Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation, presented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International: Thune nudges Shuster to shelve privatization plan — Foxx comes down hard on Metro’s latest safety flub — Blumenthal and Markey dream big on waived baggage fees
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 08:02:03 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/11/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Jennifer Scholtes, Lauren Gardner, Heather Caygle and Matthew Nussbaum

*HINT HINT* FROM THUNE: With prospects fading for passage of the House Transportation Committee's FAA bill, Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune is giving Rep. Bill Shuster a not-so-subtle nudge: Give up on your bill, and pass ours. "My sense is that it's an idea that's going to have to be discussed and explored some more and it's going to take a little bit of time," Thune told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. "In the meantime we've got a bill out there that we think works and so I hope they'll, if they come to that conclusion, take a look at our bill," he added.

Growing impatience: Thune - who has made it clear from the get-go that he wants to wrap up the bill by July - intimated that he's beginning to get impatient with the House. "I don't want to do another short-term extension. I don't think that's the way to do this," Thune said. "It's their call to make, but I would hope that if they run the traps and it becomes clear that they don't have the support to do what they want to do on the ATC reform, that they would take a look at our bill."

THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS: None-too-pleased with Heritage Action's most recent letter of opposition about the House T&I plan to spin off air traffic control operations into a nonprofit, the Competitive Enterprise Institute posted its own sharply headlined rebuttal: "Why are supposed conservatives willing to kill pro-market air traffic control reform?" CEI's Marc Scribner writes: "Apparently, they've either lost their minds or misplaced their principles."

IT'S WEDNESDAY: Good morning and thanks for tuning into POLITICO's Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports.

MT received two correct guesses on the transportation song ("Glass Eyes") from Radiohead's new album: One came from Robert Puentes of the Eno Center for Transportation, and the other from Paul Brubaker of the Alliance for Transportation Innovation (with an assist from his 13-year-old son, Gavin, who apparently has excellent taste in music). Send in your song lyrics: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"Hey it's me, I just got off the train/A frightening place, their faces are concrete grey."

AFTER METRO'S LATEST DEBACLE, NO MORE MR. NICE GUY: After criticism from the NTSB last week that the Department of Transportation had been toothless in efforts to ensure safety of transit systems, administrators are are taking pains to bare some of those sharp incisors: Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters on Tuesday that he had "seriously" considered ordering a shutdown of Metrorail last week, after video surfaced of an Empire Strikes Back-style explosion on a subway platform, and subsequent news that WMATA safety inspectors had been denied access to the tracks for hours. "I will have no hesitation to shut down the system. ... All the tools that we have available to us are on the table -
 all of them." Foxx said. He added, "If Metro drags its feet in aggressively following that directive, ... we will be back where we were."

Can Foxx really do that? Indeed, DOT has the legal authority to shut down Metro under a provision included in the FAST ACT. Check out page 168: "RESTRICTIONS AND PROHIBITIONS. - The Secretary shall issue restrictions and prohibitions by whatever means are determined necessary and appropriate ... if, through testing, inspection, investigation, audit, or research carried out under this chapter, the Secretary determines that an unsafe condition or practice ... exist such that there is a substantial risk of death or personal injury."

Resistant to safety? Our Jennifer Scholtes recapped Foxx's take on the situation: "Foxx said Metro's safety culture is still deficient and that even WMATA's new track maintenance plan wouldn't have handled the kind of amperage issues DOT has ordered the rail service to fix. Besides trying to determine issues with Metro's hardware, the department is trying to size up the capability of the people using the hardware - some of whom, Foxx said, appear to be 'resistant' to safety protocols. 'It's hard to help somebody who's keeping inspectors off the track for hours at a time,' he said. 'Last Thursday did not inspire confidence.'"

