- San Francisco Chronicle: Will Uber drivers lawsuit get class-action status?
- Napa Valley Register: Before the car, an electric railroad ruled the Napa Valley
- Sacramento Bee: Who wins in California politics: Uber or taxis?
- Bay Area Monitor: Pilot Projects and Policy Analysis: A Search for Better Parking
POLITICO Morning Transportation for 8/7/2015
By JENNIFER SCHOLTES
HOW WILL PTC LENIENCY RIDE TO ENACTMENT?: When lawmakers return from break, they’re scheduled for only 11 more weeks of legislative work before the year ends and the deadline hits for railroads to implement positive train control technology. While it’s highly likely lawmakers will give some sort of reprieve from the mandate, it’s unclear how those exceptions will make it to enactment. Our Heather Caygle explains that “language related to PTC has been included in the Senate’s multiyear transportation bill, but whether that will survive a conference — or even whether lawmakers will get to a conference on the bill at all — before the deadline expires is an open question. To start, a quick look at history doesn’t bode well for the bill’s entire rail title, much less the PTC language.” A lot more on how this could play out: http://politico.pro/1ItSXmW.
IT’S FRIDAY: 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.
“I’m cruising through Block Island Sound. I have charted a course to the Vineyard, but tonight I am Nantucket bound.” http://bit.ly/1MQEBDg
NELSON TAKES AIM AT AIRLINE FEES: The Senate Commerce Committee’s Democratic staff is out with a report claiming that the airline industry is so unclear about the fees it charges that travelers are frequently tricked into spending more money than they initially think they’re on the hook to pay. The report found that travelers are not getting clear information about flight change and cancellation fees when they buy their tickets, that those who purchase tickets through travel sites are sometimes only given the option of buying seats that cost more money, and that annual revenues airlines are raking in for both baggage and cancellation fees increased by billions of dollars from 2007 until 2014.
“The traveling public is being nickel-and-dimed to death,” Sen. Bill Nelson said in a written statement on Thursday. “What’s worse is that many flyers don’t learn about the actual cost of their travel until it’s too late.” The committee’s Democratic staff recommends that airlines better disclose extra costs, that baggage fees reflect the actual cost to airlines and that change fees be capped, among other ideas. Nelson said he plans to try to persuade his Senate peers to act on the recommendations when lawmakers start working on an FAA overhaul.
DURBIN JUMPS ON GAS TAX BANDWAGON: Sen. Tom Carper has snagged a key supporter to sign onto his new gas tax bill — Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin. It’s no secret the Dem leader is in favor of hiking fuel fees to come up with more cash to fund transportation infrastructure investment: http://politi.co/1tKUOg3. But Durbin’s support of Carper’s plan, in particular, is telling of the traction the proposal could gain. The legislation, which was just introduced this week, would raise the gas tax by 4 cents per year for four years, generating an estimated $220 billion over a decade.
DHS SLAPS VISA WAIVER NATIONS WITH NEW RULES: Countries that want their citizens to have visa-less access to the U.S. are about to get hit with a whole new roster of requirements. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Thursday that the Obama administration is rolling out new rules for the 38 countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program that lets citizens of those countries apply to travel to the United States for roughly three months without visas. The new requirements include mandates that participating countries use electronic passports for all travelers flying to the United States, allow more U.S. federal air marshals on international flights to the U.S., and use the INTERPOL lost and stolen passport database to screen travelers crossing the borders of any Visa Waiver country. More from Pro on how the administration has been tightening security measures under the program over the last year: http://politico.pro/1T8PbV3.
Support, with a caveat: Some of the new rules might not go over so well with those advocating for travelers, as demonstrated by U.S. Travel’s mixed response. The group says that while it supports the majority of the requirements, it will be keeping an eye on proposals to enforce new rules that aren’t actually related to the program. U.S. Travel President and CEO Roger Dow said in a written statement that although most of the new mandates “align perfectly” with the program’s “core purpose,” his organization “will continue to evaluate other measures … to see that they fit squarely under the umbrella of VWP’s mission, desirable though they may be from a national-security standpoint.” Dow pointed specifically to his organization’s scrutiny of proposals to require the development of passenger record databases and screening of those seeking asylum. http://politico.pro/1M92Riz
McCONNELL: GOTTA KEEP ’EM SEPARATED: In his parting words to the press before leaving for August recess, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated his position Thursday against using money from revamping the international tax code to pay for a long-term transportation bill. The majority leader told reporters that the multi-year transportation measure the Senate passed last week uses “credible pay-fors” and that he views a tax overhaul “as a totally separate track, unrelated to the highway issue.” That fundamental difference between the stance of the Senate’s top leader and those in the House is sure to be the cause of more legislative logjam this fall as the two chambers try to come to agreement on a long-term plan. That from our Lauren Gardner: http://politico.pro/1KUhE1K.
