The writer is?executive director of American CompassThe Republican party’s instinctive opposition to regulation has collided head-on with the reality of lax safety standards on the nation’s railroads. American freight trains derail tens times as often as their British counterparts, according to the industry’s own data, and the February disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, demonstrated just how costly the accidents can be. Tankers in a 149-car Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride caught fire and derailed after an overheating wheel bearing went undetected until too late. Residents in two states had to evacuate their homes.

In response, Ohio’s senators, Republican JD Vance and Democrat Sherrod Brown, led the bipartisan introduction of the Railway Safety Act to address a range of shortcomings in existing railroad regulation. Enthusiasm from Brown and his fellow Democrats is no surprise. But Vance and his GOP co-sponsors, senators Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley have been steadily building support as well: in an improbable confluence last week, Donald Trump and Senator Mitt Romney announced their support just hours apart.

Rail safety is not typically a hot-button political issue, but the RSA has made concrete the ideological debate raging between American conservatives and libertarians over the role of government regulation in the free market. The right-of-centre’s typical pro-business position would be that federal mandates imposed on industry will raise costs and stifle innovation, while market forces can more effectively protect the public interest.