NATIONAL NEWS
Politico: Santorum suggests slashing federal gas tax if he becomes president
GOP candidate Rick Santorum said he supports a devolution-style transportation policy if his long-shot bid to become president is successful.
Grist: How to sell the gas tax to people who hate taxes and love driving
Trying to get Americans to raise the gas tax is like trying to get kids to eat healthy. Deep down, both suburban car lovers and sticky little humans know that their respective standoffs are nothing more than ideological grandstanding, and that paying a bit more at the pump and knocking back those peas and carrots won’t actually be the worst thing ever. But here we are, cruising around crumbling infrastructure with our cheap gasoline. And there’s little Joey, starving to death at the kitchen table.
The Hill: Senate votes to start highway talks
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/259707-senate-votes-to-start-highway-talks
The Senate voted on Tuesday to start talks with the House about a compromise highway funding measure.
U.S. Energy Information Administration: Before recent transfer, Highway Trust Fund had reached its lowest level in years
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=23712
Earlier this year, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) reached its lowest level in decades, ending July at $6.1 billion dollars. A congressionally approved transfer of more than $8 billion boosted the fund's balance to end the fiscal year (September 30) at $12 billion, but that is still the second-lowest year-end level since 1984.
STATE NEWS
NJ.com: Days of expanding highways are over until we fix N.J. roads, commish says
Acting transportation Commissioner Richard Hammer said the days of expanding interstate highways are over as the state focuses on fixing and rehabilitating existing roads and transit infrastructure, and finding funds to do the work.
MLive: Inside Michigan's new road funding deal: fuel taxes, registration fees, tax relief and more
LANSING, MI — It took four years to plan and over 12 hours to execute, but Michigan's Republican-led Legislature on Tuesday night sent a long-term road funding plan to Gov. Rick Snyder's desk.
Boston Magazine: Boston Millennials Care About Public Transit, Not Parking
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2015/11/09/boston-millennials-care-about-public-transit/
A new survey from the Urban Land Institute Boston/New England and MassINC Polling reveals what many have suspected for quite some time: Boston millennials are far more interested in using public transportation than driving a car.
Kick Starter: Joe Bean Parklet
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575189061/joe-bean-parklet
The first ever parklet to be built in Rochester, NY, the beginning of parklets across our city!
RICE: Sun Belt cities’ bike-share users more likely to bike for recreation http://news.rice.edu/2015/11/09/sun-belt-cities-bike-share-users-more-likely-to-bike-for-recreation/
HOUSTON – (Nov. 9, 2015) – A new report from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research finds that Sun Belt city residents are most likely to use bike-share programs for recreation, compared with users in the Midwest or Northeast, who regularly use the same programs for their daily commute. - See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2015/11/09/sun-belt-cities-bike-share-users-more-likely-to-bike-for-recreation/#sthash.y31rJtFE.dpuf
POLTICO Morning Transportation
By Jennifer Scholtes | 11/11/2015 05:43 AM EDT
With help from Heather Caygle and Lauren Gardner
DESIGNATED DEALMAKERS FIELD TRANSPORTATION DEMANDS: Now that conference negotiators have been named in both the House and Senate, lawmakers are making last-ditch pleas for their desired tweaks to the multiyear highway and transit bill leaders aim to clear for the president by the end of next week.
Before agreeing Tuesday to go to conference with the House on the multiyear bill, the Senate also signed off (56-31) on a motion that instructs conferees to insist on language that would make it harder for DOT to allow longer trucks on the Interstate, as well as a motion that orders the negotiators to include rail safety provisions (including $200 million in grants for positive train control installation) that were passed within the Senate's bill.
Mass-transit mayhem: Sen. Chuck Schumer told reporters on Tuesday that he and other lawmakers plan to fight to beat back a provision the House quietly approved last week to dismantle a program that funnels more mass transit funding to seven "high-density" Northeastern states. The amendment by Washington Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler would instead distribute the money nationwide through a competitive bus grant program. According to The Buffalo News, Northeast members let the amendment go on a voice vote in the House to make it easier to target during conference.
