Infrastructure in the News: April 30, 2015
NATIONAL NEWS
Bloomberg: Think Bridgegate Was Bad? The Port Authority Is a Daily Disaster http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-04-29/think-bridgegate-was-bad-the-port-authority-is-a-daily-disaster
Bridgegate stinks like dead fish at the Jersey Shore. The four days of lane closings on a ramp to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., in September 2013 delayed EMS crews, commuters, and children going to school. Investigators allege that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s deputy chief of staff ordered the bottleneck to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not supporting the re-election of the Republican governor. "Is it wrong that I am smiling?" the aide, Bridget Anne Kelly, wrote in a text message. “No,” answered a Port Authority executive and Christie ally, David Wildstein.
The Hill: Poll: Voters would support 10-cent gas tax hike
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/240527-poll-voters-would-support-10-cent-gas-tax-hike
A majority of voters would support a 10-cent increase in the federal gas tax if the money is used for specific transportation improvements, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.
UTNE Reader: American Cities Beginning to Embrace Pedestrian Safety
http://www.utne.com/community/american-cities-embrace-pedestrian-safety.aspx
A recent report from the National Complete Streets Coalition studying ten years of data found that 16 times more people were killed crossing the street than in natural disasters over the that same period. Another 68,000 walkers on average are injured every year. The victims are disproportionately children, seniors and people of color, according to the report.
National Journal: A Truce in the War Between Cities and Their Suburbs
In the 1980s, the city of Denver, Colorado, was hardly a model for any type of economic development.
Washington Post: Surprising new study suggests that flying may be greener than driving
If you want to live a green and energy conscious lifestyle, then the travel or transportation choices you make are crucial. That’s because travel uses agreat deal more energy than, say, spending time at home, or cleaning, or eating.
STATE NEWS
Planetizen: A Serious Shortcoming in Oregon's Road Usage Charge?
http://www.planetizen.com/node/76196
On the final day of the three-day Transportation Finance & Road Usage Charging Conference in Portland, Dr. Asha Weinstein Agrawal, a survey expert for the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) in San Jose, presented convincing findings showing that a variable mileage fee based on environmental benefits of the vehicle received substantially higher favorability ratings from respondents than a flat rating—which is what Oregon's program is required to use per its enabling legislation.
Business Insider: A fully completed subway station under Manhattan still hasn't opened — and the reason is frustrating
http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/article/20150429/BUSINESS/304299987/196/features
A long-awaited $2.4 billion New York City Subway extension is pretty much completed. In fact, it's been completed for months. But it hasn't opened yet.
New York Times: M.T.A. Chief Rejects Higher Fares for Capital Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/nyregion/mta-chief-rejects-higher-fares-for-capital-plan.html?_r=0
The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Wednesday that the agency would not raise fares to pay for its $32 billion capital plan.
Washington Post: Fairfax receives $8 million for traffic relief on Route 1 and two other roads
After aggressive lobbying, Fairfax County received an additional $8 million in regional transportation funds for congestion relief along Route 1 and two other corridors.
Washington Post: House bill threatens to slash federal funding for Metro
A spending plan released by a House committee this week would halve a proposed $150 million federal contribution to Metro in the transit agency’s next fiscal year, a reduction that the region’s congressional delegation said would “only exacerbate the operations and safety issues” afflicting the transit agency.
POLITICO MORNING TRANSPORTATION
By Jennifer Scholtes and Heather Caygle| 4/30/15 5:43 AM EST
With help from Kathryn A. Wolfe.
KEEPING TABS ON AIRPORT SECURITY CRACKDOWN: The TSA’s acting administrator will testify before Congress this afternoon for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security decided to tighten screening requirements for airport and airline employees this month following completion of a review triggered by allegations of gun-smuggling by airline employees. The agency’s interim chief, Melvin Carraway, will sit before lawmakers on the House Homeland Security panel that handles aviation issues, answering questions about what the TSA is doing to ensure airports are sufficiently locked down. Watch the hearing live at 2 p.m.: http://1.usa.gov/1JIVwTr.
Access control: Subcommittee Chairman John Katko says the subcommittee is looking for feasible ways to implement recommendations laid out in the report (http://1.usa.gov/1QM3EYO) the Aviation Security Advisory Committee just finished on airport access control measures. Shortly after that document was released this month, the department announced that all airport and airline employees traveling as passengers must now go through TSA security screening and employees will be subject to random screening throughout the workday, among other new rules. A refresher on the policies: http://politico.pro/1D83m4Z.
