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— Work to fund the Senate’s surface transportation bill is off to a slow start, with the chamber’s head tax writer saying he’s waiting for a cue from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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— The NTSB, investigating a fatal 2018 Tesla crash, said California should move faster to fix highway safety equipment.
— The FBI, Coast Guard and federal prosecutors in California have begun a criminal investigation of the boat fire that killed 34 people last week.
IT’S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Get in touch with tips, feedback or song lyric suggestions at smintz@politico.com or @samjmintz.
“He feels the piston scraping / Steam breaking on his brow / Old Charlie stole the handle and / The train it won’t stop going / No way to slow down.” (h/t Greg Hynes)
LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about roads, rails, rivers and runways.
SURFACE BILL WATCH: Talks in the Senate over how to fund a surface transportation bill already seem dicey as lawmakers return to Washington after the August recess. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose Finance Committee is charged with figuring out how to pay for the $287 billion legislation presented by the Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this year, told Bloomberg that he’s “not anxious” to bring up a tax bill if it’s something Senate leadership won’t take up on the floor. He wants McConnell to signal support for raising revenue for infrastructure before he’ll move a bill. Grassley also said there will soon be a meeting among him, McConnell and EPW Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) to start hashing it out.
TESLA INVESTIGATION TRIGGERS SAFETY RECOMMENDATION: The NTSB is still looking into a March 2018 Tesla crash that killed its driver, but the agency flagged a safety recommendation for California after it found issues with how the state repairs traffic safety hardware problems. As our Tanya Snyder reports, records show that a crash cushion struck by the Tesla had in the past gone months without being repaired, and was not operational at the time of the accident. California should “develop and implement a corrective action plan that guarantees timely repair of traffic safety hardware and includes performance measures to track state agency compliance with repair timelines,” NTSB wrote.
MAILBAG: With Congress back in session and working on autonomous vehicle legislation, self-driving car company Aurora wrote a letter to lawmakers weighing in. The firm’s two main points are that NHTSA should retain primary safety authority over states, and that all companies should be able to take advantage of exemptions from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Specifically, Aurora wants the law to increase how many vehicles could qualify for an exemption and lift a cap on two years for each exemption. “We encourage you to level the playing field for all developers of self-driving technology and ensure that innovative, job-creating companies like Aurora are not disadvantaged versus incumbents,” the letter says.
In other AV policy news, the National Association of City Transportation Officials released a second edition of its “blueprint for autonomous urbanism,” which calls for prioritizing transit, utilizing congestion pricing, and developing “sophisticated urban freight policies.”
FEDS START CRIMINAL PROBE OF BOAT FIRE: Officials have launched a criminal investigation of the boat fire that killed 34 people last week, the Associated Press reported. The probe is being led by the FBI, Coast Guard and U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, according to AP. Federal agents on Sunday raided the office of the boat’s operator, Truth Aquatics. “If charges are brought, prosecutors are likely to apply an obscure federal law known as the Seaman’s Manslaughter Statute, which predates the Civil War and was enacted to punish negligent captains, engineers and pilots for deadly steamboat accidents that killed thousands,” AP wrote.
BOEING HEARING COