One reason why so much of what comes out of Congress is useless, if not straight-up destructive, boils down to incentives. Politicians need something they can brag about when they seek reelection or election to higher office. Meanwhile, legislators are constantly surrounded by special interests who plead for government-granted privileges such as subsidies, loan guarantees, tariffs, or regulations cleverly designed to hamstring competitors. Politicians rarely hear from the victims of their policies. Few voters can trace the origin of the higher prices they pay and the lower living standards they suffer.
Enter the Rail Safety Act, a joint product of Sens. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. This bill, introduced in early May, is touted as a legislative response to the February freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. What the bill does have is an awful lot in it for unions to like. For instance, it would freeze train crew sizes (the opposite of efficiency and something unions were demanding long before the derailment) and require more inspections that can only be performed by, you guessed it, union workers.These regulations might appeal to some people, but let's not pretend they will make the railroad industry more effective. Instead, they would make freight more expensive, potentially pushing more of it toward trucking (a dirty and more dangerous mode of transport). More frustrating is that none of these measures would prevent what is the leading cause of derailment in the United States -- namely, human error.
The solution to human error is more automation rather than more people.