WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A federal government watchdog group is suing the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) alleging it failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking details about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s delayed response to the Feb. 3 Palestine, Ohio train derailment.
Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 6.
“The statutory deadline has passed, and Defendant has failed to provide a substantive response to any of the FOIA requests,” the complaint states. “In fact, as of the date of this Complaint, Defendant has failed to produce a single responsive record or assert any claims that responsive records are exempt from production.”
The DOT is facing criticism for its handling of the Norfolk Southern train derailment that spilled toxic cargo as Buttigieg waited three weeks to visit the site.
“We want to know if there are any external communications with external entities or even internal communications on whether, when, or why not Secretary Buttigieg should have visited East Palestine,” said Peter McGinnis, FGI communications director. “It took them a while to get out there. We want to know why that is.”
Several aspects of the accident implicated the involvement of several federal agencies such as the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which fall under the umbrella of the DOT. But Buttigieg was "nowhere to be found," according to a press release.
“The average American should be concerned because it was a huge disaster in the middle of working America,” McGinnis told Legal Newsline. “A lot of Americans are feeling forgotten. There was a sense of leadership that was lost as well as the public trust.”
The FOIA request that the DOT has allegedly ignored applies to Buttigieg as well as deputy aecretary Polly Trottenberg, chief of staff Laura Schiller, under secretary of transportation for policy Carlos Monje, director of public affairs Dani Simons, director of public engagement and senior advisor Lynda Tran, assistant secretary for transportation policy Christopher Coes, and assistant secretary of government Mohsin Syed.
"The release of the records is in the public interest so that the public can know what was communicated to and considered in coordination with external entities about when DOT officials would visit," wrote FGI attorney Jeremiah Morgan in the lawsuit. "These records would provide for significantly increased public understanding of the federal government’s response to the derailment near East Palestine, Ohio, and the toxic chemicals that were spilled as a result."