- San Francisco Chronicle: Wheelchair ramps yanked for luxury seating
- San Francisco Chronicle: S.F.’s Airbnb law needs to be fixed at the board
- San Francisco Examiner: Advocates blast SF mayor for backlog of pedestrian-safety projects
- San Francisco Examiner: NTSB cites former BART policy of ‘simple approval’ as probable cause for two worker deaths in 2013
- Los Angeles Times: Obama’s climate policy faces an early court challenge
- Martinez Gazette: Martinez city streets considered ‘at-risk’
POLITICO Morning Transportation for 4/16/2015
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Heather Caygle and Kathryn A. Wolfe
BIPARTISAN HOUSE DUO UNVEILING GAS TAX BILL TODAY: Reps. Jim Renacci and Bill Pascrell are introducing a bill today aimed at tackling the Highway Trust Fund crisis once and for all. The Renacci-Pascrell bill, first reported by MT in March, would index the gas tax to inflation and then form a sort of Highway Trust Fund supercommittee to find a long-term funding solution. Renacci told MT that many of the details reported in March — including that the committee would be both bicameral and bipartisan — are still accurate. (Refresher:http://politico.pro/1CbnwwS) But the Ohio lawmaker wasn’t as forthcoming when asked if he had the backing of other Ways and Means Republicans: “Everybody knows about it,” he said before walking down the Capitol steps Wednesday evening.
Senate scheming: Sen. Barbara Boxer said she and Sen. Rand Paul are planning on introducing their own transportation funding bill this week, an idea they first floated publicly in January. http://politico.pro/1JQf893
Markup pleas: Reps. John Delaney and Richard Hanna renewed their calls this week for House T&I and Ways and Means leaders to look over their proposal to use revenue from taxing overseas earnings to keep the trust fund in the black for six years. Their letter to the panel heads: http://1.usa.gov/1J4PqfO. Their bill: http://1.usa.gov/1PPKm40.
LAWMAKERS PREPARE TO PUNT: Forty-five days out from expiration of highway and transit program authority, it doesn’t seem like legislators are motivated to dig up cash for much more than another temporary extension. “This is the equivalent of punting on first down. Who the hell does that anymore?” Pete Ruane, president of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, said to Heather about the likelihood that Congress will once again rely on a short-term fix. “We’re suffering in a purgatory of delays.” The full rundown from Pro: http://politico.pro/1b4FuIG
HEY, THURSDAY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
If you’re looking for a work distraction this morning, MT highly recommends scouring the interwebs for Taylor Swift’s new Toyota hybrid commercial. Most of the mocking posts about the theatrical, Chinese ads are now devoid of accompanying videos, citing Toyota copyright claims. But some have lived on in cyberspace, and it’s well worth the search to see for yourself what HuffPo describes as “‘Hunger Games-type fire play” and “a very dramatic pianist”: http://huff.to/1H90MRc
“Sittin’ round in my abstract car, this abstract thing goin’ abstract far.” http://bit.ly/1PPcsfX
** Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF) is an industry-wide image and education movement representing all areas of the professional truck driving industry. The industry contributes $682 billion in revenue every year to the nation’s economy. Seven million trucking professionals nationwide move food, fuel and critical cargo in manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and more. Learn more at truckingmovesamerica.com. **
GM GETS LIMITED PROTECTION FROM DEATH CLAIMS: A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that GM is shielded from death and injury claims in crashes that happened while the auto manufacturer was in bankruptcy protection. AP explains, though, that the judge also ruled that, “under narrow circumstances, some plaintiffs who sued over a loss to the value of their cars due to faulty ignition switches can file claims against the company for actions after it left bankruptcy protection in 2009.” http://politico.pro/1EIfnTc
Appeal to come: Lawyers representing the owners of recalled GM vehicles said Wednesday that they will appeal the judge’s ruling. “We believe that New GM’s misconduct was in fact present in the sale of millions of defective vehicles — a truth that we believe New GM knew and chose to conceal,” Steve Berman, managing partner of the firm Hagens Berman, said in a written statement. “It cannot be the law that Old GM could hide the defects and subsequently use the bankruptcy court as a shield.”
Blumenthal’s scorn: Sen. Richard Blumenthal released a statement following the ruling, calling on the company to “truly leave behind the ‘Old GM’ and abandon the court-imposed shield to accountability.” The senator said the ruling “is a disgraceful defeat for American justice and for victims who are now denied their day in court,” and said he hopes an appellate court will reopen the case “because GM may well have achieved this legal shield by concealing its deadly ignition switch and deceiving the courts during its bankruptcy filing.”
