Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation, presented by Norwegian Air: Lawmakers eye terrorism in EgyptAir crash — After drama-free passage in the Senate, THUD appropriations ramps up in the House — A4A lobs tough talk back at Congress
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 May 2016 08:03:59 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/20/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Heather Caygle, Jennifer Scholtes and Lauren Gardner

LAWMAKERS EYE TERRORISM IN EGYPTAIR CRASH: As details trickle in about the potential cause of the EgyptAir crash over the Mediterranean, fears are growing that the crash may have been an act of terrorism - and lawmakers are taking a closer look at potential security gaps at airports in North Africa. Our own Jennifer Scholtes spoke with House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, who said he fears Americans could be in danger. "If it was a bomb, it probably would have" been put on the plane in Cairo or Paris, McCaul said. "That's my biggest concern. Cairo has flights into JFK, and they're going to open another one at Dulles. ... As long as we have flights coming directly to the United
 States, I think it's putting Americans at risk."

Insights from a recent CoDel: McCaul and other members of Congress actually visited North Africa earlier this month. Jen writes that the delegation checked out transportation hubs including Cairo International Airport and found "inadequate screening equipment and aviation workers that aren't thoroughly vetted. Passengers embarking from Cairo are screened only by a magnetometer, rather than full-body scanners that can detect non-metallic bombs. And aviation workers aren't checked against U.S. intelligence information or databases, the Texas Republican noted.

" ... Lawmakers have been pressuring TSA to send extra screening equipment to overseas ports where security is wanting, but the agency has been slow to comply, McCaul said. He added that he plans to personally pester [TSA Administrator Peter] Neffenger about his agency's timeline and also send an official letter to TSA. 'There's been a six-month delay in getting these full body scanner machines,' he said. 'That needs to be expedited - and then I think the vetting of their employees.'"

The latest updates: Egyptian officials also believe that terrorism is looking like an increasingly likely cause of the crash. From The Guardian: "Egypt's aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, said he did not want to prematurely draw conclusions, but added, 'The possibility of having a different action or a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical failure.'" And from the Washington Post: "Shortly after entering Egyptian airspace, the plane made 'sudden swerves' and dropped from 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet, said Greece's defense minister, Panos Kammenos. The first turn was a sharp, 90-degree veer to the east ... Then the plane made a full circular loop - a '360-degree
 turn,' Kammenos said." The National Transportation Safety Board has said it will assist Egypt "as necessary" in the investigation into the cause.

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

MT really enjoyed this New Yorker piece, "Times It Can Be On the Subway Other Than Showtime" (i.e. a gentle complaint about breakdancers who perform on the train). Other suggestions for time spent in transit: "SleepyTime," "Ragtime," "The Land Before Time," "Maritime." What transpo-related #LongReads will you dive into this weekend? Send your recommendations: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"The speaker in this door is blown / So nothing sounds quite right / Takin' my time, takin' this drive, wavin' this town goodbye."

ALL'S QUIET ON THE SENATE FRONT: After the Senate voted 89-8 to pass its transportation spending bill on Thursday, action is now headed to the House, where lawmakers are tentatively expected to mark up their appropriations bill in the full committee next week. The drama-free final vote was reflective of a week with few of the theatrical snarls that mucked up the Senate's energy and water appropriations bill earlier this month. The one point of contention - a controversial trucking measure on hours of service - was included in the bill without much opposition, a fact that road safety advocates say belies the trucking industry's cozy relationship with leaders in Congress.

Safety advocates lob accusations: "I'm not going to reveal what members of Congress have told me because I don't want to hurt their confidences, but we know that this is a very traditional problem," Joan Claybrook, chairwoman of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways and former NHTSA administrator, told reporters on a conference call earlier this week. She said other members of Congress didn't publicly fight the trucking provision out of fear that projects in their states wouldn't get funded. "We just know that the power of the subcommittee chairmen is very large, and [subcommittee Chairwoman] Susan Collins has been an advocate for years of anti-safety provisions that the trucking industry
 wants."

From Collins' spokeswoman, Annie Clark: "It is incredibly dishonest that this same 'safety' group who criticized the last bill saying it would let truckers drive 80 plus hours a week with a restart has come out in opposition to this cap," Clark said in an email, adding that the group is "rapidly losing credibility."

A4A WON'T TAKE IT LYING DOWN: As senators continue to accuse airlines of failing to pull their weight in the battle against airport security wait times - they want airlines to waive checked bag fees for the summer - Airlines for America is throwing shade right back, saying in a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that much of the blame for the lengthy lines lies with Congress. Citing the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, A4A's Nicholas Calio said lawmakers diverted $13 billion of passenger security fee revenue over 10 years to pay for deficit reduction. "That decision has come home to roost," Calio said. "If Congress wanted to take constructive and well-justified action, it would immediately
 pass legislation putting that money, paid by airline passengers, where it belongs."

Hands off our baggage fees: A4A's statement also delivered a blow-by-blow rebuttal to the request for waived baggage fees. "The excessive airport security lines are a recent development, whereas the model of charging customers for services they use and value, like checking a bag, has been in place since 2008," the organization wrote, adding that TSA data shows that the number of checked bags has hardly changed in the past six years. "Not only does the data not support a causal relationship between recent lines and baggage fees, it would be illegal for airlines to jointly agree on any pricing policy, including bag fees," the organization said.

