INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Star: Toronto ‘protected’ bike lanes routinely invaded, but proposed ticket-by-mail system might help
A line of 15 Beck taxis idling inside the celebrated Richmond St. protected bike lane on Friday night was shocking — even to a Beck boss — but cyclists are forced into downtown traffic by obstacles like that all the time.
The Globe and Mail: Pedestrians seeing red after Nova Scotia boosts jaywalking fine to nearly $700
Increasing the fine for jaywalking in Nova Scotia to nearly $700 is being roundly criticized by active transportation advocates and pedestrians alike.
NATIONAL NEWS
City Commentary: Pulling a FAST one
http://cityobservatory.org/pulling-a-fast-one/
Whatever remained of the fig leaf claim that the US has a “user pays” system of road finance disappeared completely with the passage of the so-called FAST Act. It would be better to call the new transportation bill the “Free Ride” Act, because that’s exactly what it does: gives auto users something for nothing. It’s more money for road building, scraped together from arithmetically questionable raids on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Federal Reserve Bank, and a series of other gimmicks.
The New York Times: Distracted Walkers Pose Threat to Self and Others
While distracted driving has commanded lots of attention (albeit not a commensurate amount of correction), another digital hazard — distracted walking — is on the rise, with sometimes disastrous consequences.
STATE NEWS
Frontier Group: Cutting Transit Service Doesn't Save as Much Money as You Think
http://www.frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/cutting-transit-service-doesnt-save-much-money-you-think
Cuts to transit service are among the many options being considered by Gov. Charlie Baker’s Fiscal and Management Control Board as it attempts to restore the MBTA to fiscal and operational health. Late-night service, weekend commuter rail service, and service on up to 28 regular bus lines are all under the budgetary microscope.
Governing: The Always Tricky Reverse-Commuter Tax
http://www.governing.com/columns/public-money/gov-reverse-commuter-tax.html
The commuter tax is a tricky one. Many big cities struggle with meeting the needs of thousands of workers who flood downtown every day and then head home to the suburbs (where they’re actually taxed) at night. But other places struggle with the exact opposite problem: capturing revenue from residents who live in the city but commute out to the ’burbs to work. When residents work in suburbs, the whole city misses out on essential revenue -- in many places the city income tax is the largest single source of revenue. Two variations on the reverse-commute hurdles -- one in Michigan and the other in Kansas -- show just how complicated the issue can be.
Central Maine: Maine pedestrian fatalities at 10-year high amid recent central Maine deaths
Police and experts say they are looking for reasons behind the high death count, which could be linked to nicer weather and more people out walking as it gets darker earlier.
Omaha: Do we need more parking garages? City planners and businesses wrestle over expectations for downtown’s future
Downtown Omaha, and particularly north downtown, is seeing a boom of development that has the potential to bring five new parking garages to the area.
POLTICO Morning Transportation
By Jennifer Scholtes, Heather Caygle, Lauren Gardner and Martine Powers | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
NEWFOUND NO-FLY LIST OPPOSITION ALIGNS STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Amid all the talk about terrorism, the White House keeps calling on Congress to prevent folks on the no-fly list from buying guns. And while the list designed to keep suspected terrorists off airplanes has always had critics in the civil liberties crowd, the mention of gun control policy has attracted a contingent of unlikely partners to the crusade against the aviation security tool.
As we've laid out for Pros, "longtime liberal critics of the federal no-fly list have some outspoken allies these days - Republicans alarmed by President Barack Obama's proposal to ban people on the list from buying guns. ... Now that Obama wants to use the list to keep guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists, conservatives are airing their own complaints about the program's broad sweep and Kafka-esque outcomes."
Congressional action: Nearly every day these days, Democratic lawmakers in both chambers try to force floor votes on proposals to allow the Justice Department to bar gun sales to suspected terrorists. On Tuesday, they attempted to call up a bill (S. 551) in the Senate and held up House floor action for hours by calling a succession of procedural votes in protest of GOP leaders' refusal to consider another measure (H.R. 1076).
What's in a name?: Complicating matters is the fact that those congressional proposals, unlike the White House's calls, don't even specify that the Justice Department would have to use the no-fly list to prohibit firearm sales. Still, since the no-fly list has a catchy name and is a well-known concept, the list is often referenced in the legislative debate and is colloquially used as shorthand to explain totally different rosters, like the much broader Terrorist Screening Database the FBI uses to feed the no-fly list and several other name record systems. "The no-fly list has such an ominous tenor to it ... so it just plays into this," said Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, who was director of the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration.
