With help from James Bikales
— The House and Senate will both mark up their FAA bills this week. Only the House bill has been introduced so far.
— House Transportation Committee leaders want to keep the FAA process bipartisan, but some difficult issues like pilot retirement age are bound to get debated in markup.
— Under Ted Cruz‘s “surprising” leadership, Commerce Committee Republicans have been able to take down more than their fair share of Biden nominees.
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A BIG WEEK FOR AVIATION: This week, the House and Senate will begin the formal process of passing the next FAA reauthorization into law, ideally by the Sept. 30 deadline. Expect two days of markups in the House on Tuesday and Wednesday, wrapping up early enough Wednesday to allow members to head to the Congressional Baseball Game, the real highlight of the week. On Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up its bill. It hasn’t yet been introduced yet, but we’ve got the leaked text.
THE HOUSE BILL: The House Transportation Committee released the text of its $103 billion, five-year FAA reauthorization Friday. The bill would resolve a fight between regional airlines and pilot unions about whether to relax the rule that requires 1,500 hours to fly a commercial airplane by keeping the 1,500-hour floor but allowing 250 of those hours to be in a simulator, with 150 of those hours in a full-flight simulator. The bill also seeks to increase air traffic controller hiring, eliminate airline fees for families wishing to sit together and strengthen consumer protections, including for passengers with disabilities. Alex has the details.
The House bill would also:
— clarify the NTSB’s authority to investigate commercial spaceflight accidents,
— require the FAA to issue rules for drone and advanced air mobility operations, including a final rule on drone operations beyond the visual line of sight within 16 months of enactment and a proposed rule on air taxis by the beginning of 2025,
— clarify rules about what kinds of military service would bar someone from leading FAA, and
— prohibit FAA funding for transit vehicles with China-owned manufacturers, drones with parts manufactured in China and Chinese-manufactured jet bridges that have “misappropriated” U.S. intellectual property or trade secrets.
The tough issues: The bill — a compromise that was jointly introduced by Democrats and Republicans — had to avoid some hot-button topics like pilot retirement age, seat size and the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s perimeter rule. House Transportation Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and ranking member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) are looking to avoid extended debates as much as possible by accepting only amendments with bipartisan support, with many voted on en bloc. But some debate on thorny issues is inevitable. Larsen predicted that there will be an amendment on a possible increase in the commercial pilot retirement age, which he told reporters “might be one issue where there is some bipartisan support as well as opposition” where the committee might have to “have a debate and see where it falls.”
Larsen said he also expects debate over whether or not to expand the number of slots at Reagan National, saying that he himself doesn’t think the FAA bill is the right place to resolve it.
Work hard, play hard: The House markup will have to work around lawmakers’ busy athletic schedules. The markup will start at 10 a.m. Tuesday before taking a break for the Congressional Soccer Game on Tuesday evening, in which Larsen will be playing, and seeking to wrap up before the Congressional Baseball Game on Wednesday evening.
Getting it done: Graves said he’s aiming for House passage by July 1, well ahead of the Sept. 30 FAA reauthorization deadline.
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I-95 FIRE AND CLOSURE: A segment of I-95 in northeast Philadelphia collapsed early Sunday after a tanker truck believed to be carrying gasoline caught fire, shutting down the highway in both directions. Traffic snarls on the main north-south artery on the East Coast could continue for days or weeks. PennDOT is posting alerts and updates on this page.
NOM BOMBS: While the Biden administration has had trouble muscling several nominees through the Senate with its razor-thin Democratic majority, the Commerce Committee has been an especially difficult launchpad for Biden nominees, with Republicans on the committee recently forcing the withdrawal of NHTSA nominee Ann Carlson, FAA nominee Phil Washington and FCC nominee Gigi Sohn. “Under the surprising leadership of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)” and with a slew of purple-state Democrats on the panel, Commerce has been too high a hurdle for some, report Burgess Everett, Jennifer Haberkorn and Daniella Diaz. For now, the Biden administration is just accepting that some agencies can function without Senate-confirmed leaders.
The Senate has confirmed more than 850 Biden administration appointees so far — a better track record than the Trump administration had despite larger GOP majorities — but Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell said in a statement that “it’s no secret that Republicans have made blocking the president’s nominees a top goal.”
The problem isn’t limited to Commerce, of course — Labor nominee Julie Su is struggling in the HELP Committee, and two judicial picks have withdrawn in recent weeks and a third looks likely to be defeated. Read on to see why “relatively obscure nominations are turning into Senate knife fights as 2024 approaches.”
FRA ADDS SAFETY REC: The FRA on Friday issued a fifth recommendation to railroads on wayside detectors used to identify overheating wheel bearings, urging them to “evaluate the resiliency and accuracy of the overall process used to monitor and measure bearing health.” The notice comes in response to information indicating that a hot bearing detector alarmed prior to a May 10 rail accident in New Castle, Pa., suspected of being caused by burnt journal bearings.
MANCHIN SLAMS EV TAX CREDIT GUIDANCE: In comments submitted to the Treasury Department this morning, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) blasted the Biden administration’s interpretation of the domestic sourcing requirements for electric vehicle tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. Manchin — who has previously vowed to go to court over the 30D guidance — wrote that the proposed rule “deviates from the will of Congress” in at least three respects.
He objected to Treasury’s creation of a “50 percent of value added test” to determine whether a vehicle meets the critical minerals sourcing requirement in the law, its “constituent materials” definition that eases some requirements for sourcing battery minerals, and its broad interpretation of “free trade agreement” that allows countries like Japan to qualify for the credit if they ink a critical minerals pact with the U.S. Manchin had previously expressed support for the Japan agreement, along with similar trade pacts the Biden administration is negotiating with the EU and U.K. The comment period for the proposed rule, Reg. 120080-22, closes Friday.
SEND HELP: The Chamber of Commerce on Friday urged the Biden administration to appoint an independent mediator to help resolve the West Coast port negotiations. “A serious work stoppage at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach would likely cost the U.S. economy nearly half a billion dollars a day — and a more widespread strike along the West Coast could cost approximately $1 billion per day,” Chamber President and CEO Suzanne Clark wrote in a letter to Biden.
— “17 fatalities, 736 crashes: The shocking toll of Tesla’s Autopilot.” The Washington Post.
— “In the race to electrification, the humble bus is in the lead.” Bloomberg.
— “Gavin Newsom, please don’t cut public transit funds. That’s short-term thinking.” The New York Times.
— “India faces conundrum for its sprawling railways: Fix the old or build new.” The Wall Street Journal.
— “Chip titan TSMC’s first factory in Japan has to contend with horrible traffic.” Bloomberg.
— “Chasten Buttigieg has grown up. So has his hometown.” POLITICO.
— “Car-dependent California seeks to follow New York’s lead and save public transit.” The Associated Press.
— “Why America isn’t ready for the EV takeover.” The Wall Street Journal.
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