JD Vance visits East Palestine on 2-year anniversary of toxic Ohio train derailment

Well, thank you. Good afternoon. It's good to be with everybody. It's great to be back in East Palestine. As a lot of you know, one of the the first real crises that we confronted when I was United States Senator for the great state of Ohio was the train derailment in East Palestine. And there are a few reasons why I want to come back, of course, on the second anniversary of the disaster. I think the first is just a signal to the people here in East Palestine that we will not forget you. I talked to the president about this visit a couple of days ago. The president loves this community. Of course, he visited himself personally. And President Trump just wanted to deliver a message that this community will not be forgotten, will not be left behind. And we are in it for the long haul in East Palestine. What does that mean? Well, one thing it means is that, of course, the environmental cleanup has to get done. It's a tragedy and a shame that it wasn't done during the last administration. But I guarantee we're going to finish the cleanup during this administration under the great leadership of Lee Zeldin, our new EP administrator who stands behind me. And I also think that part of that means the long-term economic development of this community. We know that a lot of local businesses and a lot of local people lost a lot when that train disaster happened a couple of years ago. We are committed not just to finishing the environmental side of the cleanup, but hopefully seeing East Palestine build back better and stronger and more prosperous than it was before this disaster happened in the first place. That's not going to happen overnight, of course. I'm a realist about this. But I just want the people to know here that President Trump, me, and the entire administration are committed to ensuring that the people of East Palestine, their community, their government does right by them, and we'll keep on working at it in the months and the years to come. So before I take a few questions from the press, I want to invite first our new EPA administrator and then Governor DeWine to come up and say a couple words. Lee. I was just sworn in middle of last week, and as soon as I was sworn in, I instantly heard from the vice president's office saying that your first order of business right away, your first trip, we're going to East Palestine. As someone who was watching this disaster strike two years ago, from somebody who was watching from out of state, I saw then Senator Vance go to this site and lead to be a voice for people looking for leadership from all levels of government. It educated the rest of us around America what was going on, and it motivated all of us to want to be able to do our part now knowing this tragedy and what it meant for this community. I know how much of a priority that this is for Vice President Vance, and because it is such a high priority for him, I will make sure that for the EPA it is our highest priority, day in, day out, doing everything in our power to make sure that this is completed as quickly as possible. Anything that is left will be done as fast as we possibly can. That is our charge from our vice president. I'm honored to be here with him, alongside of him, and with all of these great local leaders who make it very clear that this community will not be forgotten, and this community's rebound will be greater than ever. Mr. Vice President, thank you for coming back. Mr. Vice President said one of the first major crisis he dealt with was this one, and he was here and he's been here a number of times, and we're grateful that he is back. Mr. Administrator, thank you very, very much. We look forward to working with you. We had an opportunity to talk with the administrator a few moments ago, and many things that we're going to be working with very, very closely. We had the opportunity to listen to a number of the leaders in the community a moment ago, and one thing I've noticed about the vice president is he's a very, very good listener, and taking that information back, he's here to find out more information. We're here to find out more information. So there are, I think, some very, very positive things that we can do, and that we're going to be working with the vice president, with the administrator, to make sure that it's done. This is a community that is resilient, is tough, and strong. It's a great, great community. It's a great place to raise a family. My wife, Fran, and I have spent some time in the school just talking with students over the last several years, and it's just a great, great community, but it's also a community that continues to need some little assistance, and we're certainly going to be willing to do that, and are going to be doing that. Again, Mr. Vice President, thank you very much for being here. So before I take some questions, I just want to echo something the governor said, and something the new administrator said, which is you've got great local officials here in East Palestine, Ohio, and in Columbian County. I particularly want to thank Mayor Conway for your leadership, of course, during the terrible disaster, but of course in the couple of years since, and I think that this community will build back stronger, and part of that is because the leadership of Trent standing behind me, of course, the great firefighters. I'm honored to have you guys joining us. I know that a lot of you took it upon yourselves to make sure this community thrived and survived in the wake of that disaster. We're thrilled to have you here, and we're honored by your presence, and of course, I can't leave out the great Fire Chief. Chief, where are you? There he is. The good thing about the Fire Chief is whether you're a United States Senator or the Vice President of the United States, he tells you exactly what he thinks you need to hear, and in the case of this community, I think you've got a great advocate here in the Fire Chief and the Mayor, so we'll keep working at it. We recognize this is a long-term commitment, but we're in it for the long haul. Jack, you got a question? Along the creek bed two years ago, everything changed. Could you speak to your leadership role in that, President Trump's leadership role, and will that include going forward advocating for something like the Railway Safety Act? Yeah, so Jack, what I did, I came here a couple years ago. I talked to people