Transportation News for May 21, 2015

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  • on May 21, 2015
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Transportation News for May 21, 2015
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POLITICO Morning Transportation for 5/21/2015

By JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Bob King

TRANSPORTATION PATCH WAITS ON SENATE SIDELINES: House lawmakers expect to be on their way back home for their weeklong Memorial Day recess by early afternoon today, leaving the Senate with no other option than to clear their transportation policy plan exactly as they passed it — or risk an expiration that would hold up infrastructure projects throughout the country. Tied up with their trade deal, Senate leaders will probably send the transportation patch along without much ado. So keep your eyes on C-SPAN 2: http://cs.pn/1bJ7Wew.
POLITICO’s Manu Raju and Burgess Everett detail this “mad, messy rush to vacation”: http://politi.co/1F2ZUcW.

SENATORS GRILL TSA NOMINEE: The Coast Guard’s Vice Commandant Peter Neffenger will sit before the Senate Commerce Committee today, prepared for his formal vetting for confirmation to the top spot at TSA. Lawmakers will surely want to know how Neffenger thinks his experience as a lifelong Coastie would translate to the TSA job. They will want to hear that the aspiring administrator will seek their council and that of the independent Aviation Security Advisory Committee before making any bold changes to agency policies — like the previous administrator’s backfiring decision to loosen restrictions on pocket knives. And the legislators will surely press Neffenger about his ideas for keeping airline and airport employees from taking advantage of their access privileges, following news this week that baggage checkers have been arrested for conspiring to smuggle drugs out of the Oakland airport and the massive gun-running scheme uncovered last year.

Watch the confirmation hearing live at 10 a.m.: http://1.usa.gov/1HlSW5H. A refresher on Neffenger’s nomination: http://politico.pro/1FvICsN.

IT’S THURSDAY: 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.

“Cruising on down Main Street, you’re relaxed and feeling good.” http://bit.ly/1Kls61q

COMBO TRANSPO-TAX PLAN TURNS OUT TO BE TRICKY: House GOP leaders are looking to a hybrid tax plan that could also serve as a source for transportation revenue, hoping to appease those who want to use foreign profits as a way to lower business tax rates and also those who want to use the cash to fund infrastructure. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is banking on being able to appease lawmakers with either aspiration with such a proposal. But POLITICO’s Brian Faler and Rachael Bade explain that “In practice … the plan faces a raft of political and policy challenges, and there is deep skepticism on K Street — not to mention just across the Rotunda.” http://politi.co/1IQFubH

MORE COLD WATER ON AMTRAK PROJECTILE THEORY: NTSB investigators have gathered another piece of information that suggests the Amtrak train that crashed last week was not hit by a projectile before it derailed. Another engineer, whose train had stopped after an object shattered its windshield, said he “did not notice anything unusual” as the Amtrak train passed his train before the crash. The NTSB account does not mention any conversation between the two engineers — a detail that doesn’t mesh with what an assistant conductor on the derailed train told investigators last week. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1PxF4MZ.

Digging through data: The NTSB says it is still unclear whether the Amtrak engineer used his cellphone just before the fatal derailment, but investigators have started matching the engineer’s phone records against data from the train’s black box, outward-facing video, recorded radio communications and surveillance video. That process will be “detailed and lengthy,” the NTSB said. http://politico.pro/1K2XDSq

** A message from Airlines for America: Our 580,000 U.S. airline employees worldwide operate 27,000 flights a day creating a physical internet that has become an essential element of life in America — for everyday fliers and for the U.S. economy. Airlines for America — We Connect the World — Learn more at airlines.org.

GYROCOPTER PILOT DUE FOR ARRAIGNMENT TODAY: The Florida mailman who landed a gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn is expected back in court today after being indicted on two felony charges: one count of operating as an airman without a proper certificate and one count of violating registration requirements for the aircraft. Federal prosecutors also want to convict him of four misdemeanors: three counts of violating national defense airspace and one count of a falsely labeled mail vehicle. Pro’s Karey Van Hall explains that the mailman is “probably not getting his gyrocopter back,” since “prosecutors are also seeking a forfeiture judgment for the gyrocopter, which was seized by law enforcement.” http://politico.pro/1dlxGDt

MICA’S OFFICE WARNS OF ‘CHAOS’ AT AILING U.S. AIRPORTS: Making a case for increasing the passenger facility fee that pays for airport improvements, Rep. John Mica’s office is releasing a report this morning warning travelers “to expect chaos at U.S. airports” this Memorial Day weekend. The report cites federal stats showing that more than 21 percent of arrivals were delayed in 2014 and that passenger traffic is expected to increase to more than 1 billion annually by 2029. All of this growth, the report notes, comes while the per-flight passenger facility fee has not gone up since 2000. Check it out: http://1.usa.gov/1FCTAys.

WHITE HOUSE CALLS TAKATA RECALL ‘EXTRAORDINARY, YET CRITICAL’: The White House has got its talking points down already on the expansion this week of the Takata airbag recall that’s expected to affect 14 percent of vehicles on U.S. roads. White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters that traveler safety is DOT’s “No. 1 priority” and said the administration strongly encourages all vehicle owners to check safercar.gov for updates on the recall. “We think the Department of Transportation is taking the extraordinary, yet critical, step of making sure that cars and trucks are safe with these airbags,” Schultz said. “And that’s why they’re taking the step.” A refresher on the expanded recall: http://politi.co/1AdDpW8.