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.
Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
"Ship to shore, answer my call. Send me a signal, a beacon to bring me home."
A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, À LA SENATE COMMERCE: Up for consideration during today's Senate Commerce markup (and for the second time): Sen. Jim Inhofe's Pilot's Bill of Rights part deux. If you'll remember, the committee had to punt on the bill (S. 571) in November. But it seems that everything has been smoothed out and that lawmakers are ready to take another go at it. More from Sen. John Thune: "I hope so, yeah," he told Heather when asked if they'll approve the measure today. "The parties have negotiated something. When you have Inhofe and [Joe] Manchin and Bill Nelson and everybody else kind of in the same place, it's a Christmas moment. So we're going to take full advantage of it."
Transportation security: The panel is also set to mark up a bill today aimed at ramping up airport security and a measure (H.R. 2843) that would force the TSA to take additional steps to try to increase enrollment in the PreCheck program. That proposal, which the House passed by voice vote in July, would require the agency to lean on the private sector to help market the program and expand application options by setting up online enrollment and kiosks. The idea is that the TSA would work with private companies to create new ways for passengers to submit biographic and biometric information through those kiosks, as well as through mobile devices and mobile enrollment platforms, "to reduce the number of instances in which passengers need to travel to enrollment centers." The legislation also directs the agency to make sure PreCheck lines are open during peak travel times.
CRASH TEST DUMMIES MEET SMARTY-PANTS TECHNOLOGY: NHTSA begins working now to finalize major changes over the next year to its popular 5-Star Safety Ratings, after proposing for the first time to include crash-avoidance technologies as part of the system rather than merely highlighting those features on a checklist, Lauren reports . The changes also include more crash tests, new test dummies that better demonstrate the impact crashes can have on the human body and half-star increments to give consumers a more-granular assessment of which cars are up to snuff safety-wise.
Across the board: That also includes pushing automakers to more broadly integrate high-tech safety solutions throughout their fleets, rather than just on pricy models that might be out-of-reach for the average car buyer, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
Kudos abound: NHTSA's move won praise on Capitol Hill and beyond. Lawmakers in particular were thrilled that the agency moved ahead on requiring crash-avoidance information to be included in the ratings, since they mandated it in the highway bill (H.R. 22) President Barack Obama signed last week. "This update is a win both for consumers and innovators - highlighting a vehicle's advanced safety systems will allow consumers to make informed purchasing decisions, and in turn, spur greater use of these potentially-lifesaving technologies," Thune said in a statement.
New dimension: Deborah Hersman, head of the National Safety Council and former NTSB chairwoman, kept the accolades coming. "Technology can do amazing, life-saving things and today, auto manufacturers are offering many amazing new technologies as options for consumers," she said in a statement. "Regulators have the opportunity and the obligation to adjust our safety standards to keep up with these safety innovations."
STB REVAMP INCHES TOWARD ENACTMENT: Anxiously awaiting enactment of a Surface Transportation Board overhaul? Then keep an eye on the House floor this week. The lower chamber's schedule got a little delayed on Tuesday due to some unrelated procedural protests, but the STB revamp (S. 808) is still slated to be sent off to the president. And Thune has got his hopes up, Heather reports.
SOVIET STYLE, NO MORE: Gone are the days of then-House Transportation Chairman John Mica hoisting a McDonald's cheeseburger high into the air and yelling about Amtrak's money-losing food and drink service to anyone who would listen. Sure, the auburn-haired lawmaker might still think Amtrak is a "Soviet-style train operation." And he isn't alone is his disdain for the passenger rail operator (other Republicans have decried Amtrak as a money loser that wastes government subsidies). But he, along with many of his GOP colleagues, voted in support of the five-year transportation bill last week, which among its 1,300 pages of policy reforms included a lengthy Amtrak title. House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster explained Tuesday why he thinks the bill, rail title and all, was able to garner so much support: reforms. "That's why we got some of our Republican colleagues that in the past had voted against Amtrak, we were able to convince them this is a real reform," Shuster said.
