Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address concerns of farmers and agricultural producers in and around the site of the Norfolk Train derailment in East Palestine. 

The Senators request that USDA and US EPA quickly deploy resources to the region to help farmers conduct any necessary testing of their soils, plant tissue, and livestock and to interpret the results of those tests as they pertain to the safety and marketability of their crops and products.

The letter also requests that USDA and US EPA begin reviewing what authorities, in terms of disaster assistance, could be deployed to address the situation and provide assistance to these local producers.

"As these farmers prepare for planting and marketing efforts, they are left wondering what impacts the derailment and chemical release will have on the safety of their products and the viability of their farms. At this point in time, neither the U.S. Department of Agriculture nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – or any other federal or state agencies have provided clear guidance to either our agricultural producers in the region or consumers of those products," wrote the lawmakers.

Brown led a bipartisan group of colleagues, including his Ohio colleague Senator J.D. Vance, to introduce his Railway Safety Act of 2023 to improve rail safety protocols, finally standing up to railroad company lobbyists so that no other community has to deal with what East Palestine and others in Ohio, including Springfield, Sandusky and Steubenville, have dealt with.

The legislation comes after Brown worked with Vance and others to raise concerns to the NTSB about lax rail safety rules that allowed the crash to happen.