ALMOST THERE? The energy and water appropriations bill is still on track to pass as soon as today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, and he confirmed that the Transportation-HUD appropriations bill is the next one headed to the Senate floor, coupled with the Military Construction-VA bill. McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that he's optimistic the Senate will pass a large number of spending bills, but he's frustrated by the pace so far and the extent to which Democrats have slowed progress. "Their slogan, I gather, is 'Do your job.' I would say to them, 'Do your job. Do your job,'" he said, his voice rising. "The basic work of the Senate and the Congress and the House is
 to pass the funding bills. That's what we're going to be doing here from now to July 15."

NEVER SAY DIE: Art Halvorson, Shuster's just-barely-vanquished opponent in the Pennsylvania primary, is pressing a county court to determine if he can become the Democratic candidate in the November general election. The basis for his argument: Enough Democrats wrote him in on their ballot that he deserves the spot as their candidate. "I wouldn't change who I am, but if the Democrats nominated me, I'd accept that," Halvorson told the Herald-Mail. Halvorson lost to Shuster in the primary by just over 1,000 votes.

DARE TO DREAM, SENATORS: Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey came out with an unexpected ask on Tuesday: They want airlines to stop charging baggage fees this summer. (Insert hysterical laughter here.) Their rationale? Putting a hiatus on baggage fees could help deal with the long security lines expected at airports around the country this summer, encouraging people to check their bags rather than take carry-ons, and diminishing the amount of time it takes to get passengers through security checkpoints. "Baggage backup ... significantly slows screening - and often boarding. Airlines should help solve these issues, putting passengers before profits," Markey and Blumenthal wrote.
 "Screening congestion is solvable - and this step will help. Please do not stand idly as travelers stand in endless lines."

In short - yeah, right. Airlines for America's Jean Medina offered a response to the Blumenthal-Markey proposal: "We have seen NO data to suggest charging customers to check a bag equates to a 27 percent increase in the number of carry-on items. ... This is a misguided attempt at reregulating an industry that has been deregulated - to the benefit of the consumer - since 1978, and would have the unintended consequence of making air travel more expensive." A4A said it's got a better idea on how to cut down wait lines: Get TSA to send adequate staff and equipment to crowded airports.

** A message from the Air Line Pilots Association, International: By proposing to grant Norwegian Air International (NAI) a foreign carrier permit, the Obama Administration is failing to enforce our Open Skies agreement with the European Union, thereby harming tens of thousands of U.S. workers. The Department of Transportation should stand up for U.S. workers and immediately deny NAI's request. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e107af007c76572fd9c89e2b46fc4e6bef01b97aaae35dd6baf43e282c9cf3b7 **

FOXX: NO PLANS FOR MORE TAKATA RECALLS: At Tuesday's sitdown with reporters, Foxx also touched on the ongoing Takata airbag recall: Despite NHTSA's most recent expansion of the recall that almost doubled the number of affected vehicles, Foxx said he doesn't anticipate the list of recalled vehicles to grow anytime soon. He cited the differences between airbags that use desiccant and those that don't, and said the agency continues to believe that those with the drying chemical are not a risk to motorists.

"The desiccant in some of the other airbags, based on the science and the evidence, don't react the same way as the ones without desiccant," Foxx said. "And while there have been some ruptures of those other airbags, they haven't correlated with the type of problem we're seeing with these other ones. ... At present, we don't believe the science and evidence dictates moving toward those other ones. But if it does, we will obviously not hesitate to move that way."

As for questions about Takata's continued financial health, Foxx said he's not worried. "That can't be the top concern we face. ... The information I have is that there is capability to meet the demand, based on the type of recall we've done. And if for some reason Takata falls out of the equation, the manufacturers of the cars are still on the hook to ensure that the recalls happen. So there's some redundancy there. But frankly, if that went into our calculation, I don't think that we'd deserve to be called a safety agency."

OBAMA NOMINATES DOT UNDERSECRETARY: Foxx also weighed in on President Barack Obama's just-announced nomination for DOT's new undersecretary of policy: Blair Anderson, who is currently serving as NHTSA's deputy administrator. "His in-depth knowledge of the Department has been instrumental in helping us tackle some of the most critical issues we face, such as advancing connected and automated vehicle technologies, the Ladders of Opportunity initiative, and overseeing the largest vehicle safety recall in American history," Foxx said. Anderson replaces Carlos Monje, who will stay in the job until Anderson is confirmed.