Middle ground: "My Democratic colleagues say there's no passenger rail system in the world that doesn't operate without government subsidies, which is true. But ... there's only one freight rail system that works without government subsidies and that's us. So the other side of the coin is we have colleagues on my side that say 'sell it,'" Shuster said. "Well I think it's somewhere in between. And I think that's what our bill did."
LAWMAKERS CONSIDER RAISING ATC AGE LIMIT: Folks over the age of 31 may soon be able to enroll in the FAA's training program to become air traffic controllers - a privilege that's currently only granted to their younger peers. Heather reports that "the age limits and training process for new air traffic controllers could undergo major changes early next year when lawmakers roll out their FAA reauthorization. ... Both Chairman Bill Shuster and ranking Democrat Peter DeFazio said it's befuddling that the FAA doesn't allow people over 31 enroll in the training program at all, potentially ruling out a significant pool of applicants. ... Shuster also said his committee would take a good look at whether the FAA needs to be directly involved in training air traffic controllers at all."
GETTING TOUGH ON CHINESE AVIATION HANDOUTS: The Obama administration is lodging complaints with the World Trade Organization after uncovering evidence that China exempted domestic aircraft manufacturers from paying a 17 percent tax on small airplanes - a tax the administration says continues to cripple the bottom line of U.S. aircraft manufacturers that import to China. As Pro Trade's Adam Behsudi reports , the president's staunch stance is being applauded by major trade groups, even those that don't usually see eye-to-eye with Obama's trade policies. From the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers: "Today's announcement brings us one step closer to making sure China plays by the same rules everyone else does."
'LIKE SCALDED RABBITS,' TRANSPO WITNESSES RUN FROM MICA: When it comes to progress on MAP-21 devolution, consider Rep. John Mica unimpressed. In a Tuesday hearing, Mica grilled the Federal Highway Administration's chief counsel on the number of programs that had been eliminated or consolidated because of the three-year-old legislation - and expressed, shall we say, puzzlement at why the end of 31 federal programs and the consolidation of 15 more had only resulted in a reduction of 20 jobs, Martine reports . He said he's going to request a federal audit. And in characteristically salty fashion, Mica went on to say that state DOTs around the country told him of continued red tape and resistance from the feds to relinquish control over transportation programs. When he tried to get those agencies to offer testimony at the Tuesday hearing, Mica said, "they ran like scalded rabbits."
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
- House easily passes curbs to Visa Waiver Program. POLITICO.
- The dimming of diesel fuel's future in cars. The New York Times.
- FAA approval near, Honda's business jet about to hit market. The Associated Press.
- No budget deal in sight as deadline looms. POLITICO.
- D.C. considering letting bicyclists roll through stop signs. The Washington Post.
- VW kept earlier emissions issue from regulator. The Wall Street Journal.
THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 3 days. FAA reauthorization expires in 115 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 337 days.
NEW TOOL FEATURE - POLITICO PRO LEGISLATIVE COMPASS: Pro's Legislative Compass offers you the ability to do more than just track legislation. The tool leverages 20 years of data and boasts features such as a personalized dashboard, a member comparison feature and bill text comparison. As a bonus, we're offering policy professionals complimentary access to our Legislative Compass for a limited time. Schedule a call with your account manager to set up your complimentary access.
THE DAY AHEAD:
All day - The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement hosts a maritime drone conference. Sheraton Pentagon City, 900 S. Orme St., Arlington, Va.
8:30 a.m. - The FAA holds a meeting of an RTCA special committee on aeronautical information and meteorological data link services. RTCA Inc., 1150 18th St. NW, Suite 910.
9 a.m. - The FAA hosts an RTCA special committee meeting on rechargeable lithium batteries and battery systems.
9 a.m. - The FAA hosts an RTCA special committee meeting on terrain awareness warning systems. RTCA Inc., 1150 18th St. NW, Suite 450.
9 a.m. - TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger speaks at an American Association of Airport Executives conference. Hyatt Regency of Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Arlington, Va.
10:00 a.m. - The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee marks up several bills, including a Pilot's Bill of Rights Act (S. 571), a measure aimed at expanding the TSA PreCheck program (H.R. 2843) and an airport security bill. 253 Senate Russell Office Building.
1 p.m. - The Transportation Research Board hosts a workshop on advancing freight fluidity performance measures. National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW.
4 p.m. - Federal Railroad Administration holds a public hearing to gather feedback on its draft plan for investment in rail along the Northeast Corridor. Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley St., Boston, Mass.
