- San Francisco Chronicle: Uber tests flexible car leases for drivers
- San Francisco Chronicle: California should proceed cautiously on 2024 Olympics
- Sacramento Bee: Most Californians back global warming policies
- Washington Post: House passes three-month highway funding bill
- Washington Post: Budget and tax: Congress decides to go home and fight about highways in September, and corporate inversions investigated
POLITICO Morning Transportation for 7/30/2015
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES, with help from Heather Caygle and Kathryn A. Wolfe
SENATE SET TO PUSH THROUGH THREE-MONTH PATCH: It’s the eve of deadline day. And by mid-afternoon, the Senate is expected to have sent a three-month transportation patch off for the president’s signature. While there are never any guarantees some senator won’t march onto the floor with an objection that forces the chamber through a maze of procedural maneuvers just to eventually achieve the same end, it seems like everybody in the upper chamber is sufficiently on board with the vote, which will take 60 supporters to pass.
True to his word, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will first make lawmakers finish what they started 10 days ago — consideration of the multi-year bill that’s not sailing off to the White House anytime soon. That first passage vote is scheduled for noon. And the vote on clearing the three-month patch is set for 1:45 p.m. Watch it all play out on C-SPAN: http://cs.pn/1bJ7Wew.
Presidential approval: Despite the White House’s previous insistence that lawmakers tack a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank onto whatever transportation plan they pass this month, the folks over at 1600 Penn. sent word Wednesday that President Barack Obama would in fact sign the patch. http://politico.pro/1LYPDq1.
Lopsided vote: On the Hill, there has been an overwhelming willingness to back the three-month extension, even as Democrats chastise GOP leaders for punting again. After spending hours bashing Republican leaders for not keeping the House in session long enough to take up the Senate’s multi-year bill, the vast majority of Democrats voted for passage of the measure, which skated through on a tally of 385-34. http://politico.pro/1I9Tk5Y
A TASTE OF THE HOUSE FLOOR DEBATE:
Rep. Jared Polis: “There’s reason to believe that, if we simply stayed in town and worked another week, we might be able to work with the Senate to get to an end point with regard to a long-term reauthorization. … Unfortunately, rather than continuing our work next week, the majority has put several pieces of disparate legislation into a grab bag, in a smoky backroom manner, that unfortunately will continue to fail to address the most important transportation concerns or the expiration of the Export-Import Bank before this body goes home for a month.”
House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions: “In fairness, it’s taken the United States Senate until this week. And they have a thousand-page transportation bill that we’re not simply gonna say: ‘Let’s just agree to that.’ … The right thing to do is measure three times and saw once. … On the Republican side, we read bills before we pass them.”
OCTOBER DEADLINE ALREADY LOOKS LIKE A LONGSHOT: Like they have so many times before, congressional leaders promise this time’s the last time they’re going to opt for a temporary extension. In the six workweeks they have ahead of them before this new October deadline, House and Senate leaders expect to achieve what they haven’t been able to accomplish for years: a deal on funding transportation infrastructure far into the future. Our Heather Caygle reports (http://politico.pro/1fJifWk) that “marking up a plan, pushing it through the House, and completing a conference with the Senate in two months — while technically doable — would be lightning speed. … Lawmakers in both chambers are still miles apart on the policy and pay-fors needed to cook up a multiyear bill, resulting in frustrations on all sides before negotiations have even started.”
Escape plan: Pro’s Brian Faler explains, though, that “lawmakers may not need to find additional funding for the highway program until the end of this year … allowing them to potentially prolong debate over financing road construction beyond the bill’s Oct. 29 deadline. That’s because the legislation would pour the same amount of money into the program — $8 billion — as the House’s original highway funding plan, which would have kept the program humming until Dec. 18.” More on that: http://politico.pro/1DaQGAu.
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.
“And all the roads we have to walk are winding. And all the lights that lead us there are blinding.” http://bit.ly/1OPms78 (H/t Maggie Chan)
MH370 PROBE CONTINUES AFTER DEBRIS FIND: Investigators are still working to confirm that the debris found Wednesday on a French island in the Indian Ocean did indeed come from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared more than a year ago. The odds seem good that the chunk came from the missing plane, since investigators have confirmed it is a Boeing 777 part and no other 777s are known to be missing. But AP reports (http://abcn.ws/1MVsnpU) that the discovery “is unlikely to alter the seabed search…”
WANNABEE TIGER GRANTEES ABOUND: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is set to announce today that DOT’s seventh round of TIGER grants attracted applications totaled $9.8 billion, almost 20 times the $500 million set aside for the program. “The consistent number of high-quality projects we’re unable to fund through TIGER every year demonstrates the need for Congress to act to give more communities access to this vital lifeline,” Foxx said in a written statement. “That is why we proposed doubling TIGER in the GROW AMERICA Act.”