Breaches abound: Those policy changes also come after The Associated Press released data this month showing there were at least 268 perimeter breaches at the nation’s 30 busiest airports from the beginning of 2004 through 2015. That report here: http://bit.ly/1GttH3E.
TANK CAR RULE ON THE HORIZON: The DOT is gearing up to release on Friday the final version of a much-anticipated rule strengthening tank car and operating standards for trains carrying crude oil. And although federal officials wouldn’t confirm the announcement first reported by Reuters (http://reut.rs/1GIBhYx), the stars seems to be aligning for a Friday reveal: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and his Canadian counterparts are due to meet in Washington that day, and acting Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg has canceled travel plans previously scheduled for then, according to a railroad lobbyist.
Hill reaction: Several lawmakers said they have yet to be briefed on the final rule but are looking forward to its unveiling. House Transportation ranking member Peter DeFazio said details of the rule didn’t come up in his meeting with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Wednesday (more details on that meeting below), but the DOT chief promised to brief DeFazio before the regulation was rolled out. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told Heather he hasn’t seen the final rule but has been pressing DOT to finish the regulations as quickly as possible. “I’m anxious to see it,” Durbin said in an interview. “I met with the secretary and told him that we’ve got to deal with this and deal quickly. This generation of tank cars is not safe enough.” Pro with the story: http://politico.pro/1P7HRqH
LAWMAKERS STUMP FOR U.S. AIRLINES IN OPEN SKIES TIFF: Four House lawmakers gather this afternoon to vocalize their support for U.S. airlines in their battle to get the Obama administration to renegotiate Open Skies agreements with Qatar and the UAE, citing allegations that the Gulf nations provide unfair subsidies to their own carriers. At a press conference, Reps. Dan Lipinski, Bob Dold, Frank Pallone and Tom Emmer will join airline employees to rail on what they say are improper perks detracting from the U.S. economy.
IT’S THURSDAY, THANKFULLY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
As Distracted Driving Awareness Month winds down, the feds are making one more push today to encourage people to tweet about the risks with the hashtag #justdrive. For some guaranteed RT love, add me to those tweets: @jascholtes. Props to @HinghamPolice for this one: http://bit.ly/1JaiUt5.
"Hailed a cab, passed out cold before you told the driver where to go, so he drove you around Chicago..."http://youtu.be/fE1Pv3QUaPw
** A message from the Auto Care Association: The auto care industry is a coast-to-coast network of more than 500,000 independent manufacturers, distributors, parts stores and repair shops that keep every motorist moving. Our four million employees generate 2.3 percent of America’s gross domestic product. Our network delivers products at the speed that keeps America’s cars on the road. autocare.org **
THE FANATASTIC MR. FOXX: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, and among his agenda items was a meeting with the House T&I ranking member to talk shop on a short-term extension. Foxx supports a clean policy patch that goes into the summer, but DeFazio is lining up with other House lawmakers in support for a longer extension that could possibly go until the end of the year (and would require more funding). “He advocated the July date. I told him I didn’t think that would work, that some states wouldn’t go with that,” DeFazio told Heather after the meeting. The Oregonian said the idea of doing a clean policy extension into July, as supported not only by Foxx but some senators, is flawed because lawmakers are unlikely to reach any long-term agreement between now and then, and that type of patch leaves states with uncertainty because it doesn’t take up the funding issue until mid-summer.
Ways and Means talks highways: House Ways and Means Republicans discussed highway funding during their weekly lunch on Wednesday, and members seem to be generally supportive of a year-end patch, although no final decision has been made. “We’re where Chairman Shuster is from a timing standpoint, a construction schedule; … our committee is prepared to help Chairman Shuster meet his goals, short and long term,” Ways and Means member Kevin Brady said. House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster said Tuesday that he’d like a short-term deal that at least keeps the Highway Trust Fund solvent through September or later.