Did we miss an event? Let MT know at transpocalendar@politicopro.com.
Stories from POLITICO Pro
Obama gun call triggers GOP flak for no-fly list Back
By Jennifer Scholtes | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
Longtime liberal critics of the federal no-fly list have some outspoken allies these days - Republicans alarmed by President Barack Obama's proposal to ban people on the list from buying guns.
Left-leaning groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have long denounced the government's use of the secret roster, saying it allows anonymous bureaucrats to designate tens of thousands of people as security risks for no stated reason, often with no recourse for clearing their names. The innocent people swept up in the post-9/11 program - causing them to be kicked off flights, barred from the U.S. or subjected to extra screening - have included peace activists, the Muslim musician formerly known as Cat Stevens and the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.
When activist groups complained about these problems years ago, "I don't really remember that much opposition to the list generally from elected officials," Shayana Kadidal, a senior managing attorney at the liberal Center for Constitutional Rights, said Tuesday. "The fact that it was a post-9/11 novelty, it grew without a lot of discussion."
But now that Obama wants to use the list to keep guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists, conservatives are airing their own complaints about the program's broad sweep and Kafka-esque outcomes.
"The majority of the people on the no-fly list are oftentimes people that basically just have the same name as somebody else," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday, citing Kennedy's experience. He added, "There's no due process or any way to get your name removed from it in a timely fashion, and now they're having their Second Amendment right being impeded upon."
Conservative news outlets have amplified the message. "The 'Terrorism' No-Fly List Could Easily Contain Your Name," the conservative website Townhall warned in a headline Monday, while The Daily Caller devoted a story Tuesday to Kennedy's decade-old travails.
National Rifle Association spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said Tuesday that Obama's "politicization of this issue is shameful and dishonest."
"The president knows full well that law-abiding Americans who pose no threat to national security are mistakenly on the terror watch list - a secret government list that is riddled with errors," Baker said. "The NRA's only objective is to ensure that law-abiding American citizens who are wrongly on the list are afforded their constitutional right to due process."
The White House insists that whatever the no-fly list's flaws, it's reliable enough that the people on it should also be barred from buying firearms. "Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun," Obama said in his televised address Sunday on last week's shooting rampage in Southern California. "What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon?"
Congressional Democrats have been aiming to force floor votes on similar proposals in recent weeks, using the debate to portray Republicans as weak on terrorism. They tried again on Tuesday, attempting to call up a bill (S. 551) in the Senate and holding up House floor action for hours by calling a succession of procedural votes in protest of GOP leaders' refusal to consider another measure (H.R. 1076). Those moves follow a long line of similar legislative failures on the proposal, dating back more than half a decade.
"Seriously? Terror watch list, buy a gun of your choice whenever you want?" Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said on the House floor before the voting spree kicked off. "We're better than that."
Absent from the political rhetoric is much mention of the no-fly list's flaws, although White House press secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged last week that "there have been well-documented incidents where people have suggested that their inclusion on the no-fly list was not appropriate." Still, Earnest said, "They had a venue for addressing that, in some cases getting that fixed."
Some courts have disagreed, saying the government's handling of the list has violated constitutional protections like the Fifth Amendment right to due process. In a decision last year, a judge in Oregon said the Department of Homeland Security had offered a "wholly ineffective" system for people to try to remove their names from the list.
In a separate challenge, a suit by the Center for Constitutional Rights led to the government agreeing this year to clear the names of four American Muslims who said they had been placed on the list after refusing to become FBI informants.
Other people caught up in the list have included military veterans, civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), and a Malaysian professor who was barred from entering the U.S. even to testify in her lawsuit challenging her inclusion in the program. In 2006, "60 Minutes" found a dozen people named Robert Johnson who also landed on the list, apparently because they bear the same name as an already-deported bombing suspect.
This spring, the government agreed to new procedures in which U.S. citizens can find out whether they're on the list.
Conservatives haven't always been sympathetic to these kinds of complaints. In 2005, amid the early surge of legal challenges against the list, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly accused the ACLU of being "in Al Qaeda's corner when it comes to fighting terror." A 2004 column in National Review denounced the civil liberties group's "privacy charlatanry," accusing it of running to federal court over some passengers' "minor inconveniences."