** Presented by Norwegian Air: Affordable fares to Europe for every consumer - that's the vision of Norwegian. With an $18.5 billion order for new Boeing airplanes, not only does Norwegian support the American economy, it helps to create and support over 100,000 American jobs in the United States. Get the facts: openourskies.com **

KEEPING UP THE DRUMBEAT: A group of federal worker unions are calling on the House to pass an FAA reauthorization bill without privatization, as the July 15 deadline for the FAA extension starts to loom a little closer. "A comprehensive FAA reauthorization bill must be passed and signed into law by the president before the current extension expires on July 15," wrote the group - including the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, and the National Association of Government Employees - to members of the House. "Please work with your colleagues to move forward legislation that focuses on areas of consensus and does not
 privatize the air traffic control system."

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE: Metro released a copy of the final schedule for the yearlong SafeTrack project just hours after MT wondered out loud where it was. (Coincidence? Definitely. But that won't stop us from taking credit ... ) Not much changed in the plan, other than some shuffling around of the first phases of the 15-part schedule - and now the agency is looking at a June 4 start date for the project's first "Safety Surge."

From Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.): "We cannot focus only on track and infrastructure repairs; a complete system-wide change in culture is necessary at all levels of Metro. The success of SafeTrack demands an open and transparent process, but most important it will require a robust communications strategy that regularly informs the public as we move through this unprecedented maintenance and rebuilding plan.

A CAUTIONARY TALE: As one of 10 public transit administrators crowded onto a conference call hosted by the American Public Transportation Association on Thursday, Washington Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld offered up his rail system as the perfect cautionary tale for what could happen to transit systems if managers don't address maintenance backlogs - or receive the necessary funding to perform widespread maintenance work. "We have to catch up, so that's what we'll do," Wiedefeld said, talking about the widespread shutdowns planned for the SafeTrack plan. "For this infrastructure here, ... we are the example of what occurs when you do not do that. The deterioration of service ... and
 the need to take drastic action."

There but for the grace ... : Other public transit administrators seemed to emit a palpable air of relief that their systems - plagued with their own maintenance problems, to be sure - had at least avoided the fate of Washington's Metro, with its daylong emergency shutdown that made headlines nationwide. Dorval Carter, president of the Chicago Transit Authority: "I think in many ways, residents of D.C. are starting to experience the types of challenges that legacy systems have experienced for quite some time." Jeffrey Knueppel, general manager of SEPTA in Philadelphia, had a heartening note: After years of annual shutdowns to conduct maintenance, he said the number of customer complaints
 about the service interruptions dropped dramatically. "Our customers have learned to deal with the fact that we have this Trolley Tunnel Blitz every year. And customer complaints are going down and down and down every year, because we promise to have fewer outages for the rest of the year. ... It takes people time to adjust to the need to do these things regularly." So here's hoping, WMATA riders.

AS FOR APTA: The beleaguered transit advocacy organization is laying it on thick as it endeavors to prove to members that it's turning a new leaf after it was dumped by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and after the abrupt resignation of former President & CEO Michael Melaniphy. In an email to members this week, APTA outlined a slew of soul-searching measures - new task forces and upcoming meetings - as well as a laundry list of dozens of public transit agencies, lobbying groups, and think tanks that APTA said it had communicated with (and presumably said they wouldn't abandon the advocacy organization in the near future). They also highlighted potential new members,
 including European railway manufacturer Skoda Transport USA. 

THE TRAIN THAT SAVED DENVER: The newest installment of POLITICO Magazine's "What Works" series explores how Denver was able to do what many cities have tried and failed: build a rail system that is a model for 21st-century growth. While other major cities are making headlines for transit systems in decline, Denver is on a fast-track in the other direction. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=bdcd7739f735e958484e9803b36c82c7e0c2dee845b824ba98420bbcd717dd79

HYPER-LOLZ: The New York Times' Allison Arieff has a hilarious op-ed on the Elon Musk-affiliated Hyperloop project - "Can a 700 M.P.H. Train in a Tube Be for Real?" - that's chock full of wonderfully tart descriptions of the polarizing (and mega-costly) private infrastructure project. "Hyperloop," she writes, is "transportation's new girlfriend: mysterious, unencumbered, exciting, expensive. A wild card with potential. But does she have long-term potential? That remains to be seen."

Arieff's reaction to the demo of the project's propulsion technology: "I was expecting something on the order of Mickey Thompson breaking the 400 mph speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, but instead experienced something more akin to a Nerf rocket launcher." And on the name of Hyperloop One's chief technology officer and co-founder, Brogan BamBrogan: "This is just one of many aspects to this undertaking that makes me feel that it will all be revealed as a breathtaking piece of performance art."

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- American Airlines on "high alert" that state lawmakers will target tax breaks on jet fuel in response to the company's opposition to transgender bathroom law. The Charlotte Observer.

- "Google's 'wacky' idea that will leave pedestrians glued to cars after crashes." The Washington Post.

- "New billboards are using cellphone information to target ads for groups of consumers." The Boston Globe.

- "A 50-Year U.S. Bond Makes More Sense Than Ever." Bloomberg View.

- "DHL's Tilt-Rotor 'Parcelcopter' Is Both Awesome and Actually Useful." Wired.

- "Uber Gives Glimpse of Self-Driving Test Car in Pittsburgh." Bloomberg.

- "The Short-Lived Career of an Austin Uber Driver." The New Yorker.

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 135 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 57 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 172 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,597 days.

** Presented by Norwegian Air: Norwegian is committed to affordable flights to Europe for every American. Norwegian's economic impact on the tourism, hospitality, and travel industries, along with its $18.5 billion order for new Boeing airplanes, help create and support tens of thousands of American jobs. Norwegian has the most US-based crew of any foreign airline, with plans for hundreds more, allowing it to provide communities like Ft. Lauderdale and Oakland their only nonstop scheduled flights to Europe.

Providing reliable, much-needed service is at the heart of Norwegian's mission and when airlines compete, consumers win. Get the facts on Norwegian Air International by visiting openourskies.com

American crew. American jobs. American planes. That's Norwegian. **

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