- San Francisco Chronicle: City proposing new housing development fee to expand transit
- San Francisco Chronicle: BART’s message on Transbay Tube shutdown: Stay home if you can
- Contra Costa Times: BART Transbay Tube closure plan to affect thousands
- Washington Post: Budget and tax: The Senate tries again on Highways, and the House is still stuck on spending
POLITICO Morning Transportation for 7/22/2015
By HEATHER CAYGLE and JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Andrew Restuccia and Kathryn A. Wolfe
SENATE HIGHWAY BILL STUMBLES, DOESN’T FALL: Like a Tom Petty song straight outta 1989, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t back down when it comes to his quest for a multiyear highway and transit bill. And he could haul senators back into the Capitol’s upper chamber as soon as today to take another procedural vote on moving the bill forward. Democrats (accompanied by nearly a dozen Republicans) soundly rejected (http://politico.pro/1DtvQXB) the plan to move toward debate on Tuesday, saying they didn’t have enough time to review the bill. But McConnell and allies, including his main Democratic partner, liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer, aren’t giving up just yet. (You’ll remember Boxer is the primary lawmaker credited with pushing through the 2012 transportation bill, even after many others had said it couldn’t be done.)
Pros, get the full scoop: http://politico.pro/1HHNMSd.
What’s next: The Kentucky Republican has made clear he wants to move a six-year bill fast, so that the House has enough time to take up the package before the August break. And he’s even threatened a rare weekend session if the Senate can’t get it together. Senate Democrats are supposed to huddle at noon today to talk over next steps. And McConnell has hinted at giving the ol’ procedural vote another try at some point today, but nothing is officially scheduled.
House weighs in: The Senate leader and his allies may be undaunted in their quest, but folks over on the House side aren’t optimistic. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday urged the Senate to just take up the House plan — a no-frills, five-month extension that runs through Dec. 18. Ways and Means Republican Dave Reichert was also happy to throw cold water on the Senate proposal: “This short-term, herky-jerky thing of: ‘Let’s do two years. No let’s do three and call it six’ — and some of the long-term pay-fors — people aren’t buying,” he told MT. “They’re not going to get the votes, in my opinion.”
And even House Transportation ranking member Peter DeFazio — known for being a glass half-full kind of guy — wasn’t willing to throw out a lifeline: “The Senate hasn’t even brought it up yet. And secondly, we’ve already passed the shorter-term,” DeFazio said.
Crickets from DOT: One important player who was quiet after Tuesday’s big bill rollout? Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who’s been calling on Congress to get its act together and pass a long-term bill for months now. A DOT spokeswoman said Tuesday afternoon that staffers were still reviewing the bill (which clocks in at more than 1,000 pages): http://1.usa.gov/1Iix4wd.
So what stands in the way? Well, the calendar for one thing. Congress has just 10 calendar days to send a transportation bill to the president’s desk or risk a nationwide shutdown of highway and transit construction projects, as well as thousands of federal employee furloughs. And the allure of jet fumes looms large for lawmakers who have already started eyeing the month-long August break. Not to mention, as far as House GOP leaders are concerned, they’ve already done their part with the year-end patch. But not to be deterred, some Senate aides have started floating the idea of a two-month extension to bridge the gap and give House and Senate negotiators time to work out their differences in conference.
Pro insight: We’ve got hoards of details on what made it into the Senate bill and what didn’t: The assumption of $9 billion in revenue from selling 101 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve: http://politico.pro/1CP5tR0 | New crude-by-rail safety standards: http://politico.pro/1LCdgmC | Seven tax-compliance offsets totaling about $7.8 billion: http://politico.pro/1Ii1YCX | No government pension money as a pay-for: http://politico.pro/1g3Eoj0.
BRAND NEW TODAY: POLITICO’s The Agenda takes a deep dive into the transpo world and comes out with a great package of fun and insightful stories. The transpo edition went live this morning, so be sure to check it out: http://politi.co/1Mnu1Ug.
And just a sampling of some of the goodies you’ll find:
— “The 18.4 cent national crisis: Why our roads still depend on a gas tax everyone’s afraid to touch” http://politi.co/1GAJvfb
— “Overpasses: A love story” http://politi.co/1KjGMMr
— “‘So under siege’: A Q&A with Transportation Secretary Foxx” http://politi.co/1HPQWRM
IT’S WEDNESDAY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Reach out: hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope, and jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
“If you were from where I’m from, then you would know that I gotta get mine in a big black truck. You can get yours in a ’64.” http://bit.ly/1JeEPCj (H/t Maggie Chan)
SCOTT WALKER & HIGHWAY SPENDING: With American transportation in crisis, why are we spending our money on massive new roads? Mike Grunwald investigates the astonishing $7 billion Gov. Scott Walker is spending in Wisconsin to expand and reconfigure freeways in Milwaukee, even though the transit system is a mess, local roads are falling apart, and a lot of people don’t want the new highways at all. Read more in the Transportation Issue of The Agenda: http://politi.co/1KjGMMr
ANOTHER BIG PROBLEM? All those Senate troublemakers who see the must-pass infrastructure bill as a shiny object they can latch onto to get some attention for their hot-button issues. Is this ringing a bell for any Senate lawmakers who also happen to be running for president? Transpo Team alum Burgess Everett brings it:
“Clumped together in the single digits in recent national polls, GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sense an opportunity to get some much-needed traction in the must-pass legislation. And they’re seizing it, with plans to tack on controversial proposals — or potentially hold up the entire bill if they don’t get that they want. … Paul is pushing an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. … Graham is advocating forcefully for reviving the defunct Export-Import Bank, which Rubio has barnstormed the country denouncing. And Cruz is urging the Senate to yank away employer contributions for congressional staffers’ health plans under Obamacare, an idea pushed for years by Sen. David Vitter to the annoyance of many lawmakers.” Full story: http://politi.co/1JeH7Bj.
