- San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor Ed Lee unveils $1 billion transportation budget
- San Francisco Chronicle: California gas prices jump 31 cents in 1 week on refinery woes
- San Jose Mercury News: San Jose has ambitious plans to make city streets safer for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians
- Marin Independent Journal: SMART and state in property disagreement after levee break
- Napa Valley Register: Napa meeting to explain Plan Bay Area 2040
- PR Newswire: Plan Bay Area 2040 Open Houses This Week in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties
POLITICO Morning Transportation for 5/5/2015
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Heather Caygle
SENATORS PONDER ALIGNING TRANSPO AUTHORITY WITH FUNDING LOW: Less than four weeks from the expiration of transportation authority, senators are huddling to hash out a strategy for a policy extension and a Highway Trust Fund cash infusion. Senate EPW Chairman Jim Inhofe plans to rally his colleagues at today’s Republican caucus lunch and tomorrow’s weekly chairmen’s meeting around the idea of passing a clean policy extension into the summer. “People who understand that it’s free are all for it,” Inhofe told our Heather Caygle. “I can’t find anyone here opposed to it … who knows that it doesn’t cost anything. We have enough money to get to that point.” http://politico.pro/1JN2avk
‘Do it all at once’: More lawmakers seem to be coming around to a summer extension, lining up the authority with the Highway Trust Fund’s operational low. Sen. Tom Carper told MT on Monday that “the first thing we are considering is aligning the deadline for authorization with the point when we run out of money, which is probably the end of July.” The senator says he thinks “there’s a good argument” to be made for taking on a long-term policy reauthorization and a long-term funding fix at the same time in the summer, rather than passing more extensions through year’s end. “Why push it off for another four or five months beyond that?” he said. “Let’s get something done.” Carper noted that Senate Finance Democrats met Monday evening to discuss their funding conundrum, but that their talks fell short of consensus.
Reid’s blockade: Legislators from both parties are irked by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to block any new trade deals until Republicans approve a transportation infrastructure plan, Burgess Everett and Manu Raju report: http://politico.pro/1GWjsm1. But Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson suggests the senator will not easily back down on this. “He wouldn’t say it if he wasn’t serious,” Jetleson told Heather.
HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
The TSA — with all its social-media and pop-culture savvy — has got us laughing with its #maythe4thbewithyou ode yesterday. Darth, you could have been a great father, but you’ve just got too much baggage: http://bit.ly/1DPS2tl.
Got some silly musings or important tips? Sent them my way: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
“Some foreign-car-driving dude, with a road-rage attitude, pulled up beside me talking on his cell phone.” http://bit.ly/1Fgz6sR
SENATE TAX GROUPS DELIVER INFRASTRUCTURE RUNDOWN: Members of the Senate Finance Committee’s tax policy groups will start briefing panel colleagues on their work so far, talking today about infrastructure issues. More from Pro’s Brian Faler: http://politico.pro/1zv6pYO.
FOXX MAKES ROAD SAFETY PLEDGE TO D.C. KIDDOS: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx joins this morning with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at Shepherd Elementary School at the northernmost tip of the district’s diamond. In celebration of United Nations’ Global Road Safety week, the two leaders plan to sign a UN declaration to improve laws that protect kids on the road.
SENATE COMMERCE DISCUSSES POLICY RE-UP: At this morning’s Senate Commerce hearing, Subcommittee Chairwoman Deb Fischer plans to tell her counterparts and a panel of industry leaders that “a short-term extension is highly likely” for surface transportation authority. “According to the latest projections, by August, the Highway Trust Fund will run out of money,” she notes. “The time for action is now.” Watch that hearing live at 10 a.m.: http://1.usa.gov/1FLPr9T.
Checking regulators: Fischer is calling for Congress to “hold regulators to a higher standard” in whatever authorization plan lawmakers ultimately agree upon, “particularly when it comes to balancing the goals of safety with the costs of regulatory compliance.”?
“It is key that we incorporate innovative approaches and technology into our regulatory framework,” the Nebraska Republican says. “For example, Congress should continue on the path that MAP-21 created for performance-based standards for grants and safety regulations. Performance targets will allow agencies to better allocate already-scarce transportation resources and encourage private sector innovation.”
