President orders door-to-door welfare checks
President Joe Biden on Friday directed federal agencies to go doorto-door in East Palestine, to check on families affected by the toxic train derailment that has morphed into a heated political controversy.
Under Biden’s order, teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency starting visiting homes today. Workers will ask how residents are doing, see what they need and connect them with appropriate resources from government and nonprofit organizations, the White House said.
The “walk teams” are modeled on similar teams following hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Biden directed employees to get to as many homes as possible by Monday. Officials said the immediate goal was to visit at least 400. The president said that at present he has no plans to personally visit Ohio.
His order came as House Republicans opened an investigation into the Feb. 3 derailment, blaming Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for what they contend was a delayed response to the wreck. The focus on DOT came even though the EPA took charge of the federal response this week and ordered Norfolk Southern railway to pay for the cleanup and chemical release.
Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, became the latest lawmaker to jump into what has become a political proxy war after the derailment and chemical leak that led to evacuation of the small Ohio community.
“Despite the U.S. Department of Transportation’s responsibility to ensure safe and reliable transport in the United States, you ignored the catastrophe for over a week,” the Kentucky Republican said in a letter to Buttigieg. “... DOT needs to provide an explanation for its leadership’s apathy in the face of this emergency.”