on the ground. It was kind of crazy. The first person I met was at a gas station. We had to stop and get gas, and I asked her what was going on, and I expected her just to be, you know, it's a small town, but it's not that small of a town. I expected her to be a who was just generally aware of what was going on, and she actually was living in a house that was over one of the creeks where she was smelling the fumes coming into her house, and I realized that, you know, the most important part sometimes of being a leader is just listening to the people who are on the ground and experiencing this, and that's what I've tried to do. As the Governor said, that's what I try to do, talking to local businesses, because it is different now, right? In that initial phase, what we were most worried about is, is the water clean to drink? Is the air safe to breathe? That's what we were really worried about two years ago. Now what we're worried about is finishing the cleanup and getting this community back on the path of economic prosperity, and you asked about the Railway Safety Act. I mean, I sponsored the Railway Safety Act because I thought then, and I still think now, that we could do a lot better. We could have smarter regulations that actually empower the railways to experiment with technology that will make their business safer, but most importantly, make these communities safer, and I think that we could do a lot better at ensuring that when you have a terrible train disaster like what happened in East Palestine, the railways actually pick up the tab, and that is one thing. As much as I'm inspired and gratified by the resiliency of this community, I heard a lot about Norfolk Southern making promises to this community that it didn't keep, and you can be damn sure that over the next six months, you're going to hear a lot from the Vice President of the United States and the entire administration. If Norfolk Southern doesn't keep these promises, we are going to talk about it, and we are going to fight for it. Does it bother you that the Railway Safety Act is still hung up in Congress? Sorry, say that again, sir. Does it bother you right now that the Railway Safety Act is still hung up in Congress, and what is your message to the members of Congress over that legislation? Well, look, I'm bothered that it wasn't brought up for a vote in the last Congress, because I at least know in the United States Senate, we had the votes to pass it, and I think that now that falls, of course, to the United States Senators standing behind me, and we're thrilled to have Bernie Marino and John Huston here, but also to the Pennsylvania Senators, I think, to actually work that legislation to make it as good as possible and to make it possible for it to come up for a vote in the United States Senate. I do think that is a very viable and a very reasonable goal. I do think that we continue to need to do better at rail safety in this country, and I even talked to the fire chief a little bit. He's got strong views about rail safety, probably how we can make the bill a little bit better, but also how we can make sure that common sense rail safety makes its way into our public laws. Henry, any question? I have a question on tariffs, if you don't mind. Sure. The President said yesterday that there could be some pain associated with the tariffs. We've seen some news over the last few hours with Mexico, some developments on that front, but first, how concerned do you think Americans should be about the impact tariffs will have on our prices today? So, Henry, let me bracket that question, just because I want to focus on East Palestine, at least for the next couple of questions. Yeah. You're talking about the cleanup that has to be done here, both economically and environmentally. What definitive actions can the people here depend on from your administration's perspective? I think the first and most definitive question is that, Natalie, is that right? Okay, good. Good memory. The first and most important and concrete promise is that we're going to be transparent as the cleanup proceeds. Now, I remember talking to the Biden administration when I was a junior United States Senator, and I would say, well, when is the cleanup going to be done? And they'd give me a date. And then I'd call a couple of weeks after that date, and I'd say, well, is the cleanup done? And they'd say, no, it's going to take another few months. And so I'd call a few months later. Is the cleanup done? We're going to be honest and open with the people of East Palestine about this cleanup as it proceeds apace. I'm not saying everything's going to go perfect, because it never does, but we will always be honest and transparent with the people here. I think the second thing that we need to do, and we certainly commit to is when you talk to people here on the ground, they know that this disaster left a mark on this community. They know also that to rebuild, you're going to have to have a government that's in it for the long haul, that's doing the long-term well testing, the long-term water testing, the long-term air testing, the long-term health testing. And that's something that we're going to fight to make sure that we do over the next few years of this administration. Because again, to rebuild this community, and I think it's, look, I think it's a beautiful place. It's got great workers. It's got incredible natural landscape. It's got great people, but people have to be confident that they can invest in a business here, that they can build a business here, that they can raise a family here. That's going to take the long-term commitment, I think of the Environmental Protection Agency, but of the whole administration. And that's certainly something that people here should expect and they'll have. Speaking with residents here over the past few years, one of the things that they tell us as a nation is that they want a federal disaster declaration so that federal funds come in so that they can get Medicare and they can get long-term health monitoring. I know the previous governor, the governor has asked this. You, when I spoke with you last year, you asked President Biden to sign this. Will the Trump administration declare a disaster here so people can get these resources that they need? Yeah, so the long-term health monitoring, by the way, is something that we're very focused on, and I'm personally very focused on. It's something my Senate office worked a great deal on and frankly was very disappointed that the Biden administration wasn't willing to meet us halfway there. We're going to do a lot there, and I think there's a lot that could be done. On the disaster declaration, it's an interesting question because a disaster declaration may have been very helpful 18 months ago. I don't know that it's still helpful today. