POLITICO Morning Transportation for 4/8/2015
By HEATHER CAYGLE 4/8/15 10:01 AM EDT
PENNSYLVANIA TRANSPORTATION ROADSHOW PRESSES ON: Wrapping up their 320-mile, two-day road trip across Pennsylvania, six Republican T&I members and five state transportation secretaries embark again this morning, traveling from Harrisburg to Reading. The group will hold meetings with business and transportation leaders in both cities. “Every kind of business in America, every level of government, we’re all in the transportation business,” said Chairman Bill Shuster, who has been leading the crew around the state this week. The itinerary: http://1.usa.gov/1xJ257i
LET ME UPGRADE YOU: Indian airlines can expand service to the U.S. now that the country once again meets worldwide safety requirements, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced in New Delhi today. India has been upgraded to a “Category 1” rating under the FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment program. The ratings are based on whether countries meet standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nation’s aviation safety arm. The improved rating means Indian carriers can start adding more U.S. flights to their schedules using their own aircraft. “U.S. and Indian aviation officials have an important, cooperative working relationship,” Foxx said in a statement during a meeting with Indian Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
Bouncing back from downgrade: The FAA downgraded India to a “Category 2” rating in January 2014 after an audit found that the country’s aviation oversight didn’t meet international standards (http://politico.pro/1Dhdegq). Downgrading the country meant that current Indian carriers could still fly to the U.S. but couldn’t add new service. Foxx said the U.S. government commends India for “taking corrective action to address the safety oversight issues identified during the IASA process.” The DOT chief is currently on a multiday tour of the country’s infrastructure, with stops in New Delhi and Mumbai.
WEDNESDAY — HALFWAY DOWN: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
If you’ve got a little Hump Day blues, know that your commute probably beats the heck out of that of folks out in L.A. Although they no longer have to crane their necks to read towering totems of sidewalk placards, Angelenos now have to decipher a color-coded grid of parking rules: http://bit.ly/1a2XFwX
We really would love to hear from you: @jascholtes or jscholtes@politico.com, and @heatherscope or hcaygle@politico.com
** A message from APTA, American Public Transportation Association: It’s time to make public transportation infrastructure a priority. On April 9, communities around the country will “Stand Up for Transportation” and tell Congress that infrastructure investment is critical to their local economies. Congress: Fix the Highway Trust Fund and act now on a long-term transportation bill. www.standup4transportation.org **
STAND WITH RAND ON ROADS? Sen. Rand Paul launched his presidential bid before a Louisville, Ky., crowd Tuesday (http://politi.co/1CaHgyk) and spotlighted his transportation funding bill along the way. “More than $2 trillion in American profit currently sits overseas. In my vision for America, new highways and bridges will be built across the country not by raising your taxes but by lowering the tax to bring this American profit home,” he said. “Even in this polarizing Congress, we have a chance of passing this.” Paul has been working with Sen. Barbara Boxer on a bill that would use revenue from a tax on corporate profits stashed overseas to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. But while the Kentucky senator has been talking publicly about the idea since January, the duo has yet to officially unveil the legislation and is still finalizing the text. Paul’s bill would tax companies’ current overseas earnings at a 6.5 percent rate, significantly lower than the normal 35 percent corporate income tax rate, according to details of the plan released in January (Refresher: http://politico.pro/1JQf893).