'Devastating loss': "We feel very strongly, a whole group of us, that that amendment is unfair," Schumer said. "It doesn't deal with the fact that the Northeast has a ... highly disproportionate amount of mass transit riders and penalizes us." In the House, New York Reps. Richard Hanna and Louise Slaughter fired off letters to conferees - one with New York delegation colleagues and one with members from the seven affected states - urging them to oppose the provision. The lawmakers note that the "big four" leaders of House T&I recommended a "no" vote on the Herrera Beutler amendment on the floor.
Wall Street warning: Sen. Elizabeth Warren put her colleagues on notice Tuesday that she's ready to challenge any attempts to use the highway and transit proposal to relax rules for the financial industry, Pro Financial Services' Colin Wilhelm reports . "If there's anyone in this chamber, Republican or Democrat, who thinks they can slip goodies for Wall Street into this bill without a fight, they are very wrong," Warren said on the Senate floor.
Safety push: Meanwhile, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey are urging conferees to make major tweaks to highway safety language, arguing that provisions like those that would allow teenage truckers to drive big rigs across state lines will lead to an uptick in road-related deaths, our Heather Caygle reports.
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.
Your regular host is back from Central America. And although a dose of Pura Vida was quite nice, the return to the U-S-of-A comes with a renewed gratitude for paved roads and agencies like NHTSA.
Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
" Bass Trackers, Bayliners, and a Party Barge, strung together like a floatin' trailer park."
PRO SCOOP - TRANSPO GROUPS PUSH FOR CONDENSED BILL: Coming together in an attempt to influence House and Senate conferees, 40 transportation groups just sent a letter calling on lawmakers to give more money over a shorter timeframe than they've laid out in the highway and transit bill, Heather reports in a Pro exclusive . "A reauthorization bill of less than six years duration with significant highway and public transportation investment increases is far superior to a six-year bill with status quo funding levels," the groups write.
CONFEREE ROSTER SNUBS MAJOR PLAYERS: Take a gander at the Senate conferee list for the transportation bill and you'll see that the Dem side only includes ranking members of the pertinent committees and two members of Democratic leadership - Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin. Some little birdies told us there were several other Democratic senators who wanted a slot on the conference committee and were denied.
Disappointed, not surprised: Heather caught up with Sen. Tom Carper, a member of the "big four" on the EPW Committee who negotiated major portions of the Senate bill but was ultimately denied a spot on the final negotiating team. "I'm not surprised. Disappointed? Yes," Carper said. "It was a pitch well-televised, as they say in baseball," he added with a wink.
Where's Shelby? Another member missing from the conferee list: Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby, who made it clear that he opposes messing with the Federal Reserve dividend to pay for the transportation bill. The senator does seem more amenable to the latest Federal Reserve offset that relies on money from the central bank's surplus, though. While he voted against the motion to go to conference, he told us the new Fed proposal is an improvement over the prior plan.
Injured list: Rep. Peter DeFazio, who of course made the House's conferee pool, will be missing the formal conference meeting because he's recovering from eye surgery, our Kathryn A. Wolfe reports. The Oregon Democrat's office said in a statement to POLITICO that "although he will not be able to travel to D.C. next week, he hopes to be able to participate in any conference committee meeting for the highway bill remotely via electronic means."
Making the cut: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources panel, got an invite into the negotiating circle. And a spokeswoman for the senator says it's because her committee wields jurisdiction over parts of the transportation bill. Don't forget that the Alaska Republican vehemently opposed the inclusion of $9 billion raised by a drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is increasingly being tapped by Congress to pay for legislation.
*Apologies to Sen. Sherrod Brown, who did in fact make the conferee list but was forgotten in our roundup.
CAN YOU PAY MY AUTO-MO-BILLS? The transportation bill's final price tag and authorization length are up in the air as senators air concerns about the measure's offsets, particularly one backed by the House to raid the Federal Reserve surplus fund. Several lawmakers and staffers told us that they're just starting to work through the mechanics of the seemingly magic pay-for - and it ain't pretty. Sen. Tom Carper railed against the bill's offsets Tuesday and the Fed proposal specifically, saying "it will set a terrible precedent." The Delaware Democrat also spoke out about the offset during the weekly Democratic caucus lunch Tuesday. "We should be ashamed of ourselves," he told Heather later.
