Ohio residents gathered at a town hall Wednesday night to raise concerns over the toxic train derailment which has put the area in danger. “Where’s Pete Buttigieg? Where’s he at?” asked the people to Mayor Trent Conaway. “I don’t know. Your guess is as good as me,” the mayor replied. He told the gathering that Tuesday was the first time he had “heard anything from the White House.”

On Wednesday, Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to Buttigieg requesting information from his department regarding oversight of the freight train system and other concerns. The senators gave the secretary 30 days to respond.

Buttigieg tweeted on Tuesday that his department was “constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe.”

According to Fox:

On Wednesday night, responding to tweets from GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Sen. Ilhan Omar, Buttigieg said he was “glad to see newfound bipartisan agreement” over the issue.

“We could start by discussing immediate steps Congress could take to address rail safety & reduce constraints on USDOT in this area,” he suggested, asking Cruz to call the department.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is set to visit East Palestine on Thursday, and Buttigieg retweeted a video of Regan saying rail operator Norfolk Southern would be held accountable for its role in the incident.

This is a developing story.

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