Some groups have been more consistent - including Gun Owners of America, whose executive director, Larry Pratt, told Salon in 2003 that some "lefties" had ended up on the list merely for stating their political opinions. "This kind of thing should not be happening to American citizens," Pratt said at the time.
Michael Hammond, the gun group's legislative counsel, expressed the same concerns in an interview this week.
"We've reached a pretty Orwellian state if you can take away people's constitutional rights by creating a secret black list with no standards for putting people on and no standards for taking people off," Hammond said. "And I mean that in the worst sense of the term."
John Malcolm, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, says people should take note of the ample complaints about the no-fly list's name errors and how "exceedingly difficult" it is to get off it. That should "at least give people pause before depriving those on the list of their ability to defend themselves," he said.
On the other hand, even the ACLU isn't taking a completely hard line against using the no-fly list as a tool to screen gun purchasers - "but only with major reform," said Hina Shamsi, director of the group's National Security Project. "There is no constitutional bar to reasonable regulation of guns, and the no-fly list could serve as one tool for it," she said.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush offered similar caveats in a Fox News appearance last week, saying he might favor barring gun sales to a whittled-down list of people who are under active investigation as terrorist threats. "The no-fly list is not a concise list of people under investigation or that may be for a short period of time," he said. "But if you narrow that down from that list to people that are being investigated in an active way, yeah, that would be appropriate."
But Bush also harped on the program's flaws, mentioning Fox contributor Stephen Hayes as yet another person who wound up on the list last year for unspecified reasons.
"I mean, Ted Kennedy and Stephen Hayes the journalist and Cat Stevens, I mean, this is not a list that you can be certain of," Bush told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. "The first impulse of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is to have gun control. But the first impulse in my mind is let's have a strategy to take out ISIS there so we don't have to deal with it here."
Muddying the debate is the tendency of both the White House and various pundits to tie the debate specifically to the no-fly list, which is just one of a number of secret government terrorist watch lists. The Department of Homeland Security's no-fly list, which is believed to contain about 50,000 names, draws information from the FBI's broader Terrorist Screening Database, which is thought to include hundreds of thousands of unique names. The FBI database also feeds others, such as one the Justice Department maintains for Interpol.
In 2009, the Government Accountability Office reported that nearly 1,000 federal background checks for gun purchases turned up matches with records in the broader FBI database over the preceding five years, and that 90 percent of those transactions were allowed anyway.
Congressional Democrats like Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi have steered away from specifically naming the no-fly list in their legislative efforts to vet gun buyers. Many of the current congressional proposals would simply give the Justice Department the power to bar sales to known or suspected terrorists.
Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, who was director of the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, described the blurry terminology as a symptom of the politicization of the terrorism debate. "The no-fly list has such an ominous tenor to it ... so it just plays into this," he said in an interview.
Christian Beckner, who was a top aide on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee from 2007 to 2013, said much of the furor surrounding the no-fly list has faded since the Bush administration began "a very systematic effort" in 2005 to make it easier for innocent people to get off it. "The issue in the early years were the false positives, where you had Ted Kennedy getting flagged," said Beckner, who's now deputy director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University.
Still, Beckner says he's not surprised that gun-rights advocates are joining liberals in complaining that the list deprives Americans of due process. "You do have some people who have a history of a consistent focus on these issues," he said.
The Center for Constitutional Rights' Kadidal was similarly unsurprised that Republicans are jumping into the debate on the side of civil liberties groups, especially in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
"There's a strong libertarian streak in the Republican primary base," he said.
Still, some Republicans are straddling the debate, saying the government can protect Americans' Second Amendment rights while keeping a close eye on questionable individuals who purchase firearms.
"Sometimes people are put on the watch list just based on suspicion, and you're talking about denying a fundamental constitutional right based on that," House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas), a former federal prosecutor, told an audience on Monday. But he added: "Make no mistake, if the FBI sees somebody on one of these lists and ... under the current law that purchase cannot be denied, they will obviously be monitored to prevent any further, potential terrorist attack from occurring."
NHTSA proposes overhaul of vehicle safety rating system Back
By Lauren Gardner | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
NHTSA proposed sweeping changes to its well-known vehicle safety ratings today, incorporating advanced technologies and new crash tests into its five-star system.
