Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation: Senate delivers on TSA funds hours after Johnson pleas — WMATA plans announcement on long-term maintenance schedule in coming days — Contrition from Takata on defective airbags? Not exactly…
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 May 2016 08:21:43 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/05/2016 10:19 AM EDT

With help from Margaret Harding McGill, Jennifer Scholtes, Heather Caygle, Lauren Gardner and Ben Weyl

THAT WAS FAST: Hours after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pleaded for Congress to redirect funding to help tackle the looming prospect of calamitously long airport security lines, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, delivered. He announced that he approved Johnson's request to shift $34 million in funding to the TSA ahead of the summer vacation season. This fix, which only affects funding for the summer, is distinct from the ongoing battle over TSA funding in the appropriations process - appropriators are mulling numbers for the fiscal year that begins in October. Still, the Senate's speedy response indicates a growing
 sympathy for TSA's plight among federal lawmakers.

Where's the money coming from? Our Jennifer Scholtes has details: "The freed-up funds will be put toward accelerating the hiring and training of 768 security officers and more overtime pay. ... While it is not yet clear which TSA accounts will be siphoned to come up with that cash, some of the money will be taken from accounts for contracts that came in under budget, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee." That's a big step toward addressing Johnson's concerns, but he is also looking for outside help - in particular, he wants more private companies to reimburse employees for enrolling in TSA PreCheck, and he's asking that airports and airlines help with non-security work at
 checkpoints, such as returning storage bins to the front of screening lines.

A significant moment: As Jen noted earlier this week, it's pretty unusual for an agency head to publicly complain about funding shortages during the appropriations process. But calls for a stopgap solution for TSA's summer challenges have gone from insistent to dire in light speed - prompted in part by forecasts of heretofore unseen security wait times published this week in POLITICO and The New York Times. "Our No. 1 priority is keeping the traveling public safe, which can and should be done without travelers waiting in security lines for hours on end,&quot; Hoeven said Wednesday. "I expect TSA to work with the airports and airlines to ensure that all necessary steps are being taken to be
 effective and efficient in its duty to keep the public safe."

Applause from the industry: U.S. Travel Association President Roger Dow offered a stamp of approval. The Airports Council International-North America's Kevin M. Burke weighed in too, and took the opportunity to again call for raising the cap on the airport passenger facility charge. "TSA should ... deploy available resources in a more effective way, including reallocating existing staff to checkpoints, empowering local TSA officials to make staffing decisions, and initiating local hiring and training initiatives," Burke writes. "Congress can do its part to reduce long security lines by providing TSA with adequate resources and modernizing the local Passenger Facility Charge user fee to fund
 needed infrastructure projects that will bolster security and improve passenger flows in aging airport terminals."

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.

Oh, no! Complete streets advocates won't be too pleased with this Playmobil ad, peddling a toy ambulance with a crushed bicycle under one wheel and a maimed cyclist on a gurney in the back. (H/t Jeff Rosenblum of MIT's Urban Mobility Lab, who may or may not have discovered the ad with the help of his two wildly adorable daughters.) Reach out: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"Then you buy your motor car, or you join your public transport/Then you start to go for work, then suddenly, suddenly, suddenly/Lorry dey for your front, tipa dey for your back."

BIG METRO ANNOUNCEMENT: WMATA's plan on maintenance and extended shutdowns is likely to come in the next few days, according to a report from NBC Washington. Will the Blue Line get shut down for six months? We'll have to wait to find out. WAMU has an excerpt from General Manager Paul Wiedefeld's memo to the board of directors: "The hard truth is that 33 hours a week is not enough to dig out of the deferred maintenance hole, and at this rate, we will not reach an acceptable state of safety and reliability for several years. I am requesting an executive session on Friday to walk you through the plan, as well as seek your assistance in asking for the jurisdictions to provide support."

RATCHETING UP THE THE RECALL: NHTSA's announcement that they're doubling the size of the Takata airbag recall list was hardly a surprise - the agency has been criticized for months for moving too slowly to incorporate more vehicle makes and models to the emergency recall efforts, especially after an airbag inflator was believed to have killed someone driving a car not yet under recall. Still, the announcement brings the total number of recalled airbags up to a hefty 64 million - a big problem, considering that owners of cars with defective airbags are already waiting months for repairs. "The acceleration of this recall is based on scientific evidence and will protect all Americans from
 airbag inflators that may become unsafe," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

Contrite? Not exactly: In a statement, Takata said the company has agreed to initiate the expanded recalls as part of "restoring public confidence," but stopped several steps short of actually agreeing that there was any scientific basis to the expanded recall, even suggesting that auto manufacturers could also be to blame for the lethal defective inflators. "Takata is not aware of any ruptures, in the field or in testing, in the inflator products in vehicles that would be covered by this new order, nor is Takata aware of any new data or scientific analysis that suggests any substantial risk with respect to such vehicles," Takata said in a statement. "Manufacturing variability may also pay
 a role in the inflator failures, and certain vehicle models have been shown to have a much higher incident rate than others."

They can't get no satisfaction: For months, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey have called for all the affected Takata airbags to be immediately recalled and replaced - and they rehashed those calls on Wednesday. "Repeated stopgap partial steps, like today's, will only continue to put drivers, their passengers, and even others on the road at urgent risk," the senators said in a statement. "Until all Takata airbags are replaced with truly reliable protective products that don't use ammonium nitrate and have proven that they pass most stringent quality assurance testing standards, Takata's spiraling record of fatal tragedy will continue."

