Vice President JD Vance is still thinking about a major disaster that occurred in his home state of Ohio during the Biden administration.Late last week, Vance and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin formally requested a broad federal investigation into the Biden administration’s handling of the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
In a joint letter to EPA Acting Inspector General Nicole N. Murley, Vance and Zeldin cited lingering health concerns in the community and recent reports raising questions about the government’s response to the disaster.
The two officials asked the EPA’s Office of Inspector General to conduct an independent review of decisions made by federal agencies and private entities before, during and after the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment.
The crash released hazardous chemicals near East Palestine and led to the evacuation of thousands of residents as authorities worked to contain the incident and assess potential health and environmental risks.
“The people of East Palestine deserve a government that is transparent and accountable to them. If the Biden administration withheld public health risks from the community, they must be held accountable,” Vance said in a statement on X.
“Today, I am formally calling for an investigation into who knew what, and when,” Vance added. “@epaleezeldin and I will get answers.”
The request for an investigation comes days after NewsNation reported that environmental expert Stephen Petty, who was hired by attorneys representing residents in a class-action case, found potentially cancer-causing contaminants in soil samples from East Palestine.
According to the report, Petty detected dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at levels that exceeded certain EPA cancer-screening thresholds.
NewsNation also reported that those findings were not disclosed to residents while attorneys were negotiating a $600 million settlement with Norfolk Southern, the rail line involved in the crash.
The disclosure has raised new questions about what information was available to attorneys, government officials and residents as the community weighed the terms of the settlement.
The joint letter asks the EPA’s Office of Inspector General to examine several aspects of the federal response, including potential health effects, environmental monitoring decisions, information provided to residents, coordination among agencies and compliance with applicable laws and emergency-response protocols.
Vance and Zeldin said that if the investigation identifies shortcomings, the Trump administration could consider corrective measures, including changes to federal emergency-response procedures and environmental monitoring standards.
The letter also points to a recent EPA enforcement action involving a government subcontractor after analysts were found to have altered groundwater sampling data collected at the derailment site in the fall of 2025.
That episode has added to concerns about the reliability and transparency of environmental testing conducted in East Palestine after the disaster.
“For over three years, the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities have lived with the fateful decisions of the Biden Administration, State of Ohio, and Norfolk Southern,” the letter states.
Meanwhile, Vance said last week the Trump administration has explored an extraordinary Senate maneuver that could help advance the SAVE America Act, but a small group of Republican senators remains an obstacle.
Vance revealed that his constitutional role as president of the Senate could potentially put him at the center of the fight over President Donald Trump’s election laws.
Speaking Thursday on Newsmax’s “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE,” Vance said the administration has examined whether he could personally take control of the Senate chair and overrule the parliamentarian.
“So, we’ve actually looked into this. As the president of the Senate under the U.S. Constitution, there are things that we can do,” Vance said.
“We can take over the Senate chair. I can occupy the chair. We can overrule the parliamentarian. Those things are very possible,” he continued.
The problem, according to Vance, would then become securing enough Republican votes to sustain his ruling.