CANDIDATES EYE FLORIDA SHIPBUILDER’S CHECKBOOK: POLITICO’s Marc Caputo and Bryan Bender have scrounged up more details about that fundraiser Sen. Marco Rubio attended Monday night at the home of a Florida shipbuilder competing for a major contract with the Coast Guard — an agency Rubio helps to oversee as a subcommittee chairman on the Senate Commerce panel. They report: “The event was at the Panama City home of Brian D’Isernia, owner of the Eastern Shipbuilding Company. … ‘This is a contract worth as much as $10 billion over the long haul, and the last thing D’Isernia wants is to have a senator angry with him,’ said a source with direct knowledge of the fundraising efforts. In the brutal competition for Florida’s abundant GOP donors, the 71-year-old D’Isernia is a highly sought-after target.” The full story: http://politi.co/1NRUOUT
LOBBYISTS LURE TRANSPORTATION CLIENTS: POLITICO Influence reports that a new lobbying registration has been filed to represent the National Automobile Dealers Association and that contracts have been terminated with the Secure ID Coalition, the Regional Plan Association and Kimble’s Disaster Relief: http://politi.co/1HNHsr2
IG: COAST GUARD INSIDERS CAN EASILY LIFT SENSITIVE DATA: Federal auditors managed to connect USB thumb drives to Coast Guard computers at multiple locations and download “simulated sensitive information,” revealing just how easy it would be for an agency insider to lift sensitive data. Pro’s David Perera reports that investigators with the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general also discovered that Coast Guard employees are able to send such information to outsiders through their government email accounts. The IG noted that the DHS agency uses software meant to stop people from lifting data with devices like thumb drives, but the application isn’t fully in place yet. The Coast Guard also is working to ensure system administrators don’t have more access than they need to do their jobs and is trying to put together an insider threat program. Thumb through the report: http://1.usa.gov/1IpCXX7
FAA RETHINKS CYBER CONTRACT: The FAA is buying some extra time in the search for a company to run its cybersecurity center after discovering hackers were able to spread a virus through the agency’s computer system this year, NextGov reports: http://bit.ly/1H11fVJ. The agency has awarded a short-term contract for cybersecurity work to its current vendor until at least the end of July to avoid a disruption in service. “Due to a recent cyberattack, the FAA requires additional planning time to determine the impact to the competitive procurement’s requirements,” the agency said in its notice to contractors: http://1.usa.gov/1bSrXnQ
EMBATTLED N.J. TRANSPORTATION OFFICIAL RETIRES FROM LAW FIRM: One of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s longtime advisers, David Samson, announced Tuesday that he is retiring from his law firm amid the ongoing investigation into his alleged involvement in the George Washington Bridge scandal while he was chairman of the state’s Port Authority. The Record reports that the law firm Samson founded decades ago is erasing his name from the front door, “a move that some saw as an effort to protect the firm from any potential fallout that may lie ahead.” http://bit.ly/1E0BVOH
DATA ILLUSTRATES TOLLING SPIKE: After picking through the Federal Highway Administration’s transportation data, Brookings has put together a graph showing the drastic increase in the number of roadway miles that are now tolled. The think tank explains that tolls covered 5,400 miles across all interstate and non-interstate roadways nationally in 2013, which amounts to a more than 15 percent jump over a decade, while total roadway mileage has grown by 3.6 percent in that time. Check it out: http://brook.gs/1NSjUTJ
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— Morgan Stanley: Major auto industry disruption will lead to robotic taxis. LA Times: http://lat.ms/1Ipo9I5
— Officials in India draft national rules for ride-share apps. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1CSvw6i
— Native American tribe sues railway over Washington oil train traffic. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1Cl2kRS
— How Uber relied on data in assault dispute. The Atlantic: http://theatln.tc/1FjdZm2
— Volkswagen plans to grow Tennessee plant despite slumping sales. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1HO6Dty
— Idaho transportation funding bill gets $127 million makeover. AP: http://bit.ly/1yc7qVm
— China’s efforts to combat pollution boosts electric vehicles. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1IIjFsT
— Germanwings crash doesn’t help those with fear of flying. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1aI1N6N
— FedEx agrees to buy Dutch delivery company for $4.8 billion. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1GGLpPF
— MTA police ramp up enforcement at railroad crossings following deadly Metro-North crash in New York. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1c5M5TA
— India admits airport flaws as minister flies with matches. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1Dfid0Wc
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 53 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 175 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 581 days.
THE DAY AHEAD:
All day — State transportation secretaries and several Republican congressmen on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee wrap up a two-day transportation roadshow across Pennsylvania. From Harrisburg to Reading.
9:00 a.m. — The FAA holds a meeting of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics on rechargeable lithium batteries and battery systems. 1150 18th Street NW.
2:00 p.m. — The Atlantic Council holds a forum on a new report calling for accelerated construction of a north-south corridor of energy, transportation and communications from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and Black seas. 1030 15th Street NW.
Tags: transportation