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Chuck Schumer takes on the railroads, plus 2024 is feeling a bit like 2022.

Here are the big things we're watching on Wednesday, March 15th.

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homandy to expand the agency's probe of Norfolk Southern into the six other largest U.S. railroads.

In a letter, Schumer applauds the initial investigation, but writes, it is jarringly evident that the freight rail industry

is in desperate need of a full and comprehensive investigation, citing a combination of

Washington deregulation, a 20% cut to the rail workforce, and a tally of more than 26,000

accidents and incidents in the industry over the past five years.

Among the questions that Schumer wants the NTSB to address, how have recent deregulatory pushes

contributed to these derailments and increase in debts?

And does the railroad have a culture of ignoring their own safety standards?

We're just barely into the 2024 Senate cycle, and already some Republicans are feeling a sense

of deja vu.

In a new must-read up this morning, Politico's Holly Otterbine attended a rural Pennsylvania

rally for Doug Masteriano.

Maybe the state's most Maga Republican, who also won its gubernatorial primary last year,

only to lose the general election by double digits to Democrat Josh Shapiro.

Her biggest takeaway. Despite that huge loss,

Pennsylvania Republicans aren't ready to toss Mastery on it overboard as Hemels, a challenge

to veteran Democratic Senator Bob Casey Jr. She writes,

Establishment Republicans have found a silver lining amid the grimness of 2022.

...