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POLITICO Morning Transportation for 5/19/2015
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Heather Caygle and Kathryn A. Wolfe
HOUSE LAWMAKERS THROW THEIR HANDS UP, CAST VOTE ON TWO-MONTH PATCH: Although last time (and the dozens of times before that) was supposed to be the last time, House lawmakers will vote today on passage of another short-term transportation extension, realizing that they’re again out of time to settle on a multi-year plan or even extend funding through year’s end. Leaders from both parties are begrudgingly going along with this latest patch proposal, conceding that it’s their only option — short of allowing transportation authority to expire while they’re away for Memorial Day recess. And while a good chunk of the Democratic Caucus will likely vote against the bill today, House GOP leaders are expected to have enough reluctant supporters to achieve passage. The Senate probably won’t be far behind, but leaders in the upper chamber have yet to lay out scheduling specifics, still stalled in moving their trade deal.
Our Heather Caygle explains how Congress is now largely resigned to this two-month patch: http://politico.pro/1dgfxHf. Tune to C-SPAN around 1 p.m. to catch House floor debate on the extension: http://cs.pn/1bJ7Wew. The bill: http://1.usa.gov/1B8KDFO.
Patching the patch: House T&I Chairman Bill Shuster admitted Monday that this likely won’t be the patch to end all patches and that Congress will probably vote before the end of July for a temporary extension that would last until sometime toward the end of the year. The goal, Republicans say, is to draw out funding and authority long enough for leaders to enact a tax overhaul. “My crystal ball’s not that clear around this place. But I believe that the Ways and Means Committee is working on tax reform,” Shuster told members of the House Rules Committee as the panel prepped the bill for floor consideration. “This will get us through to July, and we may have to very well push it out towards the end of the year to give them the time to do their work. And again, I think in a tax reform bill, that’s where you’re going to address this. Historically, that’s where these things have been addressed.” http://politico.pro/1ETEk9H
Tax overhaul dreams: While many Democrats say achieving a tax revamp by the end of the year is quite a longshot, Republican leaders are rallying around the idea of funding a multi-year highway bill with savings they plan to find in rewriting the tax code. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy even said Monday he sees transportation funding lining up with that overhaul. Jake Sherman explains: http://politico.pro/1AhgRDN.
Looking to year’s end: Even if enacting a big tax revamp is an attainable goal this year, Congress still has to come up with money before the end of July to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat until that tax-overhaul windfall comes to fruition. And getting agreement on funding offsets has not been easy so far, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch said Monday, blaming Democrats for “walking away from the negotiating table.” The chairman said Republican leaders came up with about $5 billion in tax offsets from the last time they had to refill the trust fund and intended to use that funding, as well as “an equal amount in spending reductions and reforms,” to achieve the roughly $11 billion needed to keep the trust fund solvent through December. But Democrats, he said, “failed to engage in meeting us halfway with a balanced package of compliance revenue and spending reductions,” forcing the GOP to resort to this latest two-month extension. http://politico.pro/1AgUZbv
SENATE COMMERCE LOOKS AT ATC REVAMP: The Senate Commerce Committee continues its hearing spree this morning on FAA reauthorization, holding its fifth meeting on the issue this spring. This time, the committee will be talking about efforts to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system, with testimony from Administrator Michael Huerta, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association’s president, the head of United Airlines and former Sen. Byron Dorgan.
Dorgan is a chairman of an Eno Center for Transportation working group that published a report his morning recommending separating air traffic control operations from the FAA and creating a new organization that is either a unique government corporation or a non-profit. Check out the report: http://bit.ly/1JuPdoY. Watch the hearing at 10 a.m.: http://1.usa.gov/1cIKi6X.
IT’S TUESDAY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
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NHTSA DEMANDS FIAT CHRYSLER DIVULGE MORE RECALL INFO: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration handed down a special order on Monday in an effort to compel Fiat Chrysler to turn over information on how it has handed a number of recalls. The agency also scheduled a public hearing to determine whether the automaker held off on fixing safety defects and issuing recall notices. The details from Pro: http://politico.pro/1EYv9G8/. The special order: http://politico.pro/1KhaP9F.
Hazardous behavior: On a conference call with reporters, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said the recalls in question include more than 10 million vehicles, with concerns spanning fires, loss of vehicle control, fuel leaks and more. And, Rosekind said in each of those recalls the agency has “significant concerns” about the automaker’s performance. Rosekind also stressed that — rather than focusing on any one of the 20 — the agency wants to examine all of them for a pattern of behavior from Fiat-Chrysler that “presents a significant safety hazard.”