SENATE CLEANS HOUSE ON NOMINEES: Like they do when they’re nearing a big break like the one that’s before them, Senate leaders confirmed a slew of nominees this week, including two major transpo-related posts. Greg Nadeau is now set to run the FHWA and Marie Therese Dominguez has the go-ahead to lead PHMSA.
‘Strong and steadfast’: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said on Thursday that he has “great confidence” in Nadeau’s ability to lead the FHWA. “From working with state DOTs and Congress to address the funding shortfalls facing the nation’s roads and bridges, to tirelessly promoting the president’s GROW AMERICA Act and the ‘Every Day Counts’ initiative to reduce project delivery times and ensure a world-class road system for all of us, Greg has been a strong and steadfast part of our efforts,” Foxx said in a written statement.
Dominguez praise: The secretary also raved about Dominguez, saying she “brings to PHMSA her extensive experience as a senior leader managing complex organizations and her dedication to safety.” Before taking the role of deputy administrator of the agency, Dominguez was principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, as well as vice president of government relations and public policy for the U.S. Postal Service. She also worked at DOT as deputy chief of staff, at the White House as special assistant to the president and as special assistant to an NTSB member.
YOUR WHOLE CAR IS UNDER ATTACK: Making his debut as author of Morning Cyber, Tim Starks writes this morn that if you take a gander at all the security researchers spinning out automobile hacks in recent and coming days, it adds up to nearly every single part of the car. Today at Def Con, cybersecurity firm Cloudflare and mobile security firm Lookout will demonstrate how they were able to manipulate a Tesla Model S’s speedometer, windows and door locks, as we wrote about for Pros: http://politico.pro/1Ip3RfM. Although — there’s a strong case to be made that in Tesla’s case, that’s actually a good-news story in some ways, since the hack required physical access and there was a quick “over the air” update, per Time: http://ti.me/1eVqopQ. In a summary of their presentation that MC got a look at, Lookout’s Kevin Mahaffey and Cloudflare’s Marc Rogers plan to argue that the entire auto industry needs such “over the air” updates; that manufacturers need to separate drive and non-drive systems; and that every individual car component must be secured.
Also today at Def Con: Samy Kamkar will demonstrate a device he says can steal door lock codes. Threatpost: http://bit.ly/1EbcpTF. That follows on one of the most popular sessions at Black Hat, which featured the Fiat Chrysler hackers, who remotely manipulated all kinds of Jeep things (one account of the session, from ABC: http://abcn.ws/1NcyQgu) and that now has triggered a class action lawsuit: http://bit.ly/1hm7PNC. And then there was this week’s “GasPot experiment” at Black Hat from Trend Micro, targeting the gas pumps that fuel cars: http://bit.ly/1DtQBbg.
NHTSA’s warning: Collectively, this amounts to more pressure on the industry to respond to the exhortations of NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind, who has warned that averting regulation might require voluntary industry cyber standards; Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey are already waiting in the wings with their own standards legislation. http://bit.ly/1MUdl63
SENATORS WANT AIRLINES TO PREP FOR FOOD ALLERGIES: For the most part, peanuts are back on planes. And Sens. Mark Kirk and Jeanne Shaheen want airlines to prepare for food allergy attacks by stocking EpiPens and teaching crew members how to respond to acute allergic reactions. The two senators introduced a bill this week that would mandate those preparations and require GAO to report on airline policies for handling food allergies. Pro’s Bill Tomson reports: http://politico.pro/1UrvKcv.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— To fix a few potholes, ‘guerrilla’ group takes matters into its own hands. NPR: http://n.pr/1DuqeSm
— Big trucks, small roads: Will new rules help? The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1MUANjs
— Shanghai $10,000 license plates drive car-hire company financing. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1IpPYhz
— Study finds subway riders coming clean. Capital New York: http://politico.pro/1KUezyC
— Electric skateboards: A totally rad ride. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1K6llMf
— Metro officials say cause of derailment is still under investigation. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1eWDOSt
— Eurostar to roll out new trains. POLITICO Europe: http://politi.co/1IQHrpd
— Among the states, self-driving cars have ignited a gold rush. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1P9Q8Mj
— MH370 probe examines repaired part to link to missing jet. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1EcBLk1
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 84 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 56 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 462 days.
Tags: transportation