Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation, presented by Norwegian Air: Senate THUD bill moves through the express lane — Trucking provisions garner attention in House appropriations — Thune on TSA: #ThanksObama
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 08:03:08 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/18/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Lauren Gardner, Jennifer Scholtes, Kathryn A. Wolfe and Heather Caygle

IN THE EXPRESS LANE: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to wrap up the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill by the end of this week - in alignment with the get-'er-done strategy he outlined last week as part of his mission to get back-to-back bills pushed through the Senate floor in quick succession. To that end, cloture was filed on Tuesday evening to the substitute and the underlying bill.

Latest developments: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) submitted an amendment Tuesday night that would combat changes to the controversial trucking hours-of-service rule, instead returning the regulations to the Obama Administration's previous 60-hour weekly driving limit. The Senate also passed a series of amendments by voice vote, including one by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) aimed at enabling airport runway repair projects, and another by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) that addresses eligibility for federally-funded construction projects related to passenger rail.

AT THE SAME TIME, House Republican appropriators unveiled their $58.2 billion draft fiscal 2017 spending bill for transportation and housing that offers 3 percent more federal dollars than the Senate counterpart. DOT would get a $540 million boost over current levels. Check out Lauren's story to parse out some of the numbers; in short, FAA, FRA, and Amtrak get roughly the same lump sum as what they received under the Senate version. Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.): "This bill provides for our nation's transportation and housing needs, while making tough choices to protect hard-earned taxpayer dollars." Ranking Democrat David Price of North Carolina: "It's enough of an
 allocation to let us work on it cooperatively, and that's exactly what we've done."

Keep on trucking: Two issues may become legislative sticking points, and they both have to do with trucking: One is the reappearance of the controversial provision on superseding state laws for meal and rest breaks for commercial truckers that nearly tanked the FAST Act and also reared its head during the House FAA bill process.

Same problem, different solution: The other point of tension results from efforts to fix a drafting error in the fiscal 2016 omnibus on trucker rest breaks. The Senate came up with their own controversial add-on, and the House is tackling the problem, too - but it's got a different fix. "The House change ensures the 34-hour restart rule in effect before the Obama administration proposed new hours of service rules in 2011 would apply to commercial truckers," Lauren writes, "and it would prohibit regulators from enforcing two requirements the administration finalized in 2013."

House T&I ranking Democrat Peter DeFazio said he wouldn't comment on whether he'd support the 73-hour cap contained in the Senate bill. "You know, I upon occasion work 82 hours a week, and you're getting pretty rummy by the end of 82 hours. And particularly something like truck driving? Not a great idea."

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.

Happy Hump Day! Reach out: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"I know where I'm goin' and I know where I'm from ... Yeah we're at the airport out/D-Glock from the block where everybody air-forced out."

'IT'S NOT ABOUT CASTING BLAME': As the National Transportation Safety Board voted Tuesday to approve its final report on the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia, member Bella Dinh-Zarr proposed to make the absence of positive train control a main probable cause - more than just a contributing factor as originally drafted. "The government and industry have not acted for decades on a well-known safety hazard," Dinh-Zarr said, suggesting that the NTSB is "limiting ourselves by this institutional inertia" and referring to the "linear and formulaic" way that probable cause is determined. "This isn't about casting blame. It's about how we as an agency can make the greatest difference," she said.

No go: The rest of the board shot her down. "I don't see it as a causal factor," member Robert Sumwalt said. "Definitely had it been enforced, in place, this accident would not have occurred. But I don't think it was the spark that ignited this accident sequence."

Final recommendations: Our own Kathy Wolfe has the rundown: The NTSB wants "the FRA to install devices and develop procedures that would help crews identify their locations in areas where PTC won't be active, to collect more data about the number of crew members in a cab during an accident. The board also reiterated the need for greater occupant protections, including restraints and strengthened windows. It also made several recommendations for improving initial and recurring training for crew multi-tasking in 'prolonged atypical situations.'"

Reaction from FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg: "While Congress has given railroads at least three more years to fully implement PTC, the public deserves it sooner. FRA will continue to do everything it can to ensure this life-saving technology is fully implemented as soon as possible." And from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): "The Senate is about to pass a bill that includes $200 million to implement PTC on more commuter railroads like Metro-North and I will keep fighting until it's operational on every passenger rail service in Connecticut and across the country."

