Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation, presented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International: THUD appropriations bill highlights ongoing opposition to trucking provision — TSA chief takes the hot seat — After big threat, Foxx offers kinder words to WMATA’s Wiedefeld
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
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Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 08:02:24 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/12/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Lauren Gardner, Heather Caygle and Katie Jennings

BECAUSE APPROPRIATIONS SEASON ISN'T HARD ENOUGH ALREADY: As the THUD bill gears up to hit the Senate floor, the opposition to the bill's controversial trucking rider is crescendoing - and the naysaying is coming from both sides of the issue. Roadway safety advocates say the add-on is a negative outcome of a "completely closed process" that will still allow truckers to work extra hours. Some trucking industry lobbying groups say their members flat-out don't support the measure, in part because it takes rulemaking power away from the federal agency tasked with regulating trucks. And lawmakers are left in the middle to realize that their attempts to strike a compromise between two clashing
 interests has failed to satisfy almost anyone - and they may have to revisit the issue.

And all this drama is unfolding against the backdrop of a Senate that hasn't managed to pass one appropriations bill so far this year ... and lawmakers who are losing patience with eleventh-hour battles over peripheral issues. The Senate's first spending bill, the energy and water package, is finally expected to pass today.

The crux of the issue: Our Lauren Gardner has all the details in her story, but here's the gist: A provision in the Senate's appropriations bill, which was released last month, "made a much-sought tweak to a rider in last year's spending package" that had been aimed at adding extra hurdles before regulators could modify trucking hours of service requirements. "That rider [last year] had language specifying which rule to apply if certain new benchmarks weren't met, meaning the industry would have had to default to using hours of service regulations from more than a decade ago." But folks throughout the industry were surprised when they saw that the new appropriations bill went beyond fixing
 that rider, and also included language requiring truckers to take a 34-hour break from driving after they hit 73 hours of work - driving, plus loading and paperwork - in a week. The 73-hour cap is "a figure that has left some industry observers scratching their heads," Lauren writes.

How it will all pan out: "There will likely be interest among some Democrats to address the issue on the floor, though it's unclear what approach they might take," our Lauren Gardner writes. The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, she says, may push for lawmakers to strike the cap altogether, or bump the 34-hour reset requirement up to 48 hours. That's still up in the air. "But in an appropriations process that has already seen its fair share of drama on just one bill," Lauren writes, "it's also possible senators will defer to the compromise their colleagues already reached."

Collins weighs in: The limit was aimed at putting the perennial fights over hours of service to rest for good by taking federal regulators out of the equation - and to upend safety groups' argument that truckers could game the system to work upwards of 80 hours a week. Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the THUD Subcommittee, told POLITICO that she believes their solution remains the best approach, "a compromise proposal" reached after input from Democrats and Republican appropriators. "I tried to come up with what I felt was a reasonable amount, even though the average truck driver works far fewer than that number of hours a week," Collins told Lauren.

FURTHER COMPLICATIONS ... Word on the street is that the THUD package could also be the vehicle to advance money to combat the Zika virus, per several senators who talked to Pro's Budget and Appropriations team.

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

Tweet of the day goes to the Port Authority of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh: "We're told the turkey went through the windshield, but landed inside the bus. The operator opened the doors and the turkey walked off." (h/t MT reader Malcolm Richards) Send other turkey sightings: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"Well I'm not braggin' babe so don't put me down/But I've got the fastest set of wheels in town." (h/t Joseph Powers. Hi, Dad!)

TSA CHIEF TAKES THE HOT SEAT: DHS Inspector General John Roth testifies before the House Oversight Committee this morning, giving the unclassified rundown on how well the agency has been doing since the IG's cadre of auditors was able to sneak fake bombs and weapons past TSA screeners 67 out of 70 times. And TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger will talk up the steps he has taken over the past year to improve workforce morale and to make sure checkpoint screeners are properly trained to pinpoint security threats - something DHS's inspector general has found to be majorly lacking.

Neffenger's big points: Since last year, the entire screener workforce has gone through "mission essential" training to make sure they actually understand how to use the screening equipment and its limitations. The agency has begun mandatory leadership training and has started making all newly hired screeners go to Georgia for a TSA boot camp of sorts. To try to prevent managers from retaliating against whistleblowers by ordering their reassignment, the administrator has demanded that all reassignments be reviewed and approved high up the chain of command. And to stop the practice of workers gifting egregiously generous bonuses to each other, Neffenger has capped the annual payouts at
 $10,000 per employee, granted only immediate supervisors the ability to hand out those awards and required that they be reviewed from on high.

FOLLOWING SUIT ON TSA: House Appropriations Committee leaders approved TSA's request to redirect $34 million to help the agency handle growing screening lines this summer, just one week after Senate appropriators gave their own speedy thumbs-up. Before the decision came out, members of the House had urged the heads of the Homeland Security Subcommittee to follow suit. In a letter to Chairman John Carter and ranking member Lucille Roybal-Allard, Reps. Donald Payne Jr., Kathleen Rice, and Bill Keating cited reports that port authorities around the country were considering hiring private contractors to help augment security screening efforts if TSA does not increase staffing levels.

