With help from Tanya Snyder
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— TSA is planning to send hundreds more of its employees to assist DHS at the southern border, and says that could lead to longer airport wait times.
— Congress frequently says it wants Amtrak to act more like a business and turn a profit, but then members are upset when it does.
— The House passed a fiscal 2020 appropriations bill on Tuesday that contains Transportation Department funding.
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TSA RAMPING UP BORDER DIVERSIONS: A House Oversight hearing featuring TSA Administrator David Pekoske made several pieces of news on Tuesday, and your MT host was there to try to sum up a messy, expanding situation. TSA has now sent more than 350 employees to the southern border to assist DHS efforts, and has approved almost 300 more. That’s according to Chairman Elijah Cummings, who also said the agency had written in a letter last week that it was aware of “potential increased risk to in-flight security.”
The letter specifically says that in the long-term, TSA expects a slight reduction in air marshal coverage of lower priority flights. There are 172 air marshals already deployed to the border.
Pekoske told the committee the deployments wouldn’t affect security, and they’re balancing risk at the border with airport staffing needs. He did tell reporters afterward, though, that if more TSA security officers are sent to the border, wait times could increase at airports. “That’s the only thing that we adjust upward, if you will. We don’t compromise in our basic security protocols,” Pekoske said.
For what it’s worth: Amid yet another shakeup at DHS, with acting CBP chief John Sanders departing and acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan under fire, Pekoske said he’s happy where he is (which, remember, is both TSA head and acting DHS deputy secretary). “I think … McAleenan’s doing an outstanding job. It’s been a privilege for me to work with him here. And I hope to continue that relationship over the long term,” he said.
MORE HEAT ON TSA: The other focus of Tuesday’s hearing was on security vulnerabilities at TSA, and Cummings said he has introduced legislation that would “codify procedures for covert testing and vulnerability mitigation recommended by GAO, and require TSA to track and report its progress in resolving security vulnerabilities identified through these covert tests.” Several lawmakers criticized Pekoske over a recent GAO report that found nine unaddressed security vulnerabilities. The TSA chief promised the agency would complete all open recommendations from 2017 or older by the end of this year.
MIXED SIGNALS: Congress has repeatedly urged Amtrak to run itself more like a business, but every time it does, members that stand to lose service get mad. Our Tanya Snyder lays out the history in a new story out Tuesday for Pros, which starts with a recent example: Amtrak police. The company planned to make cuts from its police force, but lawmakers opposed the idea, putting language in an appropriations bill that passed the House to prevent the changes.
Key line: It’s not just Democrats who have stopped Amtrak from functioning like a business. “Despite repeated directives to turn a profit, lawmakers — particularly those in the Senate with rural constituencies — regularly chafe at any suggestion of service cutbacks for their regions,” Tanya writes.
Listen in: Look for this issue to come up at today’s Senate Commerce hearing on the future of passenger rail.
PASSED: The House on Tuesday passed a spending package containing fiscal 2020 appropriations for DOT, our Brianna Gurciullo reported. The bill, which passed 227-194, includes $25.3 billion in total discretionary funding and several amendments approved earlier in the week that take aim at Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), who chairs the Appropriations THUD subcommittee, highlighted that the bill would provide a 20 percent boost to aviation safety funding, allowing the FAA to hire more inspectors, engineers and technicians to oversee aircraft certification.
ROUND 2? House Democratic leaders are making “one more run” at an infrastructure deal with the White House, Transportation Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said Tuesday. “I was over in the speaker’s office with the chairman of Ways and Means, and we’re making one more run on the White House on funding transportation infrastructure. So we’ll see how that goes,” he said as he walked into a committee roundtable.
You’ll recall that the last round of talks blew up spectacularly, and it seemed like Congress was ready to pivot to the surface transportation reauthorization as a vehicle for infrastructure investment.
Riding off into… Rayburn 2167: Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) opened a Highways and Transit Subcommittee roundtable on new mobility options by saying his answer, “of course, was no” when then-Reps. Jeff Denham and David Valadao (both California Republicans) invited him to join them in “zooming around on a scooter” on a border tour last year near San Diego. But then he snuck out of the hearing and returned riding on a Bird electric scooter (which he did again a few minutes later, this time with DeFazio).
‘Defossilization’: That’s what DeFazio wanted to talk about. He was looking for ideas on how to provide “some sort of federal incentive or subsidy, or maybe just something on the tax side, to incentivize modes that can help mitigate congestion and can help contribute to a decrease in fossil fuel pollution.” He mentioned that he’s toying with a “zero occupancy vehicle tax,” based on the idea that ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are incentivized to put too many vehicles on the street.
THE WHIZ BANG TOUR: Hyperloop is coming to Capitol Hill today, with Virgin Hyperloop One providing demos to broaden support for the technology that aims to travel 600-plus miles per hour in a ride so smooth it won’t slosh your coffee. “Building off of the momentum” of DOT’s NETT council for new technologies, the company will tell lawmakers about feasibility studies happening in Ohio, Missouri and Texas as well as its test site in Nevada. Those states will also be the next stops on Virgin Hyperloop One’s “roadshow,” which begins today with its event in Rayburn.
NO LUV: The FAA removed three senior managers in a shakeup of the office that oversees Southwest Airlines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The leadership change comes as the agency responds to allegations of lax safety enforcement raised by whistleblowers and government probes, according to the Journal. The alleged wrongdoing includes lapses in documenting maintenance, as well as failures to accurately calculate the weight of luggage and multiple landing incidents.
It’s not the first time Southwest and its FAA oversight has come under scrutiny for being too cozy. In 2008, the airline was accused of flying planes that weren’t airworthy, spurring new revolving door rules for FAA inspectors and spawning serious congressional scrutiny.
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON HELI CRASH: The NTSB published a preliminary report this week on a helicopter crash earlier this month in New York City that has led to calls for banning helicopter flights over Manhattan. The report notes poor weather, and quotes the pilot, who died in the crash, as telling staff at a heliport that he saw a “twenty-minute window to make it out.” In a radio transmission captured from shortly before the crash, the pilot says he “did not know where he was.”
— “Boeing has so many grounded jets, it’s parking them in the employee lot.” HuffPost.
— “FedEx sues Commerce Department over Huawei rules.” POLITICO Pro.
— “Pickup driver pleads not guilty in fatal motorcycle crash.” Associated Press.
— “House passes $4.5B emergency border aid package.” POLITICO Pro.
— “US cities are joining forces to figure out what the hell to do with all these scooters.” The Verge.
— “Tolls, fares and fees will be hiked to fund $4.8 billion in Port Authority projects.” NJ.com.
DOT appropriations run out in 96 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,557 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 465 days.
