Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has proposed that a Paycheck Protection Program, also known as PPP, be rolled out for residents of East Palestine, Ohio following the recent train derailment and a wave of deindustrialization.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post published on Feb. 26, the Republican senator noted that East Palestine is a small town of about 5,000 people with a median income of $44,498.
“Like many towns near Youngstown, Ohio, it has suffered substantially from the wave of deindustrialization that saw millions of jobs leave for China, Mexico, and other countries,” Vance wrote.
“Because of this, the concerns of residents have focused on economic development questions over the past several years,” Vance penned. “Every one of those challenges has gotten much more difficult.”
Vance pointed to the recent derailment of a Norfolk Southern-operated freight train on Feb. 3 that led to a spill of toxic chemicals and a burn of chemicals that left a black plume of smoke over the area. This has led to concerns over the long-term health impacts for residents.
This, Vance said, has added to an already stressed local economy that “drives people and capital away” from the town, impacting local businesses.
Thus he proposed introducing a pandemic-era style PPP-style program that would grant businesses the resources they need to stay afloat, enabling them to pay employees and rent.
‘Town of Good People Will Suffer Mightily’
He also noted that the small community needs long-term investment from both the federal government and Norfolk Southern Railway.
“Without special refinancing, homeowners will be underwater as flight from the community drives home prices lower, decimating the tax base on which local schools and public services rely. Farms will require direct support,” Vance wrote. “Underfunded schools will need help. East Palestine will need its own version of the Paycheck Protection Program to protect workers and businesses who lost their livelihoods because of the decisions of others.”
“Otherwise, an entire town of good people will suffer mightily through no fault of their own,” the senator concluded.
The PPP program was established under the CARES Act in March 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help keep Americans afloat during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
However, while the program did save around 3 million jobs at its peak in the second quarter of 2020, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, it was also rife with fraud.
A September 2022 report (pdf) by the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that an estimated $45.6 billion in unemployment benefits granted by the government was fraudulently stolen by criminals between March 2020 and April 2022.
Additionally, some experts believe the PPP program along with the billions of dollars in stimulus checks may have contributed to the current high-inflation economy.
East Palestine Residents File Lawsuit
Vance’s op-ed comes after East Palestine residents filed a class action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, alleging that the train operator’s “negligent actions” following the derailment earlier this month created an “environmental catastrophe.”
In a Feb. 24 statement, law firm Johnson and Johnson, which filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division in Youngstown on behalf of the residents, said that Norfolk Southern’s actions following the derailment amount to “negligence and reckless indifference”
The lawsuit seeks to recover damages on behalf of all injured businesses and residents/individuals located within 30 miles of the derailment, establishes testing and cleaning protocols, creates a medical monitoring fund, and requests injunctive relief oversight of Norfolk Southern’s safety and compliance programs.
“Norfolk Southern’s misguided cleanup effort unleashed a chemical warfare agent on the residents of East Palestine,” said attorney Nils Johnson, Jr. “The company’s negligence didn’t just lead to this tragic disaster, it amplified the fallout considerably, and Norfolk Southern’s delayed response and eventual actions only added fuel to this fire.”
“The sheer scale of the destruction is staggering. The true extent of the damage may not reveal itself for years to come. Norfolk Southern needs to take responsibility now and provide the people of East Palestine and Columbiana County with the resources they need for a healthy future,” Johnson added.
Norfolk Southern did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment regarding the lawsuit.
From The Epoch Times
