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MAY 11, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

How a Discharge Petition Can Make the Rails Safer

J.D. Vance just voted for stronger rail regulations, and after the East
Palestine spill, Ohio GOP House members will need to vote for them, too.


Of all the possible rabbit-out-of-the-hat maneuvers that could enable us
to avoid a default on the national debt, using a discharge petition to
compel the House to vote to raise the debt limit seems to me one of the
most far-fetched. It would require five Republicans to break ranks and
join the 213 Democrats to bring a clean debt limit hike to the floor for
a vote-over the screaming objections of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the
rest of his ilk (i.e., everyone else in the House Republican caucus).

But there's a different issue altogether on which the discharge
petition option could well work.

Yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted
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by a 16-to-11 margin to move a rail safety bill to the Senate floor.
Among those 16 were two Republicans, one of whom was actually a moving
force behind the bill even though its provisions-which included
increasing regulations on the industry and requiring it to accede to a
key demand from rail unions-ran counter to everything he generally
believes. That Republican was Ohio's J.D. Vance, who was plainly
compelled by the chemical spill from a derailed train in the Ohio town
of East Palestine to show some sensitivity to the harm done his
constituents and some concern about the prospect of harm to other
constituents if some rail industry practices weren't reined in.

The bill now going to the Senate floor raises the maximum fine on
railroads that violate federal safety rules from $100,000 to $10
million. It sets standards for trackside safety detectors and authorizes
special rules for trains carrying hazardous gas. It also requires that
the major railroads employ a crew of at least two to run their
trains-a key demand of both rail worker unions and anyone concerned
about an engineer keeling over on a one-person train. Despite those
concerns, the rail companies have fiercely resisted calls for two-person
crews.

Vance said that at least five of his Republican cohorts will support the
bill when it comes up for a Senate vote; it will take at least nine to
enable the bill to clear the 60-vote threshold. Democratic Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer is sure to bring it to a vote regardless, since
voting no wouldn't do Republicans any good in the 2024 elections.

Should the bill then make it over to the House, McCarthy would doubtless
prefer never to bring it up. But the same constituent pressure that
compelled Vance to back the bill will be felt as well by the ten
Republican House members from Ohio, and probably by a few more across
the state line in Western Pennsylvania (the fumes and smoke from the
spill, after all, crossed that state line, too, creating interstate
anxiety in their wake). It would only take five of those ten joining
with the Democrats on a discharge petition to compel the House, McCarthy
notwithstanding, to vote on the bill. For that matter, one House
Republican, New York's Nick LaLota, is already co-sponsoring the House
version of the bill.

So even if the discharge option proves to be a dud when it comes to
averting a debt default debacle, discharge devotees should not despair.
It could well work to make the rails safer.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

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Regulators on the Verge of Bungling Drug Price Reform, Advocates Say
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The starting point for negotiations with drug companies on prescription
prices could end up being the too-high prices patients already live
with. BY DAVID DAYEN

Savvy Beltway Reporters' Debt Ceiling Duplicity
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Today on X-Date: Axios, CNBC, and Punchbowl News work to normalize
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The Energy Department Is Spoiling Biden's Plan to Stabilize Oil Prices
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The DOE appears reluctant to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to buy
and sell crude oil in a way that would 'step into a quasi-market
management role.' BY LEE HARRIS

A Progressive Approach to Crime in Philadelphia
<[link removed]>
Helen Gym is running for Philly mayor without giving in to war-on-crime
temptations. BY RYAN COOPER

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