AVIATION EMISSIONS TALKS REACH CRUISING ALTITUDE: The Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization is holding a high-level meeting today through Friday to talk about creating a global market-based mechanism for capping the industry's emissions at their level in 2020. POLITICO Europe's Morning Energy has a comprehensive preview on the meeting, brought to you by Sara Stefanini, but here are the highlights: Today's meeting is "the last important layover until the United Nation agency's 191 member governments meet for a general assembly from September 27 to October 7 ... 

" ... The high-level meeting will focus on the ICAO's draft plan for a market-based system to offset carbon emissions. The draft proposes to differentiate between the developed and developing worlds by first imposing the new rules on wealthy countries in 2021, and then on middle-income ones from 2026. Least developed and small island countries would be fully exempt. The ICAO's hope is that most of the important decisions will be agreed this week, so that all that's left to do is finalize it all." Read more here. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e107af007c76572fa19b973248713d6c83cfcb7b57c45676645d842bc9a824ce

AN UNLIKELY PARTNERSHIP: Uber is giving its stamp of approval to a new drivers association, the Independent Drivers Guild, that would represent 35,000 Uber drivers in New York as part of the state's Machinists union. According to The New York Times, the five-year deal allows members to hold monthly meetings with company management in New York City, and drivers can appeal company decisions to bar them from the platform. Members will also have access to discounted legal services, roadside assistance, and insurance.

Uber also announced that it's partnering with the Freelancers Union to help the ride-hailing company implement "portable benefits" for drivers nationwide. "It's not a one-size-fits-all situation, either by company, by sector or even in our case by city," Uber's David Plouffe told POLITICO. 

DRIVE SAFE: Here's a shocking stat, from AAA's new study on marijuana use and fatal car crashes: "This study estimates that an average of 10% of all drivers involved in fatal crashes in Washington [state] between 2010 and 2014 had detectable THC in their blood at the time of the crash." Researchers said evidence suggests that the rate of marijuana-related fatal crashes increased in the months after the state passed a bill legalizing recreational use for people 21 and older.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- New York/New Jersey airports say they "can no longer tolerate ... continuing inadequacy" of TSA screenings. The Verge.

- "The D.C. startup that's crazy enough to take on Uber and Lyft." The Washington Post.

- D.C. Circuit dismisses drone privacy rules challenge. POLITICO Pro.

- Boeing's spent $19 billion buying back its own stock - a spending spree that worries analysts. The Wall Street Journal.

- "Electric transportation generates the biggest buzz in $50M Smart City Challenge." GeekWire.

- Washington Post Editorial Board weighs in on last week's WMATA fiasco: "Metro's dangerous complicity."

- Report: Shoddy infrastructure will cost families $3,400 each year. POLITICO Pro.

- "Luxury Cruise to Conquer Northwest Passage." The Wall Street Journal.

- "The Surprising Beauty Of The World's Most Hellish Traffic Interchanges." FastCompany.

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 143 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 65 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 180 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,605 days.

** A message from the Air Line Pilots Association, International: The Department of Transportation's (DOT) order proposing to approve Norwegian Air International's (NAI) request ignores both the terms of our the Open Skies agreement and the will of Congress. NAI's operation as a "flag-of-convenience" carrier in Ireland would allow the airline to skirt Norway's employment laws, give NAI an unfair economic edge, and put tens of thousands of U.S. aviation jobs at risk. 

DOT's decision is at odds with the letter, spirit, and intent of the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement and is opposed by U.S. and EU labor unions, airlines and others. More than 200 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have urged Secretary Foxx to enforce the U.S.-EU agreement and deny the NAI application.

The Obama Administration needs to stand up for fair competition and U.S. jobs and deny NAI a foreign carrier permit. Learn more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e107af007c76572fd9c89e2b46fc4e6bef01b97aaae35dd6baf43e282c9cf3b7 **

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