TagUS Politics

• Yesterday, 21 Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The letter complained that the federal government had not responded effectively to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio and demanded Buttigieg provide “[a]ll documents and communications regarding NTSB’s progress on the cause of the derailment.”
• The NTSB is an independent agency. Congress deliberately set it apart from the Department of Transportation to guarantee unbiased investigations.
• The NTSB responded immediately. Nine NTSB investigators and four engineers in labs have been involved in the accident review. They have reviewed footage of the derailment, interviewed train staff, and examined the train event recorder.
• The EPA is the federal agency in charge of responding to the release of hazardous substances and leading cleanup efforts. Its personnel were at the site by 2:00 on Saturday morning, about five hours after the derailment.
• The Department of Transportation has two agencies that are appropriate to deploy for this kind of an accident. The Federal Railroad Administration enforces safety regulations for railways, and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration enforces safety regulations for hazardous materials.
• The letter is not about the derailment itself. It is about the careful way generations of Americans have tried to create a government that could support progress while also guaranteeing oversight, and it is about the lawmakers who wrote the letter to Secretary Buttigieg.
• Either 21 Republican lawmakers charged with oversight of our government don’t know how the government works and didn’t care to find out, or they are deliberately misleading their loyalists. Buttiegieg responded: “I am alarmed to learn that the Chair of the House Oversight Committee thinks that the NTSB is part of our Department. NTSB is independent (and with good reason). Still, of course, we will fully review this and respond appropriately.”

Published February 26, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 25, 2023

• At Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service today, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke on “The CHIPS Act and a Long-term Vision for America’s Technological Leadership.” She outlined what she sees as a historic opportunity to solidify the nation’s global leadership in technology and innovation and at the same time rebuild the country’s manufacturing sector and protect national security.
• The CHIPS and Science Act was passed in August 2022 by a bipartisan vote, directing more than $52 billion into research and manufacturing of semiconductor chips as well as additional scientific research.
• Raimondo framed the CHIPS and Science Act as an “incredible opportunity” to enable the U.S. to lead the world in technology, “securing our economic and national security future for the coming decades.”
• The Biden administration is making a major investment in semiconductor technology, with the goal of reestablishing manufacturing in the U.S. to spark innovation and protect national security, while also creating new well-paying jobs.
• Part of the impetus for the bipartisan drive to jump-start the semiconductor industry is lawmakers’ determination to counter the rise of China. Raimondo will travel to India next month to talk about closer economic ties between the U.S. and India, including collaboration in chip manufacturing.
• The Biden administration’s vision of a hopeful future and a realistic means to get there is a striking contrast to the vision of today’s Republicans, who look backward resolutely and angrily to an imagined past. Polls and special election results suggest that voters like the Democrats’ vision.
• The Anti-Defamation League released a report showing that all the extremist killings in 2022 were committed by right-wing adherents, with 21 of 25 murders linked to white supremacists.
• A PRRI report showed that 64% of Americans say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases.

Published February 24, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 23, 2023

• Fox News Channel personalities knew that Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election, but pushed the Big Lie of voter fraud anyway to retain viewers.
• The Republican narrative since the 1980s has been to get rid of the active government put in place after 1933 to limit unfettered capitalism and to argue that government regulation, the social safety net, civil rights, and investment in infrastructure were socialism, thus undermining traditional America.
• The Republican narrative has also included cutting Social Security and Medicare, interpreting the Second Amendment to mean that individuals have a right to own whatever weaponry they want, and deregulation.
• The Republican narrative has resulted in the extraordinary claim that the US is a Marxist, communist country and the introduction of a bill to make the AR-15 the National Gun of America.
• There is an increase in mass shootings in the US with 13 people killed and 46 injured from February 17-19, 2023.
• The Republican narrative has led to the extraordinary comment from a state representative in Alaska that children dying of child abuse would save the state money in social services.
• The Republican narrative has also been used to conceal a report that virtually all claims of fraud against the 2020 Arizona election were unfounded.
• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is giving Tucker Carlson of Fox News exclusive access to 44,000 hours of video taken within the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and raising funds off the release.

Published February 23, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 22, 2023