After train wreck, Biden orders door-to-door checks

WASHINGTON >> President Joe Biden on Friday directed federal agencies to go door-to-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 will visit homes in East Palestine to ask how residents are doing, see what they need and connect them with appropriate resources. The “walk teams” are modeled on similar teams following hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Biden did not specify a number of homes to be visited, but directed employees to get to as many as possible by Monday. The president said that at present he has no plans to personally visit.

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 fiery wreck.

Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, became the latest lawmaker to jump into what has become a political proxy war as each party lays into the other after the derailment and chemical leak.

“Despite the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) 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. “The American people deserve answers as to what caused the derailment, and DOT needs to provide an explanation for its leadership’s apathy in the face of this emergency.”

A preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board stated that the crew operating the Norfolk Southern freight train didn’t get much warning before dozens of cars went off the tracks and there is no indication that crew members did anything wrong.

Republicans are framing the incident as a moral failing at the hands of the Biden administration, while Democrats are pointing to rollbacks former President Donald Trump made during his term that weakened rail and environmental regulations.