Freight's response: From AAR's Ed Greenberg: "Freight railroads have spent more than $6.5 billion on PTC. Final costs for PTC are estimated to be about $10.6 billion for freight railroads. This technology is not off-the shelf and isn't just about plugging in or turning on components. It is a complex step-by-step process, both in terms of safety, engineering and implementation. ... The freight rail industry remains on schedule at having PTC fully implemented across the country and in accordance with the extension passed by Congress."

** 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 **

TSA TROUBLESHOOTING: Trying to shrink checkpoint wait times this summer and beyond, TSA folks have been talking a lot about strategies to get more travelers to sign up for PreCheck. And Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) wants everybody to know he's got a bill (H.R. 2843) languishing in the Senate that would force the agency to work with private companies to try to get more people to sign up for PreCheck through advertising, online enrollment and kiosks. "As we head into Memorial Day weekend and a busy summer of travel, it is critical that the Senate unblock the bipartisan legislation that I've passed through the House so that we can make travel more efficient," Katko said in a written statement this
 week.

Cuba airports up to snuff? Katko is also nervous about planned airline service to Cuba, set to start this summer. As our own Jennifer Scholtes reports, "House Republicans say initiating commercial air service from Cuba is a disaster waiting to happen, and accused the Obama administration of fast-walking flights to shore up the president's legacy. ... Obama administration officials publicly insist TSA has thoroughly scrutinized the 10 Cuban airports where flights may soon begin. ... But [Katko] says administration officials have told a different story behind closed doors, including warnings aboutoutdated screening equipment, 'mangy street dogs' on canine teams and insufficient vetting
 practices for aviation workers."

KIRK: REDUCE TSA WAIT TIMES OR RESIGN: Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is ratcheting up the rhetoric on TSA, declaring in a statement on Tuesday that serious administrative action should be taken if TSA doesn't soon get its act together and cut down average wait times. "If travelers do not have relief by Memorial Day, TSA Administration [Peter] Neffenger must resign and be replaced with a leader who can provide fast and secure screening," Kirk wrote, adding that the agency should immediately deploy bomb-sniffing dogs at Chicago Midway International Airport.

THUNE ON TSA: #THANKSOBAMA: Asked about TSA's woes Tuesday, Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune said he and other lawmakers will "evaluate" whether there's a need for redirected funding - and also made it clear that he believes some of the fault lies with President Barack Obama. "Part of where we are is because the administration proposed cutting back - I mean, in their fiscal 16 budget, if you look at it, they proposed reducing about 1,700 people and $120 million, because they thought they could do it with less. I think they discovered that it's not the case, and a lot of the safety issues that were raised in some of these IG reports, other types of evaluations, I think have really pointed
 to the need for them to step up their game," Thune said.

On the continued funding question, he added, "We have given them more money than they've asked for in each of the three last fiscal years ... so I suspect that we'll evaluate where they are, what they need, and they will get what they need to get the job done.

TERRORIST MAG CAUSES CONCERN: Obama administration officials are worried about potential Al Qaeda threats to aviation, judging from their analysis of this month's issue of the terrorist group's English-language magazine. (Yes, Al Qaeda has a magazine.) The publication had a significant number of references to the act of taking down planes, Paul Fujimura, assistant administrator for the department's Office of Global Studies, told a House Homeland Security subcommittee. "It clearly articulates a focus from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on targeting aviation," Fujimura said.

CLARIFICATION: Tuesday's MT did not clearly state why the White House threatened a veto on the THUD appropriations bill. The White House said it would veto the bill if it includes any "problematic ideological provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation."

JENNY GETS THE BLOCK: The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson is calling for Jennifer Lopez - yes, that Jennifer Lopez - to cancel a scheduled appearance in Qatar, which the group says supports alleged civil rights violations committed by Qatar Airways.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- "Amtrak Victims: Investigative Findings Hard to Believe." The Associated Press.

- "Thousands Stranded as Fire Disrupts Metro-North Rail Service." The New York Times.

- "The Hidden Workforce Expanding Tesla's Factory: The automaker's urgent upgrade ... benefited from cheap, imported workers, but did the companies involved flout visa and labor laws?" The Mercury-News.

- "Rep. Maloney Threatens 'F' if MTA Doesn't Finish Second Ave. Subway on Time." DNAInfo.

-  Bloomberg View on TSA: "A rational cost-benefit analysis might well dictate that it's better to accept some higher risk of threats than to accept the lines."

- "Here's What It's Like Aboard The World's Worst Airline." Jalopnik.

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 137 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 59 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 174 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,599 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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