No slam dunk: Sen. John Thune indicated to Lauren that the extra $40 billion the Fed offset brings in may not be the slam dunk some have envisioned it would be. "Well, we're looking at it," he said. "I mean, obviously I prefer the ones that we passed in the Senate. We thought that those were very carefully vetted, and we examined that at the Finance Committee level and the Commerce Committee level."
Magic money? Sen. Sherrod Brown, a top Democrat on the Banking Committee and a conferee, told Pro's Zachary Warmbrodt that "we're hoping in conference we can do something better than that." To add to the palace intrigue, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, who last week criticized attempts to tap the Fed to pay for government programs, was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
SANTORUM RAGS ON THE GAS TAX: Devolutionists, Rick Santorum could be the presidential candidate for you. Heather watched intently to every second of last night's lengthy GOP debate, waiting for the mere mention of something transportation-related. And we're happy to report that this multibillion-dollar issue - which just happens to affect every American - wasn't completely overlooked like in most of the previous debates. Responding to an infrastructure question in the undercard debate, Santorum said he'd like to slash the gas tax from its current level of 18.4 cents per gallon and give states much more control over the remaining receipts collected each year, Heather reports.
DOJ MOVES TO STIFLE UNITED'S 'NEWARK PREMIUM': The Justice Department begins another legal battlenow with United over the airline's ambitions to further dominate carrier presence at Newark, Kathy reports. Already controlling 73 percent of the flights in and out of the New Jersey hub, United has worked a deal to purchase 24 takeoff and landing slots there from Delta.
'An insidious monopoly': Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the Obama administration's lawsuit restates "in bold letters what travelers all over the country have been saying to airlines for years - 'enough is enough.'" In a written statement, the senator called United's control at Newark "an insidious monopoly that has forced the more than 35 million travelers who use Newark Airport annually to pay some of the highest fares in the country."
TRIPADVISOR READY FOR D.C. FIGHT? Pro Tech's Tony Romm reports that TripAdvisor has hired its first-ever Washington lobbyists, selecting the firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to tackle "issues relating to airlines' withholding of fare and schedule information from travel websites," according to a newly filed federal lobbying report. The pickup comes about a year after Rep. Bill Shuster, the leader of the House's transportation committee, introduced a bill that would have allowed airlines to display the cost of flights without including taxes and fees - an idea TripAdvisor and others loudly opposed. Since Shuster's panel is well into its work to reauthorize the FAA, some wonder what new plans he and his congressional allies have in store around airfare transparency.
NEW LOBBY SHOP TAKES TRANSPO FOCUS: POLITICO Influence reports that Lou Lehrman, formerly with Fabiani & Company and Dutko Worldwide, has started a public affairs firm called Wheelhouse Partners, with plans to work on transportation issues, among others. Part of the crew: Dayton Lehman, founder and president of the Aviation Group at Capitol Business Solutions, and formerly a top DOT lawyer for aviation enforcement. Also onboard: Levon Boyagian, a former T&I staffer and currently the head of his own transportation-focused consulting firm.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
- Portman floats future infrastructure bills as vehicles for international tax reform. POLITICO Pro.
- Canada questions Bombardier's $1 billion bailout. The Wall Street Journal.
- Cuban official says pact for U.S.-Cuba flights expected by year's end. Reuters.
- EIA: Highway Trust Fund sunk to historic low in July. POLITICO Pro.
- Do you drive stick? Fans of manual transmission can't let go. The Wall Street Journal.
- Lufthansa cancels 930 flights for today due to strike. The Associated Press.
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 10 days. DOT appropriations run out in 33 days. FAA reauthorization expires in 142 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 362 days.
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THE DAY AHEAD:
All day - The National Association of Career Travel Agents continues its annual conference . Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa Keauhou Bay, 78-128 Ehukai St., Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
9 a.m. - The FAA holds a meeting at the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics headquarters.1150 18th St. N.W., Suite 910.
Did we miss an event? Let MT know at transpocalendar@politicopro.com.