NO MORE PRECHECK LUCK FOR THE MASSES: To the chagrin of fortunate travelers who have been undeservingly corralled into speedier airport screening lines — and to the delight of many security hawks — the new TSA administrator says he’s ordered his workforce to ensure PreCheck benefits are only reaped by PreCheck members. “I’ve ordered a phasing-out of the managed inclusion program,” Administrator Peter Neffenger told House lawmakers on Wednesday, referring to the TSA’s policy of allowing some non-vetted travelers through the less-intensive security lines: http://politico.pro/1H4oAl3.
Thorough vetting: The announcement comes just two days after the House passed a bill by voice vote that would bar the agency from letting travelers use the PreCheck lanes unless they’ve paid or been vetted, in most cases. And Rep. Bennie Thompson, who authored that measure, expectedly cheered the administrator’s announcement on Wednesday, suggesting that “instead of focusing on speed and unproven methods, we need to ensure that TSA is focused on thoroughly vetting passengers before providing them with expedited screening.” Thompson’s bill: http://1.usa.gov/1SNMqZ0.
Achilles’ heel: Besides news this spring that the TSA had allowed a known former domestic terrorist through a PreCheck line last year, lawmakers have been increasingly concerned about the policy in light of the recently leaked inspector general report on the agency’s failure to detect nearly 96 percent of covert threat tests. According to House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, who has read the classified report, the IG’s investigation found that the practice of allowing non-vetted travelers through the PreCheck lines was “one of the big weaknesses.”
FHWA NOMINEE MOVES TO FULL SENATE: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee gave unanimous approval Wednesday of the nomination of Greg Nadeau to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Chairman Jim Inhofe said in a statement this week that he looks forward to seeing Nadeau continue to lead the FHWA “in innovation and safety, and our committee looks forward to working closely with him to implement the six-year highway bill we are currently working to pass in the Senate.”
BYE BYE, BOARDING PASS: He didn’t elaborate much, but the TSA’s new chief said this week that he wants to move toward nixing boarding passes, in favor of using biometric information like fingerprints to identify flyers. “The idea is that you are your boarding pass,” Neffenger told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. “I think we can eliminate the boarding pass.”
FRA DEBUTS RUNAWAY TRAIN RULES: Looking to prevent disasters like the deadly train explosion in Quebec two years ago, the FRA has just finished up its new regulations for keeping trains locked in place. Our Kathryn A. Wolfe explains that “the rule requires that unattended locomotives left outside of a yard be equipped with an ‘exterior locking mechanism’ that can be controlled from the locomotive. Trains can be left unattended, but only after meeting certain requirements.” The rule: http://politico.pro/1fJkAk8.
UNITED PUSHES BACK ON HACKING STORY: Morning Cybersecurity reports today that United Airlines is calling into question a report from Bloomberg that Chinese hackers this spring penetrated a database holding flight manifests. “These reports are based on pure speculation, and we can assure our customers that their personal information is secure,” said United spokesman Charles Hobart. Bloomberg alleges that investigators have linked the United attack to the same group that broke into the Office of Personnel Management and stole intimate data on about 22.5 million Americans. Hobart did not respond to a question about the veracity of the story’s main point, that United was hacked during May or June. The Bloomberg article: http://bloom.bg/1KyFhtT.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— Uber launches car leasing unit, makes entry into financial services. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1H4J25e
— America’s rail fail. The Economist: http://econ.st/1IMfUr0
— Detroit automakers dubious of TPP currency forum. Pro: http://politico.pro/1SNLu6U
— D.C. lines up big subsidies to expand wheelchair-accessible taxi fleet. WAMU: http://bit.ly/1h6IDui
— U.S. will finalize long-delayed ‘quiet cars’ rules. The Detroit News: http://bit.ly/1DcjAQe
— Boeing may send work overseas without Ex-Im. http://politi.co/1gpoNKC
— Chicago’s ‘L’ tracks will become an interactive light show. CityLab: http://bit.ly/1DaUKRe
— Uber cars bashed in Mexico, cabbies protest rideshare apps. AP: http://abcn.ws/1Ia1hIu
— Looming Northeast Corridor rail disaster demands solutions. Route Fifty: http://bit.ly/1ODww2r
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 2 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 64 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 470 days.
Tags: policy, transportation