Bad ideas, like bad legislation, never die. Case in point: the Rail Safety Act. 

A little background. In 2023, after the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Congress rushed to pass a sweeping rail “safety” package. The politics were obvious. A dramatic accident. A plume of black smoke. A shaken community in a state trending Republican. Newly elected Senator JD Vance moved quickly. Senator Sherrod Brown, facing reelection in an increasingly red Ohio, joined him. 

Justice Jackson’s Tariff Tea Leaves

More on the President’s Net Worth

Trump Busts Another Taboo

The bill was praised for being bipartisan, but the actual text, the substance, told a different story. Although Vance was an original cosponsor, the bill bore the unmistakable imprint of Brown, a longtime ally of organized labor. As I wrote at the time, the Rail Safety Act quickly became a vehicle for labor priorities that had circulated in Washington for years without success. As National Review’s editorial board noted at the........

© National Review