BALLOONS? BIRDS? GYROCOPTER? SAME DIFFERENCE: Knowing now that the federal government’s radar system can’t tell the difference between a gyrocopter and flocks of birds, lawmakers will surely be hounding NORAD to get moving on its plans to improve its ability to identify low-altitude, low-speed aerial vehicles flying the capital region. The gyrocopter a Florida mailman flew for roughly 30 miles in restricted airspace that landed on the Capitol lawn this week produced a radar blip indistinguishable from the “small dots” of non-aircraft radar tracks marking “flocks of birds, weather events or occasional kites or balloons,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told House lawmakers on Wednesday. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1Inn6rg.
THUD SAILS THROUGH SUBCOMMITTEE: A fiscal 2016 transportation spending bill that keeps funding relatively flat and contains several controversial policy riders easily sailed through the House Appropriations THUD subcommittee Wednesday morning. But Democrats vowed to take aim at some controversial policy riders during the full committee markup, which could happen in May after the House returns from a weeklong recess. House Appropriations ranking member Nita Lowey criticized the policy riders in her opening remarks, saying they belong in an authorizing bill, not funding legislation. “Christmas came early for the trucking industry — longer, heavier trucks; stalled enforcement of hours-of-service rules; and inadequate insurance requirements,” Lowey said. “Controversial riders, including those on foreign policy that we will discuss in full committee, have no place in an already difficult appropriations process.”
And in the other corner: An ATA spokesman hit back at Lowey’s remarks, telling MT: “These provisions are not by any means an early Christmas present for trucking, but if enacted into law they will help millions of Americans receive their holiday gifts from a safer and more efficient industry.”
‘Shortsighted’ WMATA funding: Lawmakers who represent districts near D.C. were not pleased with the line item the spending panel laid out for funding WMATA. Nine D.C.-area legislators complained in a statement about the $75 million the bill would provide for the Metro system in 2016 — a sum that’s half what WMATA usually receives each year. More from Kathryn: http://politico.pro/1Kvfh1U
ALPA CITES WIN ON OPEN SKIES: The THUD markup wasn’t just a victory for the trucking industry, it was also a victory for opponents of Norwegian Air International’s bid to operate in the U.S. -- if you ask industry group ALPA. “The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l commends the members of the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee for affirming its broad opposition to any foreign air carrier permit application that conflicts with the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement,” the group said in a statement, pointing to specific language in the spending bill that would seem to do just that.
Not so fast: But loyal MT readers will remember a skirmish between NAI supporters and opponents in December after both sides claimed victory based on identical language in the cromnibus spending bill. A throwback from Kevin: “Depending on whom you talk to, the cromnibus either opens up American skies to Norwegian Air International or prevents the low-cost airline from offering its services.” More: http://politico.pro/12O5WkI.
MORE MONEY FOR HARBOR MAINTENANCE FUND: Working late Wednesday night in an effort to scoot through appropriations bills, the House passed an amendment to the fiscal 2016 spending bill for energy and water programs, signing off on an additional $36 million for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which helps pay for operation and maintenance at ports and harbors. Rep. Janice Hahn, who co-sponsored the amendment, noted in a floor speech Wednesday night that the Army Corps of Engineers has recommended fully funding harbor maintenance tax for five years to fully dredge the nation’s ports. “Americans expect to go to Target and have tennis shoes or toys on its shelves,” Hahn said. “Our farmers need efficient ports to export our agriculture products. And we cannot let America's infrastructure crumble.” The amendment: http://bit.ly/1DXscEk.
‘BRIDGEGATE’ UPDATE: CHRISTIE ALLY EXPECTED TO OWN UP IN COURT: The latest in the “Bridgegate” scandal unfolds as the interstate projects director New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appointed is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges as early as Friday. Bloomberg News reports that the anticipated move would suggest David Wildstein “may be cooperating with prosecutors probing traffic jams he ordered near the George Washington Bridge.” http://bloom.bg/1KuB7Cr
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— FAA raised questions about Andreas Lubitz’s depression before Germanwings crash. The New York Times:http://nyti.ms/1ESxw2z
— Mexico Moves to Regulate Use of Drones. AP:http://abcn.ws/1GxHtxe
— NYC’s MTA bans all political advertising, citing hate speech. Capital New York: http://bit.ly/1GIWdi0
— Glitch in iPad app delays dozens of American Airlines flights. The LA Times: http://lat.ms/1bWeQCa
— A top fundraiser for Obama turns from Wall Street to drones. Bloomberg Politics: http://bloom.bg/1JSLU8N
— U.S. ports see costly delays as cargo ships, volumes grow. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1JaJORw
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 31 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 153 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 559 days.