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask the governor behind me, I'm going to talk to Lee about this, and I'm going to say, is a disaster declaration still helpful? Because if the answer is yes, then I'm going to take that message back to Washington. But the answer may well be no, right? Because we're not in the same phase of this thing now that we were two years ago. Thank God for that. We're going to do right by the community. That answer may not be the same as it was 18 months ago, but we're still going to work at it. In talking to locals as we have the last two years, many of them say that they're now worse off than they were before. They're closing their businesses, selling their businesses. What can you tell them now in this forum that they're going to hear at some point in the next 24 hours that leaves them thinking this is not just more lip service that they have heard for the last two years? So I guess what I'd ask him is, first of all, you're right. A lot of people in East Palestine have dealt with unspeakable tragedy and then economic calamity on top of that. I've talked to a lot of local businesses just here today who have lost customers who feel like the bottom line is a lot worse than it was before this disaster happened. And that's local retailers, that's oil and gas businesses. But I guess what I'd ask them is don't give up on this community because we're not going to give up on this community. And it's not always going to be easy, and I'm not going to be able to take away the two years of economic pain that have been caused by this train disaster. But you do now have a government that cares about you, that's going to work on these problems, and isn't going to snap its fingers and fix everything because that's not how any of this works, but is going to fight every single day to make sure you get the infrastructure, the redevelopment aid, and certainly the health and environmental aid that you need to get back on your feet. I really do believe that if we work this the right way, that the federal government, the state government, the EPA administrator, and the people on the ground are willing to work for this community, then we're going to do better by East Palestine than we have in the last couple of years. That's certainly my commitment to this community. Okay, John. We talked rail safety probably more than anything over the last two years. When you introduced it, you spoke for yourself, you spoke for the constituents of Ohio. You now speak for the administration. Does the administration stand behind the Rail Safety Act as you introduced it? Well, John, the president endorsed the Rail Safety Act, of course, when it came out. And so certainly I think that we can say with confidence the president shares my view that we need some common-sense rail safety. And yes, that is something that we're going to work on over the next couple of years. It's something that I think that we have a much better shot at, frankly, with Republicans in charge. Remember, we had the legislation. It was bipartisan. We had it in a place where it would have passed the United States Senate. Chuck Schumer just refused to bring it up to the floor for a vote. And so yeah, I think things are a little bit different this time, and we're going to make sure we get this right. Now, Henry asked me a question about tariffs. Let me say this, Henry. So I think for a couple of, look, not just a couple of years, for 40 years, with one very obvious exception, I think that we have had successive administrations who have not recognized that America's economic power is not just a source of prosperity, but is also something that we should be willing to put to use to make the American people safer and healthier. And unfortunately, we have had, especially at our southern border, a southern neighbor, and I think an important ally if they want to be, who has not taken their basic responsibility seriously about securing their own border and doing basic law enforcement within their own country. Now, what's happened? What's happened is that even in communities like East Palestine, you have seen a massive explosion in the amount of deadly poisonous fentanyl that exists in this country. We've seen the toll in orphaned children and families who have lost loved ones in over 100,000 lives per year, most of which have come, excuse me, 100,000 lives per year lost to drug overdose, most of which have come from the fentanyl problem. Mexico has got to do a better job, and President Trump's message is very simple. We are done being taken advantage of. Now, actually, I was in the air. I talked to the president very briefly about this. He spoke with the president of Mexico this morning, and the president of Mexico committed to putting 10,000 additional Mexican troops on that southern border, our southern border, of course, the Mexicans' northern border, to take law enforcement more seriously, to go after those Mexican drug cartels a little bit more aggressively. So for literally three days, I heard the far left in this country say that these tariffs would make Americans' lives worse off, and what actually happened is the Mexican government was so afraid of the tariffs that they actually are taking their border enforcement and their anti-cartel activity more seriously. That is not a pathway to making Americans worse off. That's a pathway to making Americans better off. Now, the president has also been very clear that we have to rebalance our trade relationship in this country. Every single country, if you look even at our northern neighbors, Canada, do Americans realize that the Canadians charge massive, massive tariffs on our products that go into the country of Canada, including on our great agricultural products that people right here in the state of Ohio depend on? Well, if the Canadians are going to use their economic power to penalize Americans, I think it's totally reasonable for the American president to say, we're done being taken advantage of. We, of course, want to have a great relationship with Canada, but that goes both directions, and