Top Transportation Official Goes After Schumer After String Of Amtrak Crashes

Daily Caller:  A senior Department of Transportation official derided Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Wednesday for his refusal to confirm the nation’s top railroad safety regulator and suggested the partisan obstruction is placing rail passengers at risk.

Ronald Batory, a 40-year railroad industry veteran, was unanimously approved to lead the Federal Railway Administration by the Senate Commerce Committee in August; but Schumer has since blocked his confirmation twice, in an admitted effort to secure federal funding to revamp a a rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey.

Deputy Secretary of Transportation Jeff Rosen, who sent a letter to Schumer on Jan. 31 urging him to confirm Batory, told The Daily Caller News Foundation Schumer’s behavior is unacceptable considering the scourge of recent rail accidents.

“He was unwilling to put safety first,” Rosen said of Schumer’s December objection to Batory’s confirmation, which occurred in the immediate aftermath of the tragic Washington State Amtrak derailment that resulted in three dead, 70 injured, and cost over $40 million in repairs.  

“At that time, Sen. Thune, who chairs the Commerce committee, said months have gone by and now were dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy, it’s time to confirm Ron Batory, and he asked for unanimous consent,” Rosen recounted, and congressional records confirm. “Senator Schumer stood up and just said ‘I object’ and then he walked away and didn’t elaborate. So he didn’t say when he objected what the grounds were. It’s inexplicable that after those months and after the tragedy he was unwilling to put safety first but he didn’t give the rationale.”   more here