THE DAY AHEAD:
All day: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration encourages people to tweet about distracted driving using the hashtag #justdrive.
8:30 a.m. — The FAA wraps up its meeting on aeronautical charting. Reston, Va. http://1.usa.gov/1Erz0NQ
8:30 a.m. — The Air Line Pilots Association holds a transportation security conference, with speeches by National Counterterrorism Center Deputy Director John Mulligan and the TSA’s executive director for operations, John Beattie. 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW. http://bit.ly/1HSGVWP
2 p.m. — TSA acting Administrator Melvin Carraway testifies before a House Homeland Security panel about airport access controls. 311 Cannon House Office Building. http://1.usa.gov/1JIVwTr
2:45 p.m. — Reps. Dan Lipinski, Bob Dold, Frank Pallone and Tom Emmer join airline employees at a press conference on “leading a bipartisan group of over 240 members of Congress in effort to stop government-subsidized Middle Eastern airlines from violating Open Skies policy.” 2103 Rayburn House Office Building.
3:15 p.m. — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx meets with the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trade Department and its 32 member unions for a discussion of the group’s policy agenda.
6:30 p.m. — Metro hosts a public hearing on the draft environmental impact statement and plans for the proposed Potomac Yard Metrorail Station. Cora Kelly Recreation Center, 3600 Commonwealth Ave., Alexandria, Va. http://1.usa.gov/1bWzzWz
Did we miss any events? Let MT know at transpocalendar@politicopro.com.
** A message from the Auto Care Association: Got your keys? We’ll take care of the rest. The auto care industry is a coast-to-coast network of more than 500,000 independent manufacturers, distributors, parts stores and repair shops that keep every motorist moving. Our four million employees generate 2.3 percent of America’s gross domestic product. Our network delivers products at the speed that keeps America’s cars on the road. Our innovation constantly improves our record on safety, reliability, and value. And our independence gives customers the freedom to find the quality parts and service that work for them. We are the auto care industry — the professionals responsible for the safety, efficiency and mobility of all 254 million cars and trucks on the road today. We aren’t dedicated to one kind of vehicle — we are dedicated to every vehicle, including yours. Independence drives us, and we help drive America forward. autocare.org **
Stories from POLITICO Pro
DOT prepping final oil train rule this week
Lawmakers on gyrocopter: Who’s in charge?
DOT prepping final oil train rule this week back
By Kathryn A. Wolfe and Heather Caygle | 4/29/15 2:39 PM EDT
The DOT is gearing up to release on Friday the final version of a much-anticipated rule strengthening tank car and operating standards for trains carrying crude oil.
Federal officials wouldn’t comment for the record about the rule’s anticipated roll-out, but sources from Capitol Hill to K Street were girding for a Friday reveal, possibly in conjunction with Transport Canada. Reuters had earlier reported that the rule is expected Friday.
The stars appear to be aligning: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and his Canadian counterparts are due to meet in Washington that day, and Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg has canceled travel plans previously scheduled for then, according to a railroad lobbyist.
Transport Canada declined to comment, and a DOT spokeswoman would not confirm the Friday rumors. A spokesman for FRA could not immediately be reached for comment on Feinberg’s travel plans.
The rule is inspired by growing concern over a series of explosive derailments of oil trains across North America, including a July 2013 disaster that killed 47 people in a small town in Quebec.
While the rule has been pending, DOT has taken several interim and emergency steps to strengthen oil train safety, including requiring trains to travel no greater than 40 mph in highly urbanized areas, pressing energy companies for more information about the contents of their fuel and requiring railroads to provide state emergency managers with more data about their shipments. But lawmakers have agitated for DOT to work faster, particularly since several recent derailments have involved a newer tank car model that has been billed as an improvement for safety.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he hasn’t seen the final rule, but he’s been pressing DOT to finish the regulations as quickly as possible.
“I’m anxious to see it,” Durbin said in an interview. “I met with the secretary and told him that we’ve got to deal with this and deal quickly. This generation of tank cars is not safe enough.”