PHMSA NOMINEE FACES SENATE: President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Marie Therese Dominguez, will face lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee today for a confirmation hearing. Morning Energy’s Andrew Restuccia explains that the hearing is likely to give lawmakers an opportunity to criticize the agency for failing to fulfill a series of congressional mandates on pipeline safety and other issues. Dominguez is a former adviser to Sen. Mark Warner, and she previously served as deputy assistant Army secretary for civil works. PHMSA has been without a permanent leader since October, when former Administrator Cynthia Quarterman stepped down. Obama announced plans to nominate Dominguez in May.
THE CASE FOR ‘TRUCK-FRIENDLY’ TOLLS: The Reason Foundation’s Robert Poole is out with a new report this morning that makes the case for truckers to embrace the use of tolling to finance the nation’s highways, details how all-electronic tolling can help with privacy and logistics concerns, and lays out rules that would ensure tolls are used to rebuild and improve those roads. The report: http://bit.ly/1OwdJGF. A summary: http://bit.ly/1Kk3X9i.
AIRPORT LINES HAVEN’T GROWN, BUT THEY MIGHT: Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told POLITICO’s Mike Allen on Tuesday that he’s not ruling out the possibility of new TSA efforts slowing airport lines but that there’s no evidence so far that ramped-up security is backing up checkpoints. During a POLITICO Playbook breakfast, the secretary said “that could change when we add additional screening,” noting that throughput time may grow as TSA screeners opt for more manual screening techniques like using metal detector wands. “But let me say this: I believe that the public would understand and will understand if they see at airports greater security as long as they know — and this is important — that they’re getting what their money pays for.” http://politico.pro/1MnGEhY
If you missed the event, don’t fret. We’ve got it on video: http://politi.co/1JwFKtq.
Far-away threats: Johnson also told Mike that the government has “become pretty good at detecting plots hatched from overseas,” getting so adept at rooting out those largescale plots that “we often have to sort out what’s real versus just the noise.” What’s harder, he said, is tracking lone actors living in the United States. More on that from our Kathryn A. Wolfe: http://politico.pro/1MnGEhY.
Despite several threats over the years to D.C.’s metro system, Johnson says he has “no specific reason” to be concerned about the region’s transit network: http://politico.pro/1HI8yRK.
A PRO FIRST: The American Farm Bureau Federation is out with a new policy paper that calls for expanding pipeline infrastructure in order to lessen congestion on freight rails. “The region where rail traffic of crude oil has grown the most covers exactly the same states we think of as the Upper Midwest states — Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana,” the paper says. “As rail congestion continues to worsen, especially if the main driver of that congestion is additional crude oil traffic, grain producers in the Upper Midwest states will feel the effects.” Read it here: http://bit.ly/1IjszkV.
MT MAILBAG:
— The New Democrat Coalition (the House’s club for moderate Dems) writes to House leaders today, urging them to call up a long-term transpo bill ASAP. The group wants to fund the measure using revenue from an international tax revamp (sound familiar?). They’re also asking leadership to get to work on finding a “dedicated user fee” approach that will support transportation programs over the long haul. Read the letter: http://politico.pro/1LBOLWF.
— The American Road and Transportation Builders Association wrote to senators Tuesday morning, encouraging them to vote for the procedural motion that ultimately fell without a single “aye” from the Democratic side of the aisle. That letter http://politico.pro/1MnZ5TC.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— A looming pilot shortage means a bumpy ride for airlines. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1JwzPEK
— Uber may be in a turf war with the NYC mayor’s office, but the popular car service still found time to dole out free hummus. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1JeHWtY
— Lufthansa flight has near-miss with drone near Warsaw. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1gMSllj
— Teenager’s video of gun-firing drone spurs investigation. The AP: http://yhoo.it/1KjCirP
— Members of Congress grill Metro leaders over management, safety flaws. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1g3COgZ
— Hackers show they can take control of moving Jeep Cherokee. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1KjUzT6
— Drone-maker, lawmakers skirmish over border role, Pro: http://politico.pro/1Lr7UvS
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 10 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 72 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 478 days.
Tags: policy, transportation