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POLITICO Morning Transportation for 3/26/2015
By HEATHER CAYGLE, with help from Kevin Robillard and Kathryn A. Wolfe
RENACCI PREVIEWS TRANSPO BILL THIS MORNING: Rise and shine MT-ers! Reps. Reid Ribble and Jim Renacci will be at the Library of Congress this morning to talk about the highway and transit bill with transportation lobbyists and advocates. Renacci told MT he’s still finalizing the details of his bill with Rep. Bill Pascrell that would index the gas tax to inflation and put together a Highway Trust Fund supercommittee (http://politico.pro/1CbnwwS). He doesn’t expect to introduce it this week but will discuss the proposal at today’s meeting.
The “stakeholder salon” is a regular event hosted by Rep. Earl Blumenauer to chat about various transportation topics. “Jim and Reid have been two of the most outspoken people about the need to deal with pending transportation funding crisis,” Blumenauer told MT. “They’ve demonstrated both an understanding and a commitment to both be open to and stretch a little bit for solutions.”
Coming attractions: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is set to address the group at a meeting next month, Blumenauer said.
PAY-FORS? WE AIN’T GOT NO STINKIN’ PAY-FORS: Rep. Charles Boustany says the Ways and Means Committee has started discussing the length of a Highway Trust Fund patch but has not yet begun looking at how to pay for the short-term fix. “We’ve talked about a couple of options as to whether it should be the fiscal year, the calendar year, how long to do a patch,” he said, adding the length of the fix would determine revenue and offset needs. The Louisiana lawmaker said the committee plans to focus more on the problem after the Easter recess.
Fellow Ways and Means member Blumenauer threw his hands up when asked about it, saying he’s frustrated by talk of another patch. “If you slide this puppy until spring, the new Congress is very unlikely to make a lot of progress … and gee, a short-term patch right before the presidential election? That’s a really great time to get people to come together, to focus their attention, maybe take a little risk to solve a problem,” the Oregonian said sarcastically.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: FOXX MEETS PLAYBOOK — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will join POLITICO’s Mike Allen on Monday for a Playbook Lunch to talk about all things transportation, including the seemingly perennial Highway Trust Fund crisis. And our very own Kathryn Wolfe will also participate, repping the Pro Transportation team at the lunchtime event. What would you ask the secretary? Send suggestions my way via hcaygle@politico.com. The event kicks off at 12 p.m. Monday at the Newseum.
SENATORS FED UP BY CRUDE-BY-RAIL INACTION: Frustrated with DOT for not moving forward with its own regulation to address the volatility of crude oil shipped by rail, a quartet of Democratic senators unveiled a bill Wednesday aimed at doing just that. “This bill is showing our impatience with the fact that we’re in a rulemaking process that doesn’t include volatility, and we think that it should,” Sen. Maria Cantwell said. The proposal calls for immediately pulling the DOT-111 tank cars out of circulation and requiring tougher design standards for the newer CPC-1232 cars, which were involved in recent derailments in Illinois and West Virginia.
Tougher penalties for safety violations: The bill would also require PHMSA to set limits on volatile components of crude oil and slap down fines of up to $1 million per day for violating standards for the transport of hazardous materials. “Sometimes an agency down within the bowels of an organization doesn’t believe it has authority. I clearly believe they do,” Cantwell said, pointing to PHMSA. In addition to Cantwell, the bill also has the backing of Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Dianne Feinstein and Patty Murray. Bill text here: http://politico.pro/1xh0AND
TANK CAR RULE COMING ’ROUND THE BEND: DOT’S tank car regulations should be coming “in a couple of weeks,” FRA acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg told a House panel Wednesday. The FRA chief also tried to assuage concerns that the regulations wouldn’t address recent derailments involving the stronger CPC-1232 tank cars, saying the rule would still be a “very strong step in the right direction.”
THURSDAY ALREADY? SWEET. Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports. I’m your host, Heather, and in my downtime I’m busy trying to teach my dog Biggie Smalls how to talk by watching this cat video on repeat: http://bit.ly/1EGlVNX. Yassss.
Send scoops, tips, complaints and transpo trivia to hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope. And don’t forget to follow Jennifer Scholtes @jascholtes and jscholtes@politico.com. And as always, follow @morning_transpo and @POLITICOPro.
