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FOUR QUESTIONS FOR 2018: Welcome to a new year in an increasingly unpredictable political climate. Here are the four most burning questions we’re bringing with us into 2018. (You can follow along with Lauren’s handy guide to what we’re watching in infrastructure policy.)
Will Democrats support a GOP infrastructure plan? The administration is expected to roll out its 70-ish-page blueprint in the next few weeks, and Congress will tinker with it (or throw it away and start over) and come up with a bill. But will GOP lawmakers be able to get it through the Senate with their bare 51-seat majority? Democrats have been skeptical of the plan to make states and cities raise most of the money themselves, and many are disappointed that the recent tax overhaul didn’t include an infusion for infrastructure or a fix to the Highway Trust Fund’s insolvency problem.
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Will Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) try to attach his FAA proposal to the infrastructure bill? He’s expressed misgivings about the idea, aware that the controversial plan could bog down the conversation about infrastructure, but as the March 31 deadline for the FAA bill draws near, he could try anything.
Will the FAA bill require another short-term extension? The longer it takes to produce a bill, the more likely another temporary patch becomes. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) has indicated he may be willing to give up his proposal to make pilot training requirements more flexible. Will Shuster also budge on his plan to separate air traffic control from the FAA?
Could the infrastructure bill provide the long-awaited fix to the Highway Trust Fund? Administration officials have hinted that that would be the place for it, and Shuster has indicated that an HTF fix could help bring Democrats on board. But the general consensus is that it’s unlikely Congress will vote for a significant change on transportation revenue collection so soon after taking on a major tax overhaul that didn’t address the issue.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! IT’S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning back in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Tanya is back behind the wheel and ready for the onslaught. Send tips, feedback and reindeer her way: tsnyder@politico.com or @TSnyderDC.
LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about sailing the sea, driving the open road and riding the rails?
SCHEDULING NOTE: The Senate meets for a pro forma session today at 4 p.m. and for legislative business Wednesday at noon. The House won’t be in session this week as previously scheduled, and will ring in the new session Monday, Jan. 8, at 6:30 p.m.
TRUMP OPTIMISTIC ABOUT BIPARTISANSHIP: President Donald Trump’s impromptu New York Times interview in Mar-a-Lago, which dominated the holiday news cycle, included a call to “do bipartisan infrastructure.” He told reporter Michael Schmidt that Democrats “should come to me on infrastructure” like they have with DACA. “I actually think we can get as many Democrat votes as we have Republican,” he said. Trump said he still wants to do a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill — “at least.” Then he pivoted to health care.
GATEWAY TO NOWHERE: DOT criticized New York and New Jersey's latest plan for financing the Gateway tunnel project across the Hudson River, saying Friday the states’ proposal to receive at least $11.1 billion from the Trump administration was “a move towards even greater federal dependency." FTA Deputy Administrator Jane Williams said DOT had never agreed to pick up half the costs of the project. "We consider it unhelpful to reference a non-existent 'agreement' rather than directly address the responsibility for funding a local project where 9 out of 10 passengers are local transit riders," Williams wrote. And those are just the beginning of her critiques. Brianna has it all for Pros.
Hitting back: A spokesman for the Gateway Program Development Corporation responded: “There is no more urgent infrastructure project than Gateway, and posturing aside we are confident that the Trump Administration will engage with us as the President turns to infrastructure in 2018.”
FEET, MEET FIRE: Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) asked DOT Secretary Elaine Chao last week for a status update and briefing on when DOT expects railroads to fully comply with the positive train control mandate. They expressed skepticism about FRA’s claim that only seven railroads are in danger of missing the deadline and looked for reassurance that DOT was doing more than just tracking railroads’ progress, but was actually “holding them accountable for meeting the 2018 deadline." The recent Amtrak derailment near Olympia, Wash., has reignited the conversation about PTC.
LET’S GET TOGETHER: Just before the break, Stephanie sat down to chat with House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, who spent the first half of 2017 getting the first-ever departmentwide Homeland Security reauthorization bill through the House — but since then it’s been “sitting in the graveyard known as the Senate,” as he put it. He added, optimistically: “In January, I think it's time.” He worked with seven other House committee chairs to do a unified reauthorization, but he said if the Senate is going to “send the stuff piecemeal, let's go to conference committee with this.” He looks to the NDAA for inspiration.