Both Durbin and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), whose state has seen its share of oil train controversy, said they’re pleased DOT is finishing the rule but said attention should now turn toward oil volatility, a complicated issue that is unlikely to be addressed in the tank car regulation.
“I think it’s time to open that subject. [Sen. Cantwell] has encouraged them to do it, and I have too,” Durbin said. Cantwell introduced a sweeping bill in March that would take on many crude-by-rail issues, including oil volatility.
“There’s a lot still to be done on studying that issue,” Foxx told reporters Tuesday when asked about volatility issues.
“The Department of Energy is looking to do a study on this,” Foxx said, adding he hopes DOT can play a supporting role.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told POLITICO last week that the Energy Department and DOT are “very active collaborators” on research aimed at gauging whether the light shale oil predominantly shipped by rail out of lucrative Bakken fields in North Dakota is more volatile than its conventional counterparts. It is unclear whether that research will inform future regulations.back
Lawmakers on gyrocopter: Who’s in charge? back
By Jennifer Scholtes | 4/29/15 11:04 AM EDT
Lawmakers expressed disbelief Wednesday after leaders of the Federal Aviation Administration, NORAD, Secret Service and Capitol police offered their explanations for how a Florida mail carrier managed to pilot a gyrocopter to the Capitol grounds two weeks ago — none of whom offered assurances that they could stop it from happening again.
“It starts with the simple question of who’s in charge,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who also lambasted the agency officials for offering “bland,” uninformative opening statements at his panel’s hearing Wednesday. “You’ve got a dude in a gyrocopter, 100 feet in the air, crossing 30-plus miles of restricted airspace. Whose job is it to detect him and whose job is it to take him down?”
The Utah Republican later noted that the Tampa Bay Times had published a story about Doug Hughes’ flight before he landed and that other journalists had been watching a livestream of Hughes’ flight as it happened.
“Do y’all not monitor social media? Is Twitter like a new thing for ya? I mean, this stuff is out there. Try Google alerts,” Chaffetz said. “If the major networks can watch it live on television, I expect you to watch it live on television and do something about it. And I still have huge questions about what you would actually do. … We pay you a lot of money, billions of dollars. And it’s been a long time since 9/11.”
The agency leaders each said they had done their jobs, but they also acknowledged technical loopholes that may be hard to close.
For instance, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said the radar track of Hughes’ tiny, lawnmower-like aircraft was difficult to discern, even during a forensic analysis of the data conducted after the April 15 incident. And the agency’s air traffic controllers may not have had a chance of seeing Hughes while he was in the air — the agency’s software filters out small blips to avoid distractions for controllers whose main mission is to safely manage the flow of passenger planes.
“Air traffic controllers could not do their jobs if they had to work with an unfiltered radar feed,” Huerta testified.
Even with a full radar feed, “identifying low altitude and slow-speed aerial vehicles from other objects is a technical and operational challenge,” said Northern Command chief Adm. William Gortney.
Gortney said detecting and thwarting airborne threats is NORAD’s responsibility but that the agency is “working against physics” because the radar system is “only capable down to a set of characteristics … based on speed and based on size.”
Meanwhile, Capitol police and the already embattled Secret Service tried yet again to explain why Hughes’ airborne stunt caught them by surprise, even though the Tampa Bay Times made repeated phone calls to the agencies shortly before he landed.
What none of the agencies could seem to offer was any assurance that they could prevent such an incident from happening again.
Lawmakers have fumed about the security breach and even suggested authorities should have shot down Hughes, who has said he flew to the Capitol to draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform. Chaffetz also chastised the FAA, NORAD and the National Park Service last week for skipping a classified briefing on the incident.
“These events raise questions about similar manned and unmanned aircraft entering D.C.’s highly restricted airspace and threatening high value targets and individuals,” the panel said in a statement issued before Wednesday’s hearing.
On Wednesday, Gortney and Huerta confessed that the small chopper was just really hard to detect.
The blip produced by Hughes’ chopper was indistinguishable from the “small dots” of non-aircraft radar tracks marking “flocks of birds, weather events, or occasional kites or balloons,” Huerta said in his testimony.
In the forensic analysis performed after the fact, “a trained radar analyst identified a slow-moving symbol that traveled from Gettysburg toward the Capitol, and vanished from radar at about the time Mr. Hughes landed on the West Lawn,” Huerta said. “We now believe that unidentified radar element was Mr. Hughes’ gyrocopter. The dot appeared only intermittently throughout the flight.”
