This "safety" legislation is mainly about requiring 2-man crews on trains. The unions are of course very much in favor, but it would do nothing to prevent derailments like what happened at E. Palestine.
Can you guess how many engineers there were on the East Palastine train? 3.
That obvious had no impact on this incident. As others have pointed out, more engineers are a security/safety theaters solution. It also makes unions happy, as it means they need to employ more people.
This is a terrible bill that was reactionary at the time, and does nothing to actually improve safety.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/railroad-crew-size-mandate-dera...
What they should be doing is looking at the absurd increase in length of these trains to increase profits for the sake of safety, and the shortcutting of car maintenance. The latter which would've caught this issue to begin with.