes not long after Michigan voters said yes to a constitutional amendment that would add protections for reproductive rights in the November 2022 election.

The amendment defines reproductive freedom as “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management and infertility care.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday will roll out his proposed budget for fiscal year 2024, which the White House has said will reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion and include a record amount of defense spending.

The budget unveiling in Philadelphia comes as a larger spending fight looms on Capitol Hill with lawmakers facing a summer deadline to lift the debt ceiling or risk an unprecedented default.

Biden’s trip to Philadelphia, the site of his 2020 campaign headquarters and his prime-time speech ahead of the 2022 midterms about threats to democracy, signals a once arbitrary budget process is part of a wider push to connect with voters ahead of a possible reelection announcement.

The budget is “built on four key values, lowering costs for families, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, investing in America and reducing the deficit by ensuring that the wealthiest in this country and big corporations pay begin to pay their fair share and cutting wasteful spending on Big Pharma big oil and other special interests,” Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said on a call with reporters ahead of Biden’s speech.

The budget will include $842 billion in defense spending — an all-time high — as well as $6 billion in support for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.

Among the major domestic spending proposals included in the budget, are an expansion to the Child Tax Credit; a national paid family and medical leave program providing up to 12 weeks of leave; universal preschool; and funding to expand free community college. It would also provide $25 billion for immigration enforcement and $5 billion in new election assistance funding.

To pay for the proposals, Biden is proposing a 25% minimum tax on billionaires and reversing two Trump-era tax cuts: raising the corporate tax from 21% to 28% restoring a 39.6% rate for single filers making over $400,000 and couples earning more than $450,000 annually.

Biden’s budget as proposed is all but dead-on-arrival, as congressional Republicans are generally opposed to any tax increases.

Asked how the administration would respond to criticism that such major tax hikes will hurt economic growth, Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, countered that data shows the 2017 tax cuts didn’t provide a major boost to the economy, as former President Donald Trump said they would.

House Republicans have insisted on significant spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling to avoid an economically disastrous default, though they’ve yet to reveal they want in and out of the budget. Democrats have called for a “clean” increase to the debt ceiling not tied to federal spending.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday Democrats were “wrong” to advocate for a clean raise to the debt ceiling after members received a briefing by the Congressional Budget Office, which recently projected the U.S. will add $19 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade.

“We can no longer ignore the major problem that we have: the size of our debt,” McCarthy told reporters. “One thing we have learned through all history: every great society has collapsed after they overextended themselves.”

Asked if there was anything in Biden’s budget he could support based on early reports of what it will include, McCarthy was noncommittal.

“You could always find common ground, a willingness to do that. I have not seen his budget,” McCarthy said. However he was critical of any tax increases, stating, “I do not believe raising taxes is the answer.”

The House speaker also accused Biden of delaying debt ceiling talks, and that Republicans will need to examine his budget proposal before releasing one of their own.

Meanwhile, Biden’s sought to draw a red line on Medicare and Social Security, which together take up a large part of the budget, going after some in the GOP he says want to gut the programs. McCarthy said Medicare and Social Security are off the table in upcoming negotiations.

Ahead of the broader rollout, Biden on Tuesday released his plan to shore up Medicare’s finances through 2050 as the program faces a funding shortfall that could result in benefit reductions by the end of the decade. The plan includes a tax increase on high-earners and expanding drug pricing controls.

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell remained in the hospital Thursday following a fall at a Washington, D.C., hotel Wednesday night.

“This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” McConnell’s spokesperson Doug Andres told ABC News Wednesday night.

As of Thursday morning, his team was not providing any further information on the extent of McConnell’s injuries or how long he is expected to remain hospitalized.

The hotel where the fall occurred, sources said, was the Waldorf Astoria, formerly the Trump International Hotel.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he spoke with McConnell’s staff after reaching out to his colleague.

“First, my thoughts this morning are with my good friend, Leader Mitch McConnell, who’s recovering from in the hospital after an accident last night,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. “This morning I offer a prayer of strength and healing for the leader and his family. I called the leader this morning and spoke briefly with his staff to extend my prayers and well wishes. My thoughts are also with Leader McConnell’s family and his team. I join every single one of my colleagues in wishing Leader McConnell a speedy and full recovery.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said he hadn’t spoken with McConnell either but hopes to do so later.

