Buckeye Reporter

COLUMBUS, OH – On June 2, 2023, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke at the 91st Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Columbus. During his remarks, Brown discussed his bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023 which will help to prevent future train disasters like the derailment that devastated East Palestine, Ohio and his bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill aimed at combatting the country’s fentanyl crisis. Brown also highlighted he investments he secured in transit through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“As mayors, you are so many Americans’ first interaction with government. You are on the frontlines of the issues that matter most to people’s lives,” said Brown. “The best ideas come from mayors and local leaders and advocates, the people on the ground who know their communities best. Keep calling on us, tell us what your communities need and what you need and how we can help.”

Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:

Welcome to Columbus. Welcome to Ohio. And thank you for your service.

I tell this story partly because it’s funny – and it teaches a mostly unknown quality in the Senate - humility. 

And partly because it’s a reminder to all of us of the work we have to do.

So many Americans aren’t involved in the political process – they have to work too hard at jobs that don’t pay off the way they should. And politicians of both parties have written them off, haven’t engaged with them.

Our jobs are to fight for them, and find ways to talk to everyone.

As mayors, you are so many Americans’ first interaction with government. You are on the frontlines of the issues that matter most to people’s lives.

Thank you for your service and for all you do for your cities.

I also want to say a special thank you to all of you for your advocacy on the Rail Safety Act.

You understand better than anyone why this is so important. Railroads run through each one of your cities and every one of your towns.

We’ve seen how these derailments devastate communities: In East Palestine, families worry about the value of their homes, businesses worry about their future, and local farmers worry about their produce and livestock.

While not every derailment is hazardous, every derailment hurts local communities – they halt business, they disrupting traffic, they can delay emergency services, they hurt the local economy.

In just a few months there have been at least seven significant derailments in Ohio: in East Palestine but also in Delaware County, and in Sandusky, Steubenville, Ravenna, two in Springfield.

And just yesterday we got the NTSB report on the Norfolk Southern derailment just over the border in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. It’s just about as clear cut a report as you can get:

If our rail safety bill had been law, this crash could have been prevented.

You know how these big rail companies operate: It’s the Wall Street business model – they lay off workers and skimp on safety – all to cut costs and juice their stock prices.

They cut more than 30% of their workers in less than 10 years.

And when something inevitably goes wrong, they expect all of you to clean up their mess.

I think about the bridges and rail infrastructure that these companies own and fail to maintain and repair.

They pose a threat to local economies and to residents’ safety. And big rail companies expect your communities to deal with the consequences and bear the costs.

They’ve had too much power and too much influence for far too long.

They’ve spent years fighting every effort to make our trains and rail lines safer.

I’m working with Senator Vance on this – he and I don’t always agree, but on this we’re united. We are hearing from the same people in East Palestine.

Former President Trump endorsed the bill. President Biden has already said he’d sign it. Republicans and Democrats across the ideological spectrum are backing this bill.

That’s how we get things done in the Senate.

Our bill has passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee and I’m pressing Leader Schumer to put it on the floor. He’s said it’s a priority for this month.

We need you to keep telling your stories. Keep calling on your representatives and Senators They need to understand how important this is to your communities.

Together we can make this happen and make sure no community has to face what Ohioans in East Palestine are dealing with.

Another bipartisan effort I’m focused on is fentanyl.

We all know the toll the addiction crisis has taken on families and on communities. I host roundtables across Ohio, and without fail, opioid addiction always comes up. I know you hear it too, and you deal with this on so many levels:

Your health departments, your first responders, your family services, your schools – they all deal with the effects of this.

We need an “all-of-the-above” approach to combatting this crisis.

I worked with Senator Portman for years to get treatment resources to Ohio. And we need to pair those resources with aggressive action to prevent more fentanyl from ever reaching our communities.

That’s why I introduced bipartisan legislation to impose new, more powerful, sanctions targeting the entire illicit fentanyl supply chain – from the chemical suppliers in China, to the cartels that traffic the drugs from Mexico.

It would direct the Treasury Department to sanction, and block the financial assets of transnational criminal organizations involved in all parts of the fentanyl supply.

And it would ensure that target not only on the illicit drug trade, but also on the money laundering that makes it profitable.

I want to say a quick word about infrastructure – you all know how badly we needed this investment.

We’re starting to see projects get off the ground – projects that are putting Americans to work at jobs that can’t be shipped overseas.

One of my biggest priorities was making sure our Bridge Investment Act was in that bill.

It’s allowing us to finally replace the Brent Spence Bridge. I joined officials from both parties at the announcement in February.

But it’s not just major bridges. There are more than 3,200 bridges around Ohio that could be replaced because of this.

And there’s far more to come.

Something we also made sure was in the infrastructure bill was a record investment to allow you to improve transit.

It was a major priority on the committee I chair:

These are some of the problems I’m guessing you think about the most – families being forced out of communities by rising housing costs, how hard it is to attract businesses when workers can’t afford to live there, how to integrate housing and transit.

You’ve probably heard the numbers in the Infrastructure Bill – $91 billion of guaranteed investment for public transit over the next five years. That’s the largest increase ever.

It’s going to allow many of you to replace your buses and your rail cars, and improve service. Last month I was in Cleveland for the announcement of new rail cars for the RTA. The newest RTA cars are currently 38 years old – this is something Cleveland has tried to get done for years.

It’s finally happening, because of the infrastructure bill.

It’s going to help you revitalize neighborhoods and attract businesses and connect workers with jobs.

To truly make this investment go the furthest, we have to pair it with efforts to make housing more affordable.

It’s especially important now as we invest more and more in domestic manufacturing.

Think about Intel here in Columbus – we need to make sure workers have affordable homes.

Right now, we are working to stop out-of-state investors from buying up housing, driving up prices and making it even more unaffordable for renters and first-time homebuyers – often while hiding behind anonymous shell companies and evading accountability.

We are working to bring our neighbors experiencing homelessness into safe, stable housing through the American Rescue Plan’s historic investments in new Emergency Housing Vouchers and the HOME program.

And we’re working to expand access to affordable mortgages for police and firefighters and teachers so that they can buy their first home and live in the communities they serve every day.

I always say the best ideas come from Ohioans and that’s true of every state. The best ideas come from mayors and local leaders and advocates, the people on the ground who know their communities best.

Keep calling on us, tell us what your communities need and what you need and how we can help.

Thank you.

Original source can be found here.