Buckeye Reporter

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber’s 6th annual Washington D.C. fly-in, and discussed key wins for the Mahoning Valley – including regional investments in economic development, infrastructure improvements delivered in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, regional investments in economic development, and priorities Brown secured in Congressional Directed Spending. Brown also discussed his bipartisan Railway Safety Act that he sponsored with U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) and the need to improve rail safety in Ohio and across the country, following the recent Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine.

Brown spoke about the need to pass legislation to help strengthen U.S. supply chains, create jobs at home, and position our state to lead in the industries we know are going to drive the economy over the coming decades.

“As local leaders, business owners, members of this regional chamber, you are such an important part of that effort in the Mahoning Valley. Youngstown is a city that can’t be written off. It’s a city full of potential. And this is just the beginning,” said Brown.

In the recently passed government funding package, Brown helped secure several key wins for the Mahoning Valley. This included:

• $385,000 to allow the Youngstown Business Incubator to target and assist small and medium-sized manufactures who lack the expertise and capital of larger manufacturers.
• $2 million for the Northeast Ohio Medical University Dental School for construction and refitting costs necessary for the University to start a dental school program.
• $750,000 for the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership’s Trumbull County Home Repair Program to provide critical home repairs to limited income households in Trumbull County, keeping homes safe and contributing to their neighborhoods.

Brown also discussed how he pushed for the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) to select the Youngstown Air Reserve Station (YARS) as the “preferred location” to receive eight new C-130Js.

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

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.

In Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, you know that too well.

And it makes me think about everything that’s happened just 30 miles away from all of you in East Palestine.

These are the kind of communities that are so often forgotten and exploited by corporate America.

Now, these Ohioans are worried about whether their water is safe to drink and their air is safe to breathe, whether they’ll ever recover their home values, whether their crops are contaminated, whether they’ll still be able to do business and attract investment to their community.

In my visits to East Palestine, I’ve talked with residents – Mayor Conaway, Fire Chief Drabick, business owners, parents. I’ve heard their fears for what this means for their town – for their futures.

You know all of this – these are your neighbors, your friends, maybe even your family.

Every time I visit East Palestine, I tell the residents and local leaders and business owners that I meet with that I’m here for the long haul. We’re going to be here for months, for the next year, the next ten years if that’s what it takes.

Right now, so much of the work we’re doing is informed by these conversations with Ohioans in East Palestine and in the surrounding communities – especially Youngstown.

My focus is on working together with to get this region the resources you need, and on holding Norfolk Southern accountable.

And a big part of that is the bipartisan work we’re doing to improve rail safety, to make sure that no more communities have to deal with what Ohioans in East Palestine and Columbiana County are dealing with.

In April, I visited CSX rail tracks in Lowellville with Mayor Iudiciani and local business owners and rail union workers, to call for passage of my Rail Safety Act.

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.

The only thing that saved those communities from what happened in East Palestine was pure luck.

It’s simple: Ohioans deserve more than luck protecting their communities.

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.

It shouldn’t take a train derailment for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people we serve – not corporations like Norfolk Southern.

It’s why I introduced bipartisan legislation with Ohio’s new senator, Senator Vance, to finally take on the rail lobbyists and make trains safer as they go through Ohio communities.

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 – it passed out of the Commerce Committee with bipartisan support. I hope we’ll be able to get it on the floor soon.

That kind of bipartisanship is how we get things done.

Look what we’ve been able to do together over the past year for the Valley.

In December, the Department of Defense announced – after years of advocacy by so many here – that YARS is the preferred location to place eight new C130J planes worth $879 million.

That’s a testament to the Valley, to the work being done at YARS, to all of you.

In 2022, we secured more than $8 million for improvements at YARS. And there is more we want to get done this year.

I’ll keep fighting to make sure it has the investment and the resources it needs to continue to grow the Youngstown economy.  

We brought back Congressionally Directed Spending or CDS two years ago – it’s kind of like the old earmark process, but with a lot more ethics safeguards.

Not all offices participated, but we did – I’m never going to pass up an opportunity to get more resources to Ohio communities.

I make these requests after listening to you and I’ll work with anyone to support for Ohio communities. 

This year, we were able to get funding that’s going to make a real difference for this region.

• We’re invested in the Youngstown Business Incubator so they can keep supporting local manufacturers.
• We’re helping Northeast Ohio Medical University build and start a Dental School
• And we’re working with the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership to repair more homes.

And as local leaders, business owners, members of this regional chamber, you are such an important part of that effort in the Mahoning Valley.

Youngstown is a city that can’t be written off. It’s a city full of potential. And this is just the beginning.

We are starting to see projects from the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill get off the ground.

I worked with Rob Portman to make sure it included the strongest Buy America provisions ever – that means every federal infrastructure project will require steel made in America.

These projects will put Ohioans to work at jobs that can’t be shipped overseas – repairing roads, rebuilding bridges, replacing lead pipes, driving new pollution-free buses.

I chair the Senate Banking and Housing Committee, which oversees all public transit. I worked to make sure this bill includes record funding to help Ohio communities upgrade their transit systems. The Western Reserve Transit Authority will receive $33 million from the infrastructure law, and I’m working to support their efforts to renovate their facilities and purchase new zero-emission buses.  

Much of my focus right now is ensuring Ohio communities get their fair share – or more than their fair share – of this investment.

This next year will be critical in that effort.

Come to us with projects – we want to make sure Ohio projects get funding. I want to support more transformative projects like the BUILD grant for downtown Youngstown we won in 2018.

This infrastructure law is a part of our larger work to put in place a new pro-American, pro-worker industrial policy.

It’s a history you know all too well in the Valley.

Corporations searched the globe for cheap labor. First, they went to anti-union states in the South.

Then, corporations lobbied for tax breaks and bad trade deals to help move jobs overseas – always in search of lower wages.

And Wall Street rewarded them for it, over and over and over.

Our supply chains were flung all over the world, instead of making things here in the Valley.

That ends now.

The infrastructure bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS bill – all these important, often bipartisan, victories are about producing more in America, in Ohio. They’re about shortening our supply chains, creating jobs at home, and positioning our state to lead in the industries we know are going to drive the economy over the coming decades.

We know the Valley has some of the best manufacturing talent in the country.

With the Inflation Reduction Act’s investments in EVs, I want the Valley leading on every part of this supply chain, and everything this transition entails.

We have the history, we have the workers, we have the passion and the innovation – just look at the America Makes hub in Youngstown, the first of its kind, coming up on 11 years.

Back in 2014, I worked together with Republican Senator Roy Blunt and the Obama Administration to pass the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act.

This law is building on that and expanding these hubs.

I’ll do anything I can to support these efforts to grow jobs in Ohio and I’ll do anything I can to support this region.

That’s how I’ve always done this job.

Original source can be found here.