“We are just checking, tying to get an update on the senator. I know he tripped last night, but I don’t have any new information,” McCarthy told reporters. “I haven’t been able to talk to him. Because I was in meetings. Hopefully, I’ll be able to talk to him today.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wished McConnell a speedy recovery at the top of his weekly press conference.

“Let me begin by extending on behalf of House Democrats with thoughts and prayers and best wishes to Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. We are praying for a swift and a full and a speedy recovery and we stand with him and his family in that regard,” Jeffries said.

President Joe Biden tweeted Thursday afternoon that he and the first lady “are wishing Senator McConnell a speedy recovery” and “look forward to seeing him back on the Senate floor.”

McConnell, who’s 81, has walked with a limp after overcoming polio at a young age and suffered a fall in early August 2019, fracturing his shoulder.

He has served as Senate Republican leader since 2007 and became the longest-serving party leader in the history of the Senate earlier this year.

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(WASHINGTON) — Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw will face a Senate panel on Thursday as Washington lawmakers hold their first hearing on railroad safety about a month after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

“I am deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities and I am determined to make it right,” Shaw will tell a Senate panel while promising, “I pledge that we won’t be finished until we make it right.”

Senators leading the hearing say they’re on a fact-finding mission and committed to working on a bipartisan basis to ensure that Norfolk Southern is held financially responsible for damages in East Palestine and surrounding communities.

“To me, our bipartisan hearing tomorrow should abide by what we call the golden rule: and that’s the idea we ought to treat other people the way we want to be treated. Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper, D-Del., said Wednesday. “If this was our community, East Palestine involved our family members of our family or businesses that we were involved with, how would we want to be treated? And we would want to know that everything that is being done in response to this incident can be done.”

“The people of East Palestine need to know that we care that somebody cares about what has happened and what the response going forward is and also what the response was past,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the committee’s ranking member. “So we are going to be investigating the environmental and policy impacts in the committee we are going to look at local state and federal response and ongoing efforts in the area to protect.”

Capito added: “Norfolk Southern will be held completely liable and no expense should be spared.”

Carper and Capito both said they expect to learn more about what safety measures failed that caused the incident, what actions were taken in the immediate aftermath and weeks since the derailment, and what more can be done.

They’ll aim to put on a bipartisan front — but partisan disagreements about the effectiveness of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation in handling the fallout will likely emerge as the hearing progresses.

On a call with reporters on Wednesday previewing the hearing, Carper and Capito seemed fundamentally at odds over the EPA’s response.

As Carper thanked the agency for what he called a swift and consistent response, Capito raised what she saw as critical “communication errors” she hopes will get their time in the spotlight.

“Personally, I think the EPA failed on the risk communication,” Capito said. “We are going to ask why did it take the EPA administrator three weeks before he actually drank the water. He was telling everybody that it was safe. Why did it take a month to establish a response center?”

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, who introduced bipartisan railroad safety legislation last week, are also scheduled to appear as witnesses on Thursday along with representatives from the EPA, Ohio EPA, Beaver County Department of Emergency Services and Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission.

The hearing comes on the heels of a second derailment on Saturday and after the National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that it would launch a special investigation of Norfolk Southern’s safety and culture. The last time the NTSB made such a move was in 2014, when it investigated Metro North for several significant accidents.

“Given the number and significance of recent Norfolk Southern accidents, the NTSB also urges the company to take immediate action today to review and assess its safety practices, with the input of employees and others, and implement necessary changes to improve safety,” the NTSB said.

Responding to the investigation, Shaw told ABC News in a statement on Monday that “moving forward, we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up.”

“We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue,” Shaw said.

Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern also reported a fatal injury of one of their conductors — in addition to several precious fatal accidents of their employees in recent years.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer laid out questions on Wednesday he said Shaw will need to answer at the hearing, like “how the railroad addresses rail safety inspections in the future, whether they’ll commit to having their conductors and rail employees undergo additional safety and response training, and how they will help communities if God forbid, another accident occurs,” Schumer said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized following a fall at a Washington, D.C., hotel, his team told ABC News late Wednesday night.

“This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” McConnell’s spokesperson Doug Andres said.

At this time, his team is not providing any further information on the extent of McConnell’s injuries or how long he is expected to remain in the hospital.

The Republican leader, 81, who overcame polio at a young age, suffered a fall in early August 2019 where he fractured his shoulder.

McConnell has served as the Republican leader in the Senate since 2007 and became the longest-serving party leader in the history of the Senate earlier this year.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Senate on Wednesday voted by a lopsided margin to halt much debated changes to Washington, D.C.’s, century-old criminal code, a move supported by President Joe Biden but criticized by some local activists.

The Senate voted 81-14, with Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock voting present, to shut down the proposed changes. Thirty-three Democrats voted along with Republicans.

“It’s the opposite of good policy. It will make the crime wave even worse. It sends the wrong message that D.C. isn’t serious about violent crime,” the resolution’s lead sponsor, Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, said on the floor.

However, he told reporters, he was “open” to working with the city council to continue to update the criminal code.

“Most Americans from all over the country visit our nation’s capital each week to meet with their federal representatives and to enjoy our national history,” Hagerty said. “Congress has a constitutional obligation to make sure these visitors can walk down the sidewalk or enjoy a meal without fear of becoming victims.”
The new code would have reduced maximum penalties for burglary, carjacking, robbery and other offenses while increasing sentences for crimes including attempted murder. It would have also eliminated some mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes and would have expanded jury trials for certain misdemeanors.

The district’s city council initially passed the changes by a 13-0 margin, though Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, vetoed it. Her veto was overturned by a 12-1 vote, sending the legislation to the House.

Because of the district’s unique status, Congress has authority over its laws.

In the House, Republicans led a resolution to shut down the effort and were joined by 31 Democrats. After that February vote, President Biden said he would sign the GOP legislation, opening the floodgates for Senate Democrats to say they too supported stopping the changes to the criminal code.

The GOP-led measure to block the reforms from taking place sparked broad debate over Democrats’ messaging on crime, the best way to ensure public safety and how much autonomy the nation’s capital should have, with many Democrats — including Biden — having called for it to be a state.

Advocates of the new criminal code said the city deserves to be allowed to govern itself, noting that no Washington law has been overturned by Congress in three decades.

Supporters also cited how long the revisions were developed for a criminal code that hasn’t been updated to this degree in more than a century.

“The elected representatives of the District of Columbia, after exhaustive review made some decisions about criminal justice reform. I don’t agree with every single one of them they made, but I’ll tell you this: What they did is entirely defensible, and it certainly doesn’t rise to the level of the United States Congress for the first time in 30 years big-footing their decisions,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Wednesday.

“Think about how patronizing and paternalistic for this body not being any part of this process now suddenly saying they need adult supervision as if they are children,” added Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was raised in D.C.

Activists outside the Capitol rallied to push lawmakers to shut down the effort to scrap the changes, but to no avail.

Seventeen people were arrested, according to Capitol Police, including local elected officials who are members of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and advocacy organization leaders. At least 16 people were arrested for allegedly crowding, obstructing and incommoding another person and one was arrested for alleged defacement during a planned act of civil disobedience.

“We have come together today with one simple message for Congress, and President Biden. Keep your hands off D.C. You either support D.C. home rule or you don’t. There are no exceptions. And there is no middle ground on D.C.’s rights to self-government,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s only representative in Congress and who doesn’t get to vote on legislation, said at a protest.

Still, it was not enough to blunt the support for the legislation, particularly after Biden and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y., said they supported it.

“I’m going to vote yes. It was a close question. But on the balance, I’m voting yes,” Schumer said Tuesday.

The White House defended Biden’s backing as a sign of his support for anti-crime efforts despite also endorsing home rule for the district.

“One thing the president believes in is making sure that the streets in America and communities across the country are safe,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. “That includes D.C.”

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