Subject: POLITICO's Morning Transportation: Despite EgyptAir crash uncertainty, lawmakers eye anti-terrorism — Coming up this week, markups galore — SOLAS detractors get three-month reprieve
From: Morning Transportation <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 08:03:21 -0600

By Martine Powers | 05/23/2016 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Jennifer Scholtes, Heather Caygle, Eric Wolff and Anca Gurzu

EGYPTAIR CRASH INVESTIGATION CONTINUES: Though the cause of the EgyptAir Flight 804 crash remains unclear, that hasn't stopped lawmakers from using the aviation tragedy as a jumping-off point to push for new measures on transportation security. House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul appeared on Fox News Sunday to share his thoughts on the shortcomings of current policies: "It worries me about the safety of these flights, last point of departure coming into the United States. ... I am worried mostly ... about external operations conducted by these safe havens that are now being created in the Middle East and northern Africa from which they can launch external operations in the U.S.,
 and aviation security is the biggest threat."

The latest news: Investigators are still hunting down the aircraft's black box - and without that, there continue to be many more questions than answers. Wall Street Journal: "Crash investigators are perplexed why an automated warning system aboard EgyptAir Flight 804 sent only a handful of messages flagging problems before the jet went out of control and began a fatal descent ... " NBC News: "Data transmitted from a doomed EgyptAir flight minutes before it fell off radar screens suggests a fire had broken out on board the plane, according to an aviation industry website. AvHerald.com is reporting that data transmissions from EgyptAir Flight 804 to ground stations show smoke was detected in
 a bathroom near the cockpit."

The flight's captain, Mohamed Saeed Shokair, came from a family of pilots who insisted this weekend that the 36-year-old was not involved in extremist activity, according to the Los Angeles Times. From their report: "Authorities ... described Shokair as a respected veteran with more than 6,000 hours of flying time under his belt - one-third of that at the controls of an A320. Family members, too, have had to contend with speculation about Shokair's motives or mental state. 'He was not an extremist,' [cousin] Samir Shokair said. 'He was a popular person, close with everyone. He always wanted to be a pilot.'"

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

Happy Monday! Hope it's a good one. Send tips, criticisms, song lyrics, life advice: [email-masked] or @martinepowers.

"Every time I think I smell that sweet southern rain, it takes me to a station on the long black train ... So I'm gone, yes I'm gone, gone to Carolina, where I know that I belong."

THIS WEEK: Markups galore! The House Homeland Security Committee holds not one but two days of hearings on the TSA wait times. And we've got yet another congressional hearing on the Washington Metro system.

Tuesday: The House Appropriations Committee holds a markup of the FY2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, and the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee holds a markup of the FY2017 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act. The House T&I Highways and Transit Subcommittee holds a hearing on "Improving the Safety and Reliability of the Washington Metro."

Wednesday: The House Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing on "Long Lines, Short Patience: The TSA Airport Screening Experience." The House T&I Committee holds a markup of the Water Resources Development Act bill.

Thursday: The House Homeland Security Transportation Security Subcommittee holds a second hearing on the TSA airport screening experience. The Ripon Society hosts a breakfast discussion with House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul and Reps. Will Hurd and John Katko.

GIVE 'EM A FREQUENT VISITOR PASS: WMATA leadership is headed to the Hill yet again on Tuesday for a T&I Highways and Transit Subcommittee hearing on the transit system's challenges. Ahead of the hearing, we asked subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) why he's pulling WMATA leadership back onto the Hill after they already appeared at a hearing for the House Oversight Committee last month, and met with the DMV congressional delegation on the Hill last week. Graves was cagey about what's left that he wants to hear from the transit agency. "I've got some other questions," Graves said. "We've still got some unfinished business."

DURBIN TALKS TSA WOES: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) offered an update on his Friday tete-a-tete with TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger about airport security wait times: "The message that I brought from this is, 'Congress needs to be part of the solution.' For the [Members of Congress] to be criticizing what's going on here without accepting our responsibility is wrong, and it's our responsibility ... to make certain that we have the screening capacity to keep up with passenger flow in the United States of America." He also had some encouraging words for TSA staff, who are likely suffering from low morale: "We have said a lot of things about a lot of possibilities and changes but it should not
 detract from our respect for these men and women and the hard work that they do every single day.

Empty-ish threat? Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) seems to be ever-so-slightly softening his rhetoric on the potential repercussions of TSA's too-long wait times. Last Tuesday, he declared in a statement that "if travelers do not have relief by Memorial Day, TSA Administration Neffenger must resign and be replaced with a leader who can provide fast and secure screening." On Friday, he watered down his demand just a bit, saying that "if this problem isn't solved before Memorial Day weekend travel peaks, TSA leadership should change."

AIRLINES JUMP ON PRECHECK EXPANSION: TSA PreCheck is being expanded to include customers of Aeromexico, Cape Air, Etihad Airways and Seaborne Airlines who are eligible. Sixteen air carriers now participate in PreCheck - a number that may increase even further as TSA administrators clamor to find low-cost methods of expediting security screening wait times at the nation's airports.

IG REPORT: TSA SHIRKS AMTRAK OVERSIGHT - A new inspector general report says TSA has been failing in its duty to oversee security improvements on Amtrak, criticizing the agency for ignoring a mandate handed down from Congress nearly a decade ago to address terrorism risks on the passenger rail system. Some of the duties that the IG's report asserts that TSA has been shirking: setting up a rail training program and performing background checks on some critical rail employees.