“Me and my boo in my boo’s coupe ridin’…” http://bit.ly/18XBic4
** A Message from Americans for Fair Skies: Open Skies Agreements were signed with the understanding that everyone was expected to play by the rules. The governments of Qatar and the U.A.E. are breaking the rules blatantly violating Open Skies Agreements they signed with the United States by pumping $40 billion into their airlines. Learn more at http://bit.ly/1EO7I5j. **
SENATE BEGINS BUDGET VOTING SPREE: At noon today the Senate heads into its famous “vote-a-rama,” the flurry of votes that comes along with the annual budget resolution, which is not subject to filibuster rules. House GOP leaders pushed their proposal to passage last night, reaching their goal of passing a budget within the first 100 days of the 114th Congress. Rep. Peter DeFazio told MT that cuts to surface transportation are the worst part of the lower chamber’s plan. “For fiscal year 2016, there would be a 99 percent reduction in federal funds for new projects — basically a massive, massive cut in surface transportation,” he said. “And I think it’s a 100 percent [cut] for transit. That’s pretty bad.”
MT MAILBAG: UNIONS WRITE ON OPEN SKIES—Leaders of four unions representing airline workers are out with a letter this morning criticizing the U.S. Travel Association for its support of Gulf airlines in the ongoing Open Skies fight, saying those carriers have “abhorrent labor standards.” “We appreciate the U.S. Travel Association’s role in promoting tourism in the United States and hope that the Association will stop backing the repressive policies of the Gulf carriers and the governments that support them,” the group wrote. Read it: http://politico.pro/1M299T3
GERMANWINGS CRASH MYSTERY DEEPENS: The New York Times reports: “As officials struggled Wednesday to explain why a jet with 150 people on board crashed amid a relatively clear sky, an investigator said evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane’s descent and was unable to get back in. …‘We don’t know yet the reason why one of the guys went out,’ said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was continuing. ‘But what is sure is that at the very end of the flight, the other pilot is alone and does not open the door.’” Full story: http://nyti.ms/19mdajf
COMMERCE COMMITTEE MOVES PTC PROPOSAL: The Senate Commerce Committee approved a trio of transpo bills Wednesday, including legislation to give railroads more time to install positive train control. Railroads have said — and DOT and GAO have agreed — that they can’t meet the Dec. 31, 2015, deadline to install the anti-collision technology. “The PTC deadline is simply not attainable,” committee Chairman John Thune said before the vote.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who opposed the measure, said a five-year blanket deadline extension, as envisioned in the bill, would be an “eternity when it comes to this technology.” But Thune disagreed, saying approving extensions on a case-by-case basis, as Blumenthal and the administration have advocated, is the wrong approach. “You’d have to have some sort of referee, which I think would be problematic,” he told Kevin. “I think the way we’re doing it is best.”
STB overhaul approved: The Surface Transportation Board revamp backed by Thune and committee ranking member Bill Nelson was approved via voice vote. It’s the first major overhaul of the rail regulatory agency since it was created in the mid-1990s. And the committee also gave a thumbs-up to a driver privacy bill sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and John Hoeven.
HOMELAND LAWMAKERS PREP AIRPORT SCREENING BILL: Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been complaining that letting fliers who haven’t paid $85 to be a part of the PreCheck program and undergone background checks into PreCheck lines slows checkpoint screening and presents a security risk. And a bipartisan trio of lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee is now looking into writing a bill that would “address these known vulnerabilities regarding expedited screening,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel’s top Democrat.
Felon lapse calls TSA methods into question: Thompson and his committee colleagues are fired up after hearing last week that checkpoint screeners allowed a notorious felon and former member of a domestic terror group through the PreCheck line. “This incident begs the question: Are these procedures appropriately designed to ensure that a person who actually presents a security risk is not given lighter screening? I have no confidence, based on the public and classified information I have seen, that this is the case.”
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
-The next Facebook frontier: Drones that beam web access. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1BrG88l
-Russia proposes world’s longest superhighway connecting Europe to the U.S. CNN:http://cnn.it/1CaFYFP
-A hilariously bad parking job from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Roll Call: http://bit.ly/1GVlulD
-Amid debate over how to fund road construction, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley irks state legislators by saying people should “take a good shower” after leaving the Statehouse. AP:http://abcn.ws/1CZqKXQ
-Ford is recalling about 213,000 police vehicles in North America to fix springs that might not keep doors closed in a crash. AP: http://bit.ly/1buqOTf
-Apparently, being the “Most Interesting Man in the World” doesn’t matter when it comes to carpool qualifications. USA Today: http://usat.ly/1GVpfaC
-Fear and loathing at the D.C. DMV — we’ve all been there. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1GValRD
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 66 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 188 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 594 days.
Tags: transportation