DEM SENATORS HIT UP APPROPRIATORS FOR PTC MONEY: A group of 23 Democratic senators are sending a letter this week to top appropriators, calling for them to lay out more money in fiscal 2016 to help rail operators install the positive train control technology the NTSB said would have prevented last week’s deadly Amtrak derailment. The letter: http://politico.pro/1ehuzg2

NHTSA PROPOSES NEW NOGGIN-PROTECTING RULES: Motorcycle riders who wear helmets that look cool but aren’t actually certified for safety are nearly 40 percent more likely to suffer head injuries in crashes than those equipped with the real deal. So the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing new steps aimed at both defining what’s considered a motorcycle helmet and helping law enforcement spot those that are subpar. Our Bob King brings it: http://politico.pro/1JApds5. The proposed rulemaking: http://bit.ly/1FBr8Nf.

Death toll: Motorcyclists rally this week in D.C. for the annual Rolling Thunder “Ride for Freedom” celebration for Memorial Day. And the Governors Highway Safety Association is using the event to issue a reminder that motorcyclist fatalities are 26 percent higher than a decade ago, even though fatalities decreased for the second year in 2014: http://bit.ly/1PxinIK.

SENATORS INTRODUCE BILL TO ROPE NAVY INTO ICEBREAKER-BUILDING: Since the Coast Guard can’t afford to build any more icebreakers on its own right now, why not get the Navy to hammer them out? Northwestern and Arctic senators Maria Cantwell Lisa Murkowski introduced a bill this week that would authorize the Navy to build up to six heavy-weight icebreakers the Coast Guard could use. “From a military perspective, this is an imperative,” Murkowski said. “From an economic development viewpoint, it is a down-payment on an Arctic future. And as a scientific research opportunity, it opens up a new world of knowledge.” The bill: http://1.usa.gov/1Agsr2h.

SENATE COMMERCE BUMPS STB BACK TO FULL STRENGTH: The Surface Transportation Board now has a full roster again after the Senate Commerce Committee confirmed Daniel Elliott on Wednesday to serve again on the three-member board. Elliott’s previous term ended on Dec. 31, and he had to turn his chairmanship post over to fellow board member Deb Miller in the meantime.

WEST COAST SHIPPERS RATIFY LONG-SOUGHT UNION DEAL: Likely ending a nine-month dispute, the Pacific Maritime Association has voted to ratify a new five-year contract with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. Pro’s Marianne LeVine reports that, if the union also approves the contract, it will retroactively start from the beginning of last July and go through the end of June 2019. http://politico.pro/1K3ys22

MORE MAYORS JOIN OPEN SKIES FIGHT: More mayors are piling on as supporters of U.S. airlines in their fight to get the Obama administration to reopen Open Skies negotiations with Qatar and the UAE. The Partnership for Open and Fair Skies is touting the new correspondences mayors from Salt Lake City, Detroit, Houston, Fort Worth, Atlanta and Charlotte sent to Cabinet officials raising concern about allegations of unfair subsidies being provided to Gulf country airlines: http://politico.pro/1JBPOVS.

AMTRAK CRASH SPARKS OVERARCHING RAIL-INVESTMENT DEBATE: Beyond arguments about whether more federal funding for Amtrak could have prevented last week’s deadly derailment, the crash has spurred a broader discussion about what the U.S. spends on rail infrastructure compared with its international counterparts. The New York Times reports this week that “By a global standard, the United States has not been paying much. For the size of its economy, it lags far behind many of the world’s most developed countries in spending on rail networks”: http://nyti.ms/1IKUUQt. In contrast, folks like George Mason University senior research fellow Veronique de Rugy argue that federal funding for Amtrak has been “considerable” over the last 45 years. Check out her chart showing that Amtrak has received almost $44 billion in federal funds since its creation: http://bit.ly/1PXPZdH.

MOVING ON UP: The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors has picked Derric Gregory as vice president of audit, “after an extensive public search.” Gregory was previously president at the Dimension Partners consulting group and served as an audit executive for GraceKennedy, an international food and financial services conglomerate. Before that, he held the positions of vice president of finance, chief accounting officer and vice president for corporate audit service for Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Carolina. He was also deputy auditor general for performance auditing for the state of Pennsylvania.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

— Alexandria chooses location for Potomac Yard Metro. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1PXVpWm

— The 10 cars with the least appropriate names. Jalopnik: http://bit.ly/1GqtfTc

— Oregon to test pay-per-mile idea as replacement for gas tax. AP: http://bit.ly/1Ejoyo9

— Officials say Bay Bridge to ‘function as designed’ despite broken rod. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1EkYj0C

— All Nippon Airways teams with Toyota for new seat design. Jaunted: http://bit.ly/1Fp15pr

— Takata’s future clipped by steep recall costs. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1F31L1p

— For drivers, confusion reigns in airbag recall. New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1AmB4YN

— Cyclists still aren’t freeloaders. The Wash Cycle: http://bit.ly/1EkCJcz

THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 11 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 133 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 539 days.

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