The modifications to the ratings, also known as the New Car Assessment Program, include an additional crash test to assess how well a vehicle protects passengers in an angled frontal crash, new crash test dummies that better replicate likely effects on the human body during accidents, and an evaluation of crash-avoidance and other technologies that allow drivers to determine which cars have the best potential to skirt crashes.
NHTSA would also begin using half-star increments under the proposal to convey to consumers in closer detail a vehicle's safety performance.
"NHTSA's 5-Star Safety Ratings have set the bar on safety since it began in 1978, and today we are raising that bar," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. "The changes provide more and better information to new-vehicle shoppers that will help accelerate the technology innovations that saves lives."
The agency will take public comments for 60 days and plans to finalize its decision by the end of 2016, with ratings under the revamped system expected by model year 2019.
Foxx, Rosekind set sights on future with no car crashes with ratings update Back
By Lauren Gardner | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
Department of Transportation leaders doubled down today on the future of high-tech vehicles by proposing the incorporation of up-and-coming crash-prevention technologies into its vaunted safety ratings system for the first time.
"Our goal at USDOT is not just to protect people in the event that an accident occurs," Secretary Anthony Foxx said after announcing the proposed changes. "We ultimately want to eliminate crashes altogether."
The 5-Star Safety Ratings program encourages automakers to voluntarily incorporate safety technologies into their cars. But Foxx said it was time to "raise the bar" for manufacturers by measuring how well their vehicles avoid crashes in the first place - not just how well they protect passengers when a crash occurs. The hope is that automakers will more quickly integrate those technologies throughout their fleets and not just on luxury models that already command more frills.
Meanwhile, Foxx has ordered the department to hasten mandates for vehicle-to-vehicle capabilities.
"There's no doubt that when testing begins under this advanced program for 2019 model year [vehicles], achieving that coveted five-star rating is going to be tougher than ever, but that's just the way it should be," said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.
NHTSA data for 2014 show 32,675 people died in car crashes, a 0.1 percent drop from 2013. Foxx and Rosekind's goal is to get that number to zero as quickly as possible, and Foxx noted that connected vehicle technology could realize up to an 80 percent reduction in crash fatalities.
"I think that's what we strive for," he said of seeing no more car accidents.
Thune hopeful House clears STB overhaul this week Back
By Heather Caygle | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune said he's hopeful the House will clear his STB overhaul bill this week, sending the measure to the president's desk as one of the last transportation to-do items before the end of the year.
Thune's bill (S. 808) would overhaul the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency that oversees railroad mergers and settles freight rail rate and service disputes.
The reauthorization, the first major overhaul of the STB since it replaced the Interstate Commerce Commission in the mid-1990s, would expand the board from three members to five and establish it as an independent agency, outside of the DOT umbrella.
"I think everything is on track to move," Thune said, adding that he talked to House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster about the reauthorization Monday night.
"Over here, we moved it by unanimous consent, we were able to hotline it. And in doing our vetting on the House side, it was pretty clear we didn't have anybody over there that was throwing up objections to it or resistance," Thune said.
The bill is listed on the House calendar and could come up for consideration this week on the suspension calendar, a fast-track procedure reserved for non-controversial legislation.
"We had looked at the possibility of getting it included in the highway bill and I think that it probably could've been carried there," Thune said.
"I've asked them to move it as soon as possible and I like the fact they're moving it as a freestanding bill," he added.
Air traffic controller training could see big changes in FAA bill Back
By Heather Caygle | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
The age limits and training process for new air traffic controllers could undergo major changes early next year when lawmakers roll out their FAA reauthorization.
House Transportation Committee leaders touched on their concerns during an aviation roundtable this morning focused on air traffic controller staffing issues.
Both Chairman Bill Shuster and ranking Democrat Peter DeFazio said it's befuddling that the FAA doesn't allow people over 31 to enroll in the training program at all, potentially ruling out a significant pool of applicants.
"That's something we need to talk about," he told reporters after the roundtable.
Shuster said he knew about the mandatory retirement age of 56 for controllers, "but I thought I understood it that you couldn't get hired until you're 31 but it's over 31, so yeah I think it's something to look at."
"Why would the FAA not look at ... someone who is 31 years old?" DeFazio added.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association Vice President Trish Gilbert told lawmakers that the age limit "is killing us in some cases" particularly when it comes to qualified candidates coming out of the military after turning 31.
Shuster also said his committee would take a good look at whether the FAA needs to be directly involved in training air traffic controllers at all.