From the IG's report: "TSA attributes the delays in implementing the rail security requirements from the 9/11 Act primarily to the complex federal rulemaking process ... [but] TSA has not prioritized the need to implement these rail security requirements. This is evident from TSA's inability to satisfy these requirements more than 8 years after the legislation was passed. ... Without fully implementing and enforcing the requirements from the 9/11 Act, TSA's ability to strengthen passenger rail security may be diminished."

CLINTON CLASHES WITH DOT ON NORWEGIAN DEBATE: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants the Department of Transportation to backtrack on its tentative approval of Norwegian Air International service in the United States. The campaign's labor director announced Clinton's stancein a statement, saying "workers in the U.S. airline industry deserve rules of the road that support a strong workforce with high labor standards - not attempts by airlines to flout labor standards and outsource good-paying jobs."

Piling on: She's not the only one with concerns about the tentative approval. Reps. Peter DeFazio, Frank LoBiondo, Rick Larsen, and Lynn Westmoreland filed legislation earlier this month that would put up obstacles to NAI's entrance into the U.S. market.

A WIN-WIN IDEA, DRONE GROUP SAYS: The Small UAV Coalition is requesting that the FAA reduce the backlog of Section 333 petitions seeking amendments to operate additional drones. They've penned a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, arguing that the FAA has the authority to grant further permission to people who already have the OK to operate approved types of drones. "We recognize the enormous time and effort necessary to process these routine amendment requests ... and the finite resources in the UAS Integration Office. We respectfully suggest that the FAA ... [grant] immediate effective authority to existing exemption holders to operate any UAS model on the Approved List."

TAKE THEM AT THEIR WRDA: The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will host a markup of its version of the $5 billion, biannual WRDA bill on Wednesday. As Pro's Annie Snider reports, the bill would authorize 28 new Army Corps of Engineers projects, and would offset those by canceling $5 billion in older projects. Unlike the Senate version, which advanced out of committee last month, the bill does not include money to replace lead pipe water distribution systems. 

A BRIGHT SPOT FOR SOLAS: As debate continues over soon-to-be-implemented SOLAS requirements on verification of the weights of containers and its contents, the International Maritime Organization issued a draft policy on Friday that may help clear up the conflict, setting up a three-month implementation period after July 1 for shippers and carriers to sort out new protocols for weight verification. "The Committee noted the concerns of Member States regarding practical aspects of compliance with the aforementioned SOLAS amendments ... relating to transhipped containers and communication of [verification of the gross mass] information," the draft policy said. 

Calling for flexibility: The policy also acknowledged opportunities for innovative approaches to track container weights. "Administrations and port State control Authorities should adopt a practical and pragmatic approach ... with a view to ... providing flexibility to all the stakeholders in containerized transport to refine, if necessary, procedures for documenting, communicating and sharing VGM information."

FIAT IN TROUBLE WITH THE GERMANS: The German transport minister is upset at the Italian carmaker, and he's making sure the whole world knows about it. Fiat Chrysler was due to attend a meeting in Germany last week over possible emissions irregularities of its diesel vehicles but sent a lawyer's letter cancelling the appointment instead. "It is completely incomprehensible why Fiat is showing such uncooperative behaviour," Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a statement. But Italian Transport Minister Graziano Delrio said German authorities should contact Italian car regulators and not the company directly, according to Reuters.

PRESIDENT TRUMP VS. PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: After years of complaining about noisy aviation traffic over his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, Donald J. Trump may have an opportunity to do something about it if he becomes president. The Associated Press reports on the ongoing scuffle, and the potential implications of Trump's presidential bid on the 17-acre estate: "The presumptive Republican nominee alleges in his current lawsuit that the jetliners' roar disturbs his members ... He also says the vibrations and jet exhaust damage the fragile Dorian stone, antique Spanish tiles and Cuban roof tiles ... While the legal games are being played, if elected, Trump could play the ultimate
 trump card. As president, he could order the FAA to shift Palm Beach International's takeoff and landing patterns to avoid Mar-a-Lago.

" ... But would he? It is a possibility airport manager and Trump nemesis Bruce Pelly raised in a 2011 interview with The Palm Beach Post during an earlier noise fight. 'The solution for him is to get elected president,' Pelly said. Trump, in a recent interview with the AP, said he wouldn't use the presidency to settle the issue. 'I would stay out of it,' he said.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

- "It's No Accident: Advocates Want to Speak of Car 'Crashes' Instead." The New York Times.

- "Metro fires 20 managers, many from subway operations." The Washington Post.

- "Boeing Wins $11.3 Billion Order for 100 Planes From VietJet." Bloomberg.

- "Logistics Companies Exploring Sales as Sector's Growth Slows." The Wall Street Journal.

- Rep. Earl Blumenauer, in Wired: "I've spent my career fighting for innovation and creativity in our transportation system. ... I've never seen a combination of technological changes converge with this level of speed and intensity before."

- Joan Claybrook in the Portland Press-Herald: "Despite the carnage, Sen. [Susan] Collins continues to be the star quarterback for special trucking interests."

- "The TSA is failing spectacularly at cybersecurity." Engadget.

- " ... Riders said the letter F suits the line, which runs from Coney Island in Brooklyn through Manhattan to Jamaica in Queens. It stands for its failing grade, or for the frustration riders feel." The New York Times.

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 132 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 54 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 169 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,594 days.

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