AUTO INDUSTRY PUSHES OBAMA ON AIRWAVES: Automakers, safety advocates and state transportation departments are joining forces in a new letter to President Barack Obama that describes the virtues of vehicle-to-vehicle technology and the potential danger of forcing autos using Dedicated Short Range Communications, or DSRC, to share airwaves with Wi-Fi. The letter, sent Wednesday and made public today, was signed by Ford, General Motors and dozens of others. It comes a week after Google and others asked for the administration's help in making the 5.9 gigahertz band - which is set aside for connected cars - available for sharing with Wi-Fi.

The carmakers in the letter today pointed to programs for vehicle-to-infrastructure technology in San Francisco and elsewhere, and GM's plans to install the tech in the 2017 Cadillac CTS. "Those asking for delay seek to reconfigure the 5.9 GHz DSRC band in a way that would impair safety-critical applications and jeopardize their public benefits," the letter says. "This would sweep away more than a decade of research and development, as well as delay for perhaps another decade DSRC's life saving benefits."

BRINGING OUT THE BIG GUNS: Uber's bringing on a team of veteran regulators, including former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, to advise the company on public policy issues. (Their post on Medium: bit.ly/1T2GVeS.) From LaHood's statement: "Uber has become a really important part of the transportation system in many communities, and I look forward to giving feedback and advice as Uber continues to grow." Other members of the advisory board: Melody Barnes, the former director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House; Neelie Kroes, previously a vice president at the European Commission in charge of digital affairs; and Roberto Da&ntilde;ino, the former prime minister of Peru. 

FAA ANNOUNCES PERMANENT DRONE ADVISORY BOARD: The FAA is establishing a new drone advisory committee, led by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. The committee's mandate: "Identify and propose actions to the FAA on how best to facilitate resolution of issues affecting the efficiency and safety of integrating UAS into the NAS," according to the FAA's announcement. The group is meant provide more long-term guidance than the temporary bodies put in place to advise the agency on recent issues such as the establishment of the FAA's drone registration system and the MicroUAS aviation rulemaking.

First item on the agenda: Drone fireworks? Drone geeks may recall that Krzanich sparked some buzz earlier this year with his prediction at CES that dancing light-up drones will someday make fireworks obsolete. (Check out video of the drones here: youtu.be/eZ-js5zn-I0.)

School rules: The FAA also announced Wednesday that it's simplifyin the process for students to use drones for educational and research purposes. People who plan to use drones with the permission of an education institution or part of a community-sponsored event would no longer have to apply for a formal FAA dispensation, as long as their proposed use is in accordance with Section 336, and as long as they're not using the drones to make money, the agency explained in a memorandum on the new policy.

RATCHETING UP THE BUDGET DRAMA: Our friends on the Pro Budget and Appropriations team have an update on the House side of budget negotiations - and if you thought the Senate proceedings were full of drama, get excited for the House. "As House Republicans take their first steps toward funding the government, Democrats are accusing the GOP of keeping secret how hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars will be disbursed," reports Ben Weyl.

From our trusty Budget & Appropriations Brief: "Typically, the House Appropriations Committee announces how it is divvying up its annual pile of cash between its 12 subcommittees in one fell swoop; that makes it clear relatively quickly which departments and agencies will face feast or famine. This year, the GOP-led committee is only announcing spending allocations for each bill as it is voted on - even though Republican subcommittee chairmen have at least some idea of how much money they have to work with. Democrats are crying foul, arguing it's part of an effort to hide potentially painful spending cuts or simply to avoid angering conservatives in the midst of an intra-GOP budget fight."
 Read the whole POLITICO Pro rundown here.

DEPARTURES LOUNGE: The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee is losing some of its prime talent: Chris Bertram, majority chief of staff, and Beth Spivey, the committee's outreach director, are leaving to start their own consulting firm. They've been with Rep. Bill Shuster since he started as chairman three and a half years ago. "We would not have been as successful without Chris' steady hand at the wheel and his ability to work with members and staff from both sides of the aisle," Shuster said in a statement.

VROOM: Bockorny Group is lobbying for General Motors on connected cars, autonomous vehicles and cybersecurity privacy, POLITICO Influence reports. The team includes Hayden Rogers, former chief of staff for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Jed Bhuta, former legislative director for former Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.).

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- Cheap oil prices vanquish plans for cutting-edge energy infrastructure projects. The Wall Street Journal.

- The new World Trade Center's stark white transit center gets an unwelcome intrusion: advertisements. The New York Times.

- "MTA Outlines Two Options for L Train Tunnel Closure." (Spoiler alert: Neither of them are very appealing.) The Wall Street Journal.

- "New California Environmental Plan Could Transform Trucking." Forbes.

- "Tesla's Wild New Forecast Changes the Trajectory of an Entire Industry: Elon Musk's plan is a really big deal, and not just for electric cars."Bloomberg.

- For Takata, "equity investors are spooked, [but] bondholders have maintained a distinct sangfroid." Bloomberg.

- French people are fascinated by Washington's "awful, bumbling subway." Agence France-Presse.

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 150 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 72 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 188 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,612 days.

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