"Is it really a governmental function?" he said. "What I'm talking about doing with the FAA is significantly different and I don't think the air traffic control organization needs to be within government."
U.S. to challenge China aircraft tax at WTO Back
By Adam Behsudi | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
The U.S. is taking China to task at the World Trade Organization for a tax scheme it says discriminates against major U.S. aircraft manufacturers in favor of the Chinese domestic aircraft industry.
The announcement made today by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman comes at the same time the administration is trying to counter criticisms that trade rules in the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be rarely enforced.
"Time and again President Obama has shown that when our trading partners fail to uphold their obligations, the U.S. will take vigorous enforcement action by whatever means we can and we will not let up," Froman said, flanked by a delegation of House lawmakers from Washington state and Ohio districts with a heavy presence of aircraft companies and suppliers.
"Our government needs to stay committed to fighting these fights to make sure American workers and their families get a fair shot," said Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wa.), who attended the press briefing with Reps. Dave Reichert (R-Wa.), Rick Larsen (D-Wa.) and Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio).
Froman said the U.S. uncovered evidence that the Chinese government was exempting domestic manufacturers from a 17 percent value added tax that was applied to imported aircraft that weigh less than 25 metric tons. The exemption violates WTO rules that prohibit discriminatory taxation on the basis of national origin and transparency obligations because China has not published its tax exemption measures, the USTR said.
Chinese aircraft that received the exemption include the domestically produced ARJ21, a regional jet Beijing is hoping can compete on the world market, according to the USTR.
Still not fans of TPP, but aerospace and steel workers salute China action Back
By Adam Behsudi | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
Though critical of President Barack Obama's trade policies, two major labor groups are among those coming out in support of the administration's action against Chinese taxes that allegedly discriminate against U.S. exports.
The administration announced today that it is challenging at the World Trade Organization at least four Chinese measures that exempt domestic aircraft from a 17 percent value added tax. Eliminating the discriminatory treatment could benefit the more than $500 million worth of annual U.S. aircraft exports to China and the $5 billion in U.S. aircraft parts exports worldwide, a U.S. trade official said.
The investigation into China's tax measures were initiated entirely within the administration rather than being motivated by industry or labor complaints, the official said.
"We have long argued for the enforcement of our trade laws against China's aerospace industry," International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers President Tom Buffenbarger said. "Today's announcement brings us one step closer to making sure China plays by the same rules everyone else does in this vital industry."
"Tens of thousands of [United Steelworkers] members working in the aluminum, steel, glass and tire sectors produce and supply materials and parts used in the domestic aerospace industry," USW President Leo Gerard said in a statement.
Although supportive of this latest enforcement action, Buffenbarger and Gerard said in a call with reporters on Monday they plan on continuing to use every means possible to fight Trans-Pacific Partnership deal.
Mica blasts DOT progress on MAP-21 devolution Back
By Martine Powers | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
Three years after MAP-21 legislation mandated the consolidation or elimination of 60 federal programs, Rep. John Mica said he was disappointed with the DOT's progress on cutting staff - so disappointed, in fact, that he plans to request an audit from the Office of Inspector General or the Government Accountability Office.
Mica grilled Thomas Echikson, chief counsel for the Federal Highway Administration, this afternoon at a hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
At the hearing, Mica listed recent stats on how many federal programs had gotten the ax - 31 were discontinued, 15 were consolidated into other programs - and then asked Echikson why there hadn't been a corresponding dramatic reduction of staff.
"It hasn't worked out exactly the way we intended it because we still have almost as many fed people working on projects as we had before," Mica said. "Is it correct there's only been about 20 positions eliminated?"
"Well, I would not tie any elimination of positions to MAP-21..." Echikson began.
"Ooh," Mica interrupted, "that's not good news."
Mica remained skeptical about progress on devolution, despite optimistic testimony from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the Texas Department of Transportation, which reported that big transportation projects had begun to move along more expeditiously.
Mica said he'd spoken to other state DOTs that had painted a less rosy picture and complained of continued unnecessary red tape. He tried to get those agencies to come and testify, Mica said, but "they ran like scalded rabbits."
House easily passes new curbs to Visa Waiver Program Back
By Lauren French | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
An overwhelming majority of House lawmakers voted Tuesday to tighten restrictions on individuals entering the U.S without visas from ally nations - the chamber's strongest border control move yet after Islamic terrorists killed more than 100 people in Paris.