Appearing to tacitly shift the blame for the security breach — like most of the agency leaders testifying Wednesday — Huerta said the FAA “shares a real-time, unfiltered radar feed with our partners in the Department of Defense and several other agencies, so they can see exactly what we see and apply the appropriate filters for their own mission to protect the airspace.”
Gortney, meanwhile, said the gyrocopter’s “flight parameters fell below the threshold necessary to differentiate aircraft from weather, terrain, birds, and other slow-flying objects so as to ensure that the systems and those operating them focus on that which poses the greatest threat.”
Gortney said NORAD is working with other Defense Department agencies to improve its ability to identify low-altitude and slow-speed aerial vehicles flying in the capital region, admitting that “a small, manned gyrocopter … despite the low threat capability associated with such a vehicle, presents a technical challenge.”
Another issue that cropped up at the hearing was the fact that the Capitol got only a partial alert about the incident.
House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving told the lawmakers that he has since ordered Capitol Police to send alerts through the House notification system for all events that could pose a potential threat. Two weeks ago, they sent a notification only to offices on the Capitol’s Senate side after the complex was locked down following the gyrocopter’s landing. “I have ordered the chief never to allow this to happen again,” Irving said.
Robert Salesses, deputy assistant defense secretary for homeland defense integration, offered few details for public consumption on the handling of the incident, aside from saying that “aspects of this issue are very sensitive to the Department of Defense from a national security standpoint.” He added, “I look forward to continuing this discussion in a classified setting.”
Chaffetz said the panel will hold a classified session on a later date.back
POLITICO Pro Transportation Whiteboard: DC lawmakers: Slashing WMATA funding is dangerous
4/29/15 2:25 PM EDT
Lawmakers who represent the tri-state Washington, D.C. area are asking appropriators to consider restoring full funding for WMATA, which typically receives $150 million annually, but in the fiscal 2016 transportation spending bill would only receive $75 million.
A statement signed by Reps. Gerry Connolly, Donald Beyer, Barbara Comstock, Steny Hoyer, Chris Van Hollen, Donna Edwards, John Sarbanes, John Delaney and Eleanor Holmes Norton says that the subcommittee draft, which was approved earlier today, is “shortsighted” and threatens to “unravel” a partnership between WMATA and the federal government, whose employees make up 40 percent of the system’s rush hour riders. In addition, half of all Metro stations are locatd on federal property.
“Providing anything less than the federal commitment of $150 million would jeopardize rider safety and the successful partnership with Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia to fund the purchase of new rail cars and vital safety improvements throughout the system in response to NTSB and FTA recommendations. The proposed reduction would only exacerbate the operations and safety issues that our delegation has been working with Metro to resolve,” they wrote.
— Kathryn A. Wolfe
To view online:
https://www.politicopro.com/go/?wbid=52642
POLITICO Pro Transportation Whiteboard: Secretary Foxx meets with DeFazio to push short-term patch
4/29/15 4:21 PM EDT
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx met with Rep. Peter DeFazio today hoping to build support for a short-term policy patch — but the Oregon lawmaker wasn’t biting.
“He advocated the July date. I told him I didn’t think that would work, that some states wouldn’t go with that,” DeFazio said, adding he’s more supportive of a plan being pushed by some House lawmakers that would patch the Highway Trust Fund until December, providing some level of certainty for states through the summer construction season.
DeFazio said the idea of doing a clean policy extension into July, as supported by Foxx and some senators, is flawed because lawmakers are unlikely to reach any long-term agreement between now and then and that type of patch leaves states with uncertainty because it doesn’t take up the funding issue until mid-summer.
House Ways and Means Republicans discussed highway funding during their weekly lunch on Wednesday and members seem to be generally supportive of a year-end patch, although no final decision has been made. House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster said Tuesday he’d like a short-term deal that at least keeps the Highway Trust Fund solvent through September or later.
“We’re where Chairman Shuster is from a timing standpoint, a construction schedule … our committee is prepared to help Chairman Shuster meet his goals, short and long term,” Ways and Means member Kevin Brady said.
— Heather Caygle
To view online:
https://www.politicopro.com/go/?wbid=52662