WRONG RUNWAY, CAPTAIN: The NTSB has asked the FAA to force air traffic controllers to withhold their go-ahead for planes to land until the aircraft have passed all other airports that might be confused with their intended destination. Our Kathryn A. Wolfe explains that “the recommendation was prompted in part by a January Southwest Airlines flight carrying 131 people that landed at the wrong airport in Branson, Missouri, on a runway that was almost half as short as intended. Another incident in November 2013 involved an enormous Boeing 747 ‘Dreamlifter’ carrying parts for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner that mistakenly landed at a commercial field instead of McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, again landing on a runway about half as long as was intended.” From Pro: http://politico.pro/1GWdFji. The NTSB’s recommendations: http://1.usa.gov/1ce9YIK.
BIPARTISAN DUO AIMS TO FIX FUNDING CRISIS WITH BOND BILL: Looking to increase private investment in transportation projects, Sens. Ron Wyden and John Hoeven introduced a bill this week that would create a new bond program to pay for infrastructure projects. Heather explains that the legislation “would offer up to $180 billion in tax-exempt bond authority and up to $45 billion in infrastructure tax credits over the next decade…” Bill summary: http://1.usa.gov/1bZb6iO. Bill text: http://1.usa.gov/1KbncAs.
AIRPORTS POINT TO RECORD BAG FEES TO FUEL PFC FIGHT: Referencing data DOT released this week on airline baggage fees, the airport industry is reiterating its calls for carriers to stop opposing a revamp of the Passenger Facility Charge used to spiff up airports. “For the second year in a row, the airlines have collected more in bag fee revenue than the federal government has spent on airport infrastructure across the entire nation,” AAAE President and CEO Todd Hauptli said in a written statement on Monday. “It’s time for Congress to turn the page on this debate and act in the long-term best interest of local communities and the nation by modernizing the Passenger Facility Charge program.” The group noted the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ new data that show airlines collected more than $3.5 billion in baggage fees and almost $3 billion more in reservation change or cancellation fees in 2014, while airports collected $2.8 billion from the fee program last year.
INNOCENT, MAYBE. BUT THE PEOPLE THINK CHRISTIE’S GUILTY: It turns out about half of New Jerseyans think Gov. Chris Christie was personally involved in the “Bridgegate” scandal, according to a new poll by Monmouth University: http://bit.ly/1GVnwFT. Those data were released Monday as two of the governor’s lieutenants pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to jam traffic by closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge in 2013, NJ.com reports: http://bit.ly/1I9xtyp. And one of their lawyers says he is not afraid to drag Christie onto the witness stand to clear his client, according to the New York Daily News: http://nydn.us/1FLcJwH.
SCHUMER INTROS BILL TO SPEED TANK CAR PHASE-OUT: Saying DOT’s new tank car rules take too long to set in, Sen. Chuck Schumer is pushing legislation that would force out old tank cars more quickly. Kathy explains that “under DOT’s phase-out schedule, the riskiest cars would be retired beginning in 2017, with others removed through 2025. Schumer’s bill would phase out DOT-111s in two years, and would also phase out unjacketed CPC-1232 by 2019, compared to the new rule’s date of 2023. The bill also would expand the scope of the rule’s 40-mph speed restrictions, which apply only to ‘high threat urban areas,’ to include any DOT-111 cars that travel in a county with a population denser than 20 people per square mile. That same threshold would be applied to unjacketed CPC-1232 cars within two years, as an incentive for the cars to be phased out faster.” More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1QgZSFB.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— No, NASA did not accidentally invent warp drive. Forbes: http://onforb.es/1GVrFKe
— Germany braces for rail strike as train drivers walk out. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1dJv1Dt
— De Blasio administration to begin horse-carriage outreach. Capital New York: http://bit.ly/1FLUUO6
— Will traffic NIMBYs ruin Waze? LA Times: http://lat.ms/1F36EwO
— Fees and low fuel prices keep airline profits rising. AP: http://nyti.ms/1IaShp7
— Growing shipping alliances are straining major U.S. gateway ports. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1Pk9c9b
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 26 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 148 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 554 days.
Tags: policy, transportation