"We have serious reservations about the prospect of a move towards privatized security at major American airports," the trio of representatives wrote. "And with more than 220 million passengers expected to fly in July and August alone, we are also deeply concerned that this problem will grow much more severe in the coming months."

FIRST THING'S FIRST: The Federal Transit Administration is ordering WMATA to focus repair efforts on three stretches of track, a further sign that FTA is taking more assertive steps to exercise its regulatory powers, delivering increasingly detailed mandates on when and how to perform maintenance work. In an updated safety directive, the FTA said WMATA must also provide the federal agency with its inspection and maintenance procedures for tunnel drainage and traction power cabling systems and a list of inspection staff responsible for overseeing them. Additionally, acting FTA Administrator Carolyn Flowers is ordering WMATA to set targets to monitor how well it's mitigating smoke and fire
 risks.

Delays to come: In response, Metro said it's revamping its long-term system maintenance plan to hew to FTA requirements - a move that means WMATA will likely need more time to finalize the schedule that had originally been expected to be set in stone by the beginning of next week. "While the draft SafeTrack plan issued by Metro GM [Paul] Wiedefeld last week was based on the professional judgment of engineers with a priority on safety, the FTA has directed Metro to make changes," spokesman Dan Stessel said in a statement. "As such, the draft plan will be modified."

'A heckuva job': Even with harsh words about WMATA's safety practices on Tuesday - not to mention threats to shut down the whole system - Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx softened his tone when he spoke about Wiedefeld at a DOT town-hall meeting held at the agency's headquarters on Wednesday. "I think Paul Wiedefeld, the new general manager - he has a heckuva job, 'cause he's trying to dig this system out of a deep hole. And we fully understand, appreciate, and respect the challenges of that," Foxx said.

At the town hall, Foxx also fielded a question from Dara Baldwin of the National Disability Rights Network about what the agency is doing to ensure that people with disabilities stuck on trains with mechanical problems in the future can be safely evacuated from the train - and that there are American Sign Language accommodations for deaf riders receiving emergency care in the event of a serious incident. Foxx's answer was pretty vague. "We issued a safety directive ... that speaks directly to emergency response," Foxx said, "and we fully expect WMATA to comply with it."

One more thing: Foxx also used the town hall to offer a teaser on a new initiative he wants to put in place: a citizen's academy operated by the DOT to help educate community organizers and transportation advocates on how to better work with the government. "We've been kicking around with our team the idea of a citizens' academy that would be staged here at DOT, that would help demystify some of the processes and some of the terms - and frankly help people understand better how to engage," Foxx said.

** 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=7d660f6dc82b37601452d89008994eca44fcfca6310bf917ff14703fd60b5360 **

'BRIDGEGATE' REDUX: The government's list of unindicted co-conspirators believed to be involved in "Bridgegate" is expected to drop on Friday, but Gov. Chris Christie told reporters he is "highly doubtful" his name will appear on the list. The scandal surrounding George Washington Bridge lane closures, he added, is "old news." As POLITICO New Jersey's Katie Jennings explains, the formal indictment of two Christie staffers last year included a mention of "unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators" - people who were not formally charged. "I find it highly doubtful that I'll be on that list, given that I didn't know what was going on," Christie said.

SHUSTER SHARES HIS MASTER PLAN: Just kidding. After Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune's comments Tuesday about the dwindling likelihood of the House passing its game-changing FAA bill, MT caught up with House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster to ask point-blank: When will he announce his plan for the bill (which passed committee three months ago)? No dice. "We're working on it!" he said brightly, before ducking into House chambers.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- Nissan buys 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi, handing scandal-hit carmaker a lifeline. Bloomberg.

- Elon Musk's debuts propulsion technology in Hyperloop's first public demo. (It lasts about two seconds.) The Wall Street Journal.

- "US Senators Want Air Pollution Reduced at Ports, Railyards." The Associated Press.

- Lyft doubles payout offer to California drivers that judge says were shortchanged. Bloomberg.

- "Uber, Lyft pullout in Austin shows political prowess." San Francisco Chronicle.

- "Want a Grounded Luxury Jet? Tycoon's Plane on Garage Sale." Bloomberg.

- Washington Post's George F. Will: "Amtrak is a harbinger of future bipartisanship."

- Model S auto-parking software crashes car - or, to be more exact, parks itself into the back of a truck - but Tesla still blames the driver. BGR.

- Drones are changing the way people go whale-watching. Vice.

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 142 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 64 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 179 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,604 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=7d660f6dc82b37601452d89008994eca44fcfca6310bf917ff14703fd60b5360 **

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