MAKE YOUR CALENDARS, FAA ENTHUSIASTS: Senate Commerce is set to announce this morning that it is adding two subcommittee hearings on FAA reauthorization to next week’s agenda. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, chairwoman of the panel that handles aviation, will be calling a hearing Tuesday afternoon on delays in FAA’s certification process for new aircraft designs, followed by a hearing Thursday morning about infrastructure financing options for airports. Dorenda Baker, director of Aircraft Certification Service at FAA, is expected to testify Tuesday, alongside a GAO aviation expert and the president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
ATTN. SHIPBUILDERS: NO MORE NSC CASH FOR YOU: Huntington Ingalls shipyard shouldn’t expect to rake in another $500 million to build an extra ship in the Coast Guard’s flagship National Security Cutter fleet. The agency’s head of operations told House lawmakers on Wednesday that Coast Guard commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft has made clear that “we can’t afford, don’t need, don’t want, a ninth NSC.” The service’s priority now is to invest in offshore patrol cutters to replace the 270-foot and 210-foot medium endurance cutters, which are now 25 to 50 years old. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1NL44zA
‘BRIDGEGATE’ MIXUP: A New Hampshire man who confronted Gov. Chris Christie at a restaurant Wednesday about his role in the “Bridgegate” scandal may have been mistaken about being stuck in the New Jersey traffic jam in 2013 after all, POLITICO’s Cate Martel reports. Richard Moquin, 68, shouted to Christie that he had been stuck in Fort Lee during the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, according to The New York Times. “I always thought I was [there]. My wife said we were, but it was her fault,” he joked with POLITICO. “We were in a big mess and we were two-and-a-half hours late for where we were going.” http://politi.co/1FUACA1
FAA GETS IN ON ‘GYROCOPTER’ ACTION: The FAA says it is going to play a part in investigating the “gyrocopter” landing on the Capitol lawn Wednesday. The agency said the copter’s pilot was not in contact with air traffic controllers and was not authorized to enter into the highly restricted airspace.
WARREN WANTS MORE AUTO LOAN REGULATION: Arguing that auto dealers won a reprieve during the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling now for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate loans auto dealers make. “The auto loan market looks increasingly like the pre-crisis housing market, with good actors and bad actors mixed together … and it is no coincidence that auto loans are now the most troubled consumer financial product,” Warren said Wednesday in detailing a new list of proposed policy recommendations she said are needed to continue the “unfinished business” of the Dodd-Frank law. Pro’s Jennifer Liberto has more: http://politico.pro/1PNSz8Z
HOUSE LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE CRUDE-BY-RAIL SISTER BILL: Essentially putting forth a companion bill to a measure introduced in the Senate last month, five House Democrats introduced legislation this week aimed at improving the safety of oil transported by rail. Our Kathryn A. Wolfe has the details: http://politico.pro/1yvTAgM
MT MAILBAG: Rep. Doris Matsui and Sen. Richard Blumenthal have sent a letter to the head of the Coast Guard, expressing concern that the service is not heeding congressional mandates in developing new rules for the security of cruise ships and asking the agency to add more stringent policies. The lawmakers helped shepherd a bill to enactment in 2010 that required the Coast Guard to slap down specific new regulations, but they say in their letter that “there are several oversights in the proposed rules that bring us great concern.” The two legislators are asking the Coast Guard to require all cruise ships to install man-overboard systems and acoustic sounding devices. They want the Coast Guard to apply the legislation’s requirements to all voyages, regardless of whether they embark or disembark passengers in the U.S. Read the lawmakers’ other asks: http://politico.pro/1H9d3VP
Fischer asks GAO for West Coast ports report: Sen. Deb Fischer is calling on GAO to look into the economic effect of the West Coast ports dispute, Pro’s Marianne LeVine reports: http://politico.pro/1JKR5Ic. In a letter sent Wednesday, the senator asks the watchdog agency to examine the dispute’s effect on industry and to size up the costs of regional changes in freight movements that resulted from the nine-month labor disagreement between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. The letter: http://1.usa.gov/1zhf6k0.
BEZOS SPACE COMPANY NABS LOBBYIST: Blue Origin — the private spaceflight company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — is launching an expanded lobbying operation in Washington. More from Pro’s Tony Romm: http://politico.pro/1D4AvO3
CONSULTANT GROUP OPENS INFRASTRUCTURE SHOP: A financial and government consulting group called 32 Advisors is launching an infrastructure practice. The company’s CEO and founder, Robert Wolf, said in a written statement this week that the new focus “presents a huge opportunity given the state of infrastructure in the U.S. and around the world. Pair that with the vast sources of capital that are sitting on the sidelines and public sector resources that are being underutilized, and one can see the need for an intermediary that can bridge this gap.”
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— Don’t make bicyclists more visible, make drivers stop hitting them. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1H7teCS
— Oklahoma bill on Uber deletes protection for gay riders. AP: http://abcn.ws/1IMqm0e
— Southwest plans to use wider seats in new planes. The Chicago Tribune: http://trib.in/1NN9Alb
— A century-old technique for analyzing transportation and industrial stocks is raising a warning for investors. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1ytPwxb
— A Chinese firm acquires Segway. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1JK9DZn
— Possible TSA groping victims contact Denver authorities. AP: http://on9news.tv/1FMrDhG
— Delta posts record net income, reduces international service. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1DJKXzl
— South Koreans doubt ferry sinking will inspire improved safety. AP: http://yhoo.it/1yrsiaZ
— Germanwings crash could prompt remote override tech review. AP: http://abcn.ws/1HvEnOs
— Ride-share service bill hailed by Maryland lawmakers. AP: http://bit.ly/1HvE7yZ
— Asiana pilots ordered to do more training after 2nd crash-landing. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1PQr4eY?
— Meet the opposition to Texas high-speed rail. CityLab: http://bit.ly/1b3WL4L
— BMW China dealers press automaker for more financial support. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1CMfRTF
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 45 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 167 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 573 days.
Tags: transportation