Grumble, grumble: McCaul noted that the House Homeland Security Committee has advanced 60 bills this year, and only four have been signed into law. “I think my committee has more than any other committee that have gone nowhere,” he said.
Clear and present danger: Though he said terrorists have been “relegated” to using low-tech weapons against soft targets in many cases, they haven’t given up on airplane attacks. “And they actually have demonstrated the ability to take down an aircraft with a laptop that can be turned into an explosive device,” he said. “And I'm not sure at what point in time you might be able to do it with [a smartphone].” The technology exists to use computed tomography, or CT scanning technology, nationwide at airports to detect these devices, and he said department warnings that the technology isn’t ready yet are not justified. “Right now, if we're just using X-rays, we're putting the American people at huge risk,” he said.
COMING SOON TO AN AIRPORT NEAR YOU: Jose Freig, American Airlines’ chief security officer, told Steph that the airline was eager to expand the use of CT scanners, probably in Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles or Philadelphia, “relatively soon.” They’re already piloting it in Phoenix and are hoping to install the first Analogic CT unit at John F. Kennedy International Airport early this year as a donation to TSA.
Fast lane for (almost) everybody: Freig also said the airline wanted to see an expansion of PreCheck and Global Entry to the point where the vast majority of passengers are registered. He compared it to highway toll systems like E-ZPass, which might make up nine out of 10 lanes now, where a few decades ago they were one out of 10. “Ninety-nine percent of our customers are low-risk and not a concern,” he said. “So, therefore, we should get to a stage where, if you have a 10-lane checkpoint for TSA, the majority of them should be PreCheck.”
CRYSTAL BALL: DRONE EDITION: This year could bring big advances in drone policy, especially as FAA is expected to jump-start an effort to remotely identify drone users to immediately counter any airspace breaches or security threats posed by drones. That capability could unlock rulemakings that have gotten stuck — primarily because of security and privacy concerns — like the ability to fly drones over people, at night and beyond visual line of sight.
Experiments in states: The year will also see the implementation of the administration’s drone integration pilot program, allowing state, local and tribal governments to experiment with setting their own rules for expanded drone operations. It remains to be seen how many of the hundreds of applicants will be chosen to participate. The year will also bring a new FAA administrator (whether interim or permanent), likely passage of a congressional mandate to create a low-altitude air traffic control system for drones and more. Tanya has more for Pros.
GILLAN’S ISLAND: Here are our favorite highlights from Tanya’s interview with Jackie Gillan, retiring Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety president and founding board member:
— “I was called in to the assistant secretary's office. And he told me, ‘We're going to have you work for NHTSA.’ ... And he said, ‘Do you know Joan Claybrook?’ And I said no. And he said, ‘Good. Because that's who you're going to be working with.’"
— “Now when you're up on the Hill lobbying millennials, they look at you like, ‘Airbags? They've always been in cars.’”
— “Maybe I put too much trust. I never wanted in my career to be like, ‘I don't trust the industry.’"
— “When I first started working on rollover, we got a provision included in one of the bills that was: 'Initiate rulemaking on rollover prevention.' That was a mistake.”
— “Can you ever think of anybody who would appear to be more anti-regulation than Trent Lott? He got it. He got it. Trent Lott's father was killed by a drunk driver.”
WHERE’S ELAINE? In her roundup of current Cabinet secretaries’ secretive habits, POLITICO's Emily Holden points out: “Obama Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx not only provided his weekly schedule in advance but held monthly question-and-answer sessions with reporters. Trump’s DOT chief, Elaine Chao, declines to provide advanced schedules, and has yet to hold this type of session in Washington, D.C.”
THE AUTOBAHN:
— "2-hour computer outage at U.S. customs causes delays nationwide." CBS.
— "Congress will return to a full slate of difficult issues." The Washington Post.
— Why New York City subway construction costs are so much higher than anywhere else. The New York Times.
— "2017 safest year on record for commercial passenger air travel." Reuters.
— "Rocket launches and trips to the moon we’re looking forward to in 2018." The New York Times.
— "Uber may be aflame, but its self-driving cars are getting good." Wired.
— “Tax cut on booze triggers fears of more abuse and drunken driving.” POLITICO.
— "Major transportation projects to impact DC, Md., Va. in 2018." NBC4.
— “NORAD’s crazy Santa cause.” POLITICO.
— "NTSB: Amtrak engineer noted high speed but did not hit emergency brakes." POLITICO Pro.
THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 18 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 89 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,003 days.