that's all his conduct and his activity of the last few days was about. We're done being taken advantage of in this country. We have got to rebalance the trade relationship between ourselves and our allies, ourselves and our adversaries. President Trump is committed to that, and tariffs is one tool that he's going to use to accomplish it. Listening, talking to folks today and over the last few years, the biggest thing they heard is they don't want this to happen in another community. What are some of those action items you heard talking to the folks during your visit today you can take back to DC kind of, all right, let's hit the ground running on these things? Yeah, so it's interesting. Most of what I heard today was actually concerns about economic development, okay? But of course, I've been to East Palestine. This is my, I think, fifth or sixth visit. I've heard a lot about the concerns related to rail safety, and I think there are a few very basic common sense things that can be done. And look, some of this the railways are already doing, but some of this I truly believe is going to have to happen through things like the Railway Safety Act. Number one, you've got to inspect these cars more before they go off. You've got to better use technology to monitor when a train is about to have a catastrophic failure. These are all things that were sort of built into the infrastructure of the Railway Safety Act, and it's something we're going to keep on working on. Look, this can't happen again. As much as I believe in East Palestine, and I really do believe in this community and its people, what they're rebuilding through shouldn't have happened. It's not their fault, and if we can take any learning from this, it's hopefully not to force another community to go through it again. I still want more assurance. So to Ms. Elvin, one of the things that was done, a question that's still raised is why the initial burn was allowed to happen from the EPA standpoint in the first place, and then when that boom went across into Pennsylvania and other states, a lot of testing wasn't done there. Back to what you're talking about, the tariffs. So much money was spent on foreign countries, on allowing illegals into our southern border. A lot of this community feels like they've been abandoned, and it's been addressed already, but what is going to be done tangibly that you can see going forward that may address some of those? Will there be more testing done on areas that haven't been tested yet, more funding, or holding Gulf of Southern accountable, you know, more than the $70,000 Yeah, so a couple of quick things on that, and I'll take one more question, then we'll have to hit the road. So if you go back to the original promises that Norfolk Southern made, right? One, there was a big settlement for all the people who were personally injured from the disaster. I'm not talking about the environmental problems. I'm talking about those who were directly injured, like some of the chiefs firefighters who sacrificed and need to be compensated for it. It turns out that a lot of those compensation promises have not been met, even though they've been built into court orders. That is unacceptable. We're going to talk to Norfolk Southern about it. Another Norfolk Southern promise is we talked about building a training facility in East Palestine that would train firefighters from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. But also, and the governor made this point to me privately, unfortunately, the firefighters behind me know more about how to deal with a railway disaster than almost any firefighting corps in the entire country. Let's turn that into knowledge that we can spread across this tri-state area and actually make better firefighters, or at least more well-trained firefighters, out of that process. Well, Norfolk Southern promised they were going to provide the money to build that training facility, and every single person to a man has told me that money has not come. Well, that's unacceptable too. So I think that a lot of this comes down to making sure the promises of Norfolk Southern actually turn from promises into reality, and that's something we're going to work on and certainly take back to Washington. Vice President, residents still want more assurance that any health concerns in the future will be covered, and they also want further health studies, which may be highly unlikely if the administration is making cuts to agencies like the National Institute of Health and the CDC. So what will you do about this? Well, first of all, I'd say cutting ridiculous bureaucracy actually facilitates providing important services to people here on the ground. We all know that we have a government that wastes too much money, frankly, where there's a lot of fraud built into how our government spends money, and one of the things that does is waste taxpayer dollars, but the other thing that it does is it ensures that the money that we have in our resources at the federal government don't end up going to the people who actually deserve it. And so President Trump's desire to bring some efficiency back to the federal government, that's not going to be bad for the people of East Palestine. It's actually going to ensure that the resources we spend on health actually go to people on the ground rather than bureaucrats. And frankly, we're not talking about a lot of money. When I was working on this with the Biden administration, we needed three, five million dollars to start the long-term health study that we wanted to start. I know there's some negotiation about where exactly that money is going to come from. I think it should come from Norfolk Southern and not from the taxpayers, but we are committed to ensuring that people's long-term health needs are met on the one hand, and that those long-term health questions are answered. I really do believe that a critical piece of rebuilding East Palestine is giving people confidence that they can raise a family in health and safety here in this community. Now, I believe that's true, but the only way that other people are going to believe that's true is if folks like Lee Zeldin at the EPA and the broader administration take those health and safety concerns seriously. I promise the people of East Palestine we are taking those concerns seriously, and we will do so for the remainder of President Trump's administration. God bless you guys. Thank you for being here.