Passing the measure may give Republican leaders more space to maneuver on a must-pass government spending bill. Many conservatives want to add provisions to the omnibus that would bar Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the U.S. until tighter vetting restrictions are in place.
But GOP leaders hope that Tuesday's stand-alone visa measure will satiate the Republican appetite for action on the Syrian issue. The bill would stop individuals from traveling into the U.S. from certain countries without a visa if they've previously traveled to countries like Iraq or Syria that are known terrorism hotbeds.
The measure passed 407-19,with the vast majority of House Democrats crossing the aisle to support the Republican-authored bill.
As it stands now, individuals from 38 friendly countries like the United Kingdom and France don't need a visa to enter the U.S. under a system known as the Visa Waiver Program. The program allows nearly 20 million individuals to enter the country annually.
But after the shootings in Paris, which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took credit for, lawmakers have criticized the program's relatively lax entry requirements. Terrorists involved with the Paris shootings allegedly boasted about the ease with which they were able to travel abroad because of programs similar to the U.S. visa-waiver system.
"A radical with a French passport or a Belgian passport can get on a plane in Brussels or Paris today and come to America no questions asked, be here for 90 days, without us knowing any better," Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday on a local radio program.
Democrats have been critical of the Republican response to the Paris massacre. Only 47 of them broke party ranks to support a previously passed bill that stopped individuals from Iraq and Syria from entering as refugees until new vetting standards were in place.
But changes to the Visa Waiver Program enjoy broad support. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) helped draft the language, he said Tuesday. Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) told reporters before the vote that the vote "ensures security."
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), also mandates that any country participating in the Visa Waiver Program must share intelligence information with the federal government and requires that they issue "e-passports."
The bill is not currently scheduled for a vote in the Senate even though it has bipartisan support in that chamber. It's likely that the Senate version, authored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) could be folded into a government spending bill Congress is negotiating.
No budget deal in sight as deadline looms Back
By Jake Sherman, Lauren French and John Bresnahan | 12/09/2015 05:41 AM EDT
With government funding set to run out in just three days, divisions within the House Republican Conference are surfacing yet again.
Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are determined to wrap up a yearlong spending bill this month, but the conservative House Freedom Caucus is starting to suggest pushing the spending fight into next year. They say the holiday season time crunch is hurting the GOP's leverage in negotiations with Democrats.
The government is slated to run out of spending authority on Friday and Republican and Democratic leaders are at an impasse over an omnibus-spending bill. At issue are several policy riders, including a proposal that would increase scrutiny of Iraqi and Syrian migrants. House conservatives are pushing to include that language in the spending bill, but the White House is opposed to it, despite widespread support on Capitol Hill.
House Republicans also want to add language that would tighten controls on visa-free travel in the U.S. That legislation is getting a vote Tuesday, but the GOP will likely push for it to be included in the spending bill.
"We know that we're going to get it right, instead of getting it done fast," Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday. "We are not going to waive the three-day rule (for considering legislation). We're going to make sure that members of Congress, and therefore the public, have the time to read what is agreed to. But we're not going to let the arbitrary Dec. 11 deadline stop us from getting this right. We're going to get the best agreement we can possibly get, and those negotiations are ongoing."
Ryan and McCarthy (R-Calif.) said they would attempt to pass a short-term spending bill, keeping the government open for a "handful of days."
"We don't expect to do this for a long term," Ryan said. "We need to get it right. I don't want us to go home until we get this done."
But the Freedom Caucus believes otherwise.
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) said he would like Congress to approve a six-week, stopgap spending bill to give more time to try to force Democrats to accept the language to tighten restrictions on Iraqi and Syrian refugees.
"A lot of us aren't completely understanding why in the world given the fact that we had a veto-proof majority on the vote on the individual bill (regarding refugees), why in the world we wouldn't include it in the (larger spending) bill," Salmon said. "It doesn't make any sense at all."
He added, "I think that every time we get jammed up against a holiday schedule with people wanting to be back in their districts and back with their families, we seem to end up getting things that we dislike intensely. When we don't have that kind of pressure, there's a little bit more of an ability to fight, and stand up on principle rather than be jammed against schedules that are important to people."
House Democrats say they're waiting for Ryan to move.
"It's up to them. We were moving along but now it's totally up to them," said Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the top Democratic appropriator.