Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation: Lawmakers aim to defend WMATA in House T&I hearing — Thune puts the brakes on McCaul’s calls for quick TSA action — Airports say ‘No thanks!’ to Katko’s push for security funding flexibility
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
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Date: Tue, 24 May 2016 08:02:00 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/24/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Heather Caygle, Jennifer Scholtes, Annie Snider and Isaac Arnsdorf

COMING TO WMATA'S DEFENSE: Congress is holding another WMATA-focused hearing on the Hill today - this one is hosted by the House T&I Highways and Transit Subcommittee - and don't be surprised if it's another public flogging. "I think there'll be some grandstanding for sure," said Rep. John Delaney. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said she expected to witness members "spanking WMATA." But here's one thing that's different from that epic, guns-blazing House Oversight hearing from last month: This time, members of Congress will also be testifying, including Delaney, Rep. Gerry Connolly and Rep. Steny Hoyer. Their goal: to offer a defense, of sorts, for the changes that have been put into motion
 since the Metro subway system started setting deadlines for safety failures and general dysfunction.

Changing the conversation: Delaney talked to MT on Monday night about his goals for the hearing: "We've gotta figure out how to change the debate here to be a little more constructive with doing some positive things to improve the system, as opposed to just railing on them," Delaney said. "I'm sure there'll be a bunch of intense criticisms, but hopefully we'll have a slightly better dialogue." Norton agreed about the DMV delegation's aims: "They will be trying to find ways to bolster WMATA given what the new GM has done," Norton said. "The federal government is the missing actor here. ... I don't think that the region is in a position yet to say, 'Give us some money,' but there's no way in
 which you can take WMATA and essentially build it from the ground up without some funds somewhere." She also said she wants to glean some answers from the FTA about whether recent measures put in place to monitor WMATA's finances have proven too onerous.

Gird their collective loins: As for the other folks on the stand - including WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld and FTA acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers - they'll have one mission: Do better than last time. Norton said she talked to Flowers on Monday to prepare her for the meeting, and give her a heads-up on what to expect. (Flowers bore much of the brunt of members' ire at the hearing last month, especially when she acknowledged that FTA staff did not participate in inspections during Metro's emergency safety shutdown, instead offering that the agency kept tabs on the inspections by making a few phone calls. FWIW, Flowers was not in charge of the agency at the time of the shutdown.)
 "She knows what she's doing, she's a competent person, but there was some dissatisfaction with her testimony," Norton said. "Look, I talked to her today and I told her ... you better get ready for some more questions. ... The burden is on her now."

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

Today in transportation #awwwwww: "Dog rescued after living on highway median for five weeks," from USA Today. (h/t Ed from DOT!) Reach out: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"It's starting, it's over/You're burned out and older/We're living out the back of the car." (h/t Ben Khouri of Sen. Richard Burr's office)

SECURITY SHAKEUP: TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger informed staff on Monday that he's removing Kelly Hoggan from his post as assistant administrator for the Office of Security Operations, according to the New York Times. Hoggan had been in the job since 2013, and had become increasingly mired in accusations that he had punished whistle-blowers and dealt himself under-the-radar bonuses. Deputy Assistant Administrator Darby LaJoye will be his temporary replacement. The announcement came just as messages have grown more vehement from members of Congress - especially Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) - calling for administrative resignations if the agency doesn't start to curb airport security wait
 lines soon. 

McCAUL PUSHES FOR TSA ACTION: House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul says he's planning to introduce a bill later this week to push further advancements to security at airports and airlines, a move that comes even as he asks the Senate to pass two TSA-related bills previously approved by the House - the TSA PreCheck Expansion Act and the Transportation Security Administration Reform and Improvement Act of 2015.

Not gonna happen, Thune says: But Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune says there's no chance the Senate will take up those two bills in an expedited process - especially (as his staff pointed out on Twitter last week) many of the provisions included in those bills were included in the Senate's FAA reauthorization bill. "I don't think it's as easy as just calling them up and clearing them over here," he said today. "There were people who were not in favor, for various reasons, of those bills. If we tried to hotline them, I'm not convinced that we would get unanimous consent."

He's gotta keep the carrots: As our Heather Caygle explains, Thune said moving the bills individually could also stifle momentum for his FAA bill. "Everybody wants us to strip pieces of our bill out and move them independently. I've had like four or five requests from members who have individual bills. But the problem with that is then you start losing momentum for the legislation," he said. "We've got a bill that includes those things at the House, ready for action, that addresses those and a whole bunch of other things that we think need to be addressed."

IMPATIENTLY WAITING: As for the FAA bill, Thune is starting to get palpably antsy to see some action from the House. He said he spoke to House T&I Chairman Bill Shuster last week for an update. "They're still, I think, going to try and socialize his idea on ATC reform and see if they can win over enough people over there to move their bill. I just conveyed that I don't want to do a short-term extension - that doesn't solve any problems," Thune said, adding that he's trying to be accommodating, but is also beginning to worry about timing.

"Every week that goes by around here, you get increasingly concerned that we're not making forward progress," Thune continued. "And my understanding is over there at the leadership level too they want to give him some running room to try and see if he can persuade folks. I just want to make sure that we're acting in sufficient time so that we don't run up against it and ending up having to do another extension, which I'm fearful is where we're headed if we wait too long."