The automaker issued a terse statement in response, saying the company will “cooperate fully” and noting that its average completion rate for recalls “exceeds the industry average and all FCA US campaigns are conducted in consultation with NHTSA.”
CRASH COMPLICATES AMTRAK REAUTHORIZATION: Sens. Roger Wicker and Cory Booker are now scurrying to work out ways to add more safety language to their bill to reauthorize Amtrak following last week’s deadly crash, considering whether to include new rules on positive train control technology. Our Heather Caygle explains that “the last federal passenger rail authorization expired in 2013, although Amtrak has been allowed to keep operating since then. The House passed a four-year reauthorization bill two months ago that did not include any language extending the positive train control deadline — or any of the dramatic changes that some lawmakers have suggested for Amtrak over the years, such as privatizing the railroad or its profitable Northeast Corridor.” More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1ETO2sE.
BUS INDUSTRY BRAGS ON BUSY MEMORIAL DAY: The American Bus Association is pointing this week to a DePaul University report that estimated that this Memorial Day weekend will bring the highest level of passenger travel on scheduled bus lines in at least 25 years. Check it out: http://bit.ly/1FvAjit.
NTSB MAINTAINS PROJECTILE COULD HAVE HIT AMTRAK TRAIN: The NTSB isn’t ruling out the possibility that an object other than a bullet shattered the windshield of the Amtrak train that crashed last Tuesday. Our Kathryn A. Wolfe explains that, while an FBI investigation found no evidence that a firearm caused the damage, the safety agency said the fracture pattern may still have been caused by a rock or another projectile. More on that: http://politico.pro/1QYB8lC.
SENATE FIELDS COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION: It’s now up to the Senate to make its mark on the two-year Coast Guard authorization the House passed Monday. These bills have often been stalled in years past over environmental issues like water ballast and discharge rules, but the legislation showed no signs of controversy coming out of the House, where it was swiftly sent off by voice vote. This year’s authorization aims to align the Coast Guard’s leadership structure with that of the military branches in an effort to improve coordination among the services. And lawmakers, like usual, have given the agency lots of guidance on managing its aging fleet of vessels. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1KyZgbh.
DEMS BEGIN LEGISLATIVE PUSH TO LIFT AMTRAK’S LIABILITY CAP: As lawsuits start to flood in from those hurt during last week’s Amtrak crash, Sen. Bill Nelson kicked off Democrats’ legislative effort this week to get the rail service’s liability cap raised. The Senate Commerce Committee’s top Democrat introduced a bill that would raise the cap from $200 million per accident to $500 million. Rachael Bade explains that “Nelson’s bill faces an uphill battle to enactment. For one, many Republicans hate Amtrak because it’s a government-subsidized entity. It’s one of the reasons House Appropriators proposed last week to gut its budget by nearly 20 percent. There are also transportation-minded Democrats who worry that raising the cap could burden Amtrak’s already stressed budget, causing the rail system to further delay needed safety updates.” http://politico.pro/1QYZyf4
SAFETY GROUP ESTIMATES RISE IN CELL PHONE-RELATED CRASHES: Looking at 2013 data, the National Safety Council reported this week that crashes related to cell phone use are estimated to have risen, accounting for 27 percent of all crashes that year. The group estimates crashes caused by texting increased while those caused by talking on cell phones remained steady. The report: http://bit.ly/1AhE8W5.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— Commuter railroads consider more speed curbs in wake of Amtrak crash. Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1Ahi0LC
— Driverless trucks hired at California ports losing market share. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1S28OAq
— NYC proposal for taxi panic buttons stirs questions about safety and false alarms. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1c1F7y8
— Will a scramble for airwaves dent talking cars? Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1EYbKFf
— GAO: Proposals to enhance aircraft tracking and flight data recovery may aid accident investigation, but challenges remain: http://1.usa.gov/1HdICu6
— The European Commission plans to draft regulations for commercial drones this fall. POLITICO Europe: http://politico.pro/1EU8QjS
— Halfway to radically safer railroads. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1c1UB59
— How many Germans does it take to plan an airport? Apparently, more than exist. McClatchy: http://bit.ly/1B96uNt
— Highway safety agency revamps guardrail review. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1QZ4dxk
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 13 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 135 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 541 days.
Tags: policy, transportation