WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time this month, the U.S. Senate held a hearing Wednesday about the aftermath of last month’s toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw faced another grilling from senators about why the derailment happened and what his company will change to make sure something like it doesn’t happen again.

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and JD Vance (R) did not hold back their criticisms of the rail industry. 

“Their trains are growing longer, heavier and more dangerous,” Brown testified.

Vance addressed part of his testimony directly to rail industry lobbyists.

“To the rail industry: don’t lie about my bill, don’t slander the staff who drafted it. If you would like to have a good faith conversation about rail safety, let’s do exactly that,” he said.

During the hearing, Shaw repeated his pledge not to abandon East Palestine.

“Norfolk Southern is here for the long haul and we won’t be finished until we make this right,” he said.

But Shaw would not endorse all aspects of the bipartisan Railway Safety Act that Brown and Vance have proposed.

East Palestine resident Misti Allison made a second trip to Washington to talk about how the derailment has affected the community.

“People don’t want to come here. Businesses are struggling. Our home values are plummeting. Even if we wanted to leave, we couldn’t,” she told the senators.

After the hearing, Vance told Spectrum News he had a productive meeting with Norfolk Southern’s CEO on Tuesday.

“Well, I think he’s actually broadly aligned with a couple of the core provisions of the Railway Safety Act, which is a good thing,” Vance said. “We talked mostly about the cleanup in East Palestine. What they’re going to be doing over the next month, over the next year.”

One sticking point is a demand for two-person crews on every freight train. The railroads insist it’s unnecessary, but the Vance/Brown bill would mandate it.

In an interview after the hearing, Brown called it essential, especially when some trains have more than 200 cars.

“You wouldn’t want to fly on a big commercial airline with one pilot. These trains should have at least two people on every one of these trains,” he said.

Brown and Vance said they are confident the Senate will pass their legislation, but they acknowledge it will be tougher in the Republican-led House.

They said they are talking with two House members from Ohio, Rep. Bill Johnson (R) and Rep. Emilia Sykes (D), who introduced a similar but slightly different rail safety bill last week.