THE RIGHT TO PAY: In the continued angst over airport security wait times, Rep. John Katko is seeking to give airports the ability to pay for TSA overtime costs - but that's a right that airports have no interest in availing themselves of. Our Jennifer Scholtes talked to Kevin Burke, president and CEO of the Airports Council International - North America. "Most have groaned," he said about the news that Katko was pursuing the legislation. "Why put the burden back on the airport? We didn't create the problem. ... We're opposed to this."

Jen explains more of the reasons behind airports' collective side-eye: "Although Katko's office has not responded to inquiries about whether he plans to drop that part of his proposal, airport and airline leaders say they've heard as much. Burke and his industry counterparts explain that airports are particularly opposed to the idea because Congress is still siphoning money from the passenger security fee that's tacked onto airplane tickets. While travelers pay up to $11.20 per trip to cover screening costs, Congress has been diverting $1.20 of that total to deficit reduction."

N.J. LAWMAKERS LAUD TSA ACTION: New Jersey's congressional delegation gave a thumbs-up to TSA on Monday after the agency deployed 25 additional agents to Newark Liberty International Airport, and informed the lawmakers that they plan to hire 95 new agents by June and bring on 11 passenger screening canine teams. "We have demanded assurances from TSA that it will provide sufficient resources and increased staffing to reduce these long waits," Sen. Robert Menendez said. "It's my hope that we can stop the insanity."

FOXX HIRES WMATA ADVISER: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has picked DOT General Counsel Kathryn Thomson to be a special adviser for WMATA oversight, according to the Washington Post. She starts in her new role this week. "The timing was such that, while Katie Thomson was stepping down from the general counsel position, she still wanted to serve," Foxx told the Post. "Getting the [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] turned around is critical to public safety and we are so fortunate that Katie has agreed to assist our efforts for a few months."

STATE DOTS HOLD OUT HOPE FOR HOUSE IN DEBATE OVER RESCISSIONS: As the THUD appropriations process continues with today's markup of the House version of the funding package, state DOTS are wringing their hands over the prospect of seeing their FAST Act investment packages whittled away - and their best efforts to stop it haven't proven very successful so far. The backstory: The FAST Act rescinds $7.6 billion of contract authority in 2020 - and the Senate's current THUD bill takes away an additional $2.2 billion in the same time period. Some federal highway transportation programs are exempt from these rescissions, which means that the revoked funding comes from a smaller pot of money that
 heavily affects state DOTs.

In a letter earlier this month, a trio of groups representing state governments outlined their fears. "Requiring the rescissions to come from only a portion of the unobligated contract authority balances means that programs important to state DOTs will bear the brunt of these cuts." And those cuts will have to be made uniformly across all applicable programs - a blunt knife approach that "ignores states' funding priorities reflected in the balance," they wrote. "This is not a simple and harmless budgetary maneuver."

Conflict to come: The rescissions are not in the House THUD appropriations bill, and the groups are gearing up to push lawmakers to eliminate the rescissions during conference committee. "Based on our latest estimate, the combined effect of rescissions in Senate Approps and the FAST Act will completely gut the balance of contract authority that state DOTs carry by 2020," said Joung Lee of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "This will translate to actual cuts on highway funding for states, below the amounts promised under the FAST Act."

WRDA FIGHTS BREWING OVER PORT SPENDING: Harbor and ports interests got a big win in the 2014 WRDA bill, when lawmakers and appropriators agreed on a path for ramping up spending from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund - which is funded from a tax on goods shipped through U.S. ports and intended to fund ports projects - but which has long been diverted to offset other spending. Now, in the House WRDA bill that will be marked up Wednesday, overseers are seeking to convert that deal to mandatory spending in 10 years. It's a move that's drawing praise from ports interests - although they say the bill leaves out other important aspects of the deal - and groans from budget hawks, who call the
 delay a gimmick to prevent the change from ballooning the bill's price tag. But the real question is what appropriators will make of it.

RYAN PANS CLINTON'S STANCE ON UBER: In the latest Off Message podcast with POLITICO's Glenn Thrush, House Speaker Paul Ryan went after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for what he thinks is her brand of liberal cronyism, citing her stance on ride-share companies as a litmus test for her feelings about regulation. "I think she's also so old-fashioned in that ... I think she - I think, you know, railing against Uber, against new economic innovations, is just telling us, she's projecting, 'I am going to regulate the heck out of this economy, and I'm going to give the keys to the castle to the current kings so that they can pull the drawbridge up behind them,'" Ryan told Glenn.
 "And I think that's the kind of - that's what she represents."

STEPPING DOWN: FAA Deputy Administrator Mike Whitaker is stepping down from his position at the end of June. Whitaker served as the agency's chief NextGen officer over the past three years.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- "Experts Fret Over Handling of Evidence in EgyptAir Crash." The Wall Street Journal.

- "D.C. man accused of raping woman at knifepoint before 10 a.m. on Metro train." The Washington Post.

- "Self-Driving Car Startup nuTonomy Raises $16 Million in Funding." The Wall Street Journal.

- TransitCenter: APTA should "advocate for what transit can be, rather than defend what it is. ... Break the unholy alliance with the highway lobby."

- "Uber's CEO Wants to Fix Your Commute." Bloomberg.

- "Right now, Lyft is cheaper than the subway in NYC." BGR.

- The Chicago Tribune: "This summer, air travel is for people who expect to go to hell and want to know what it will be like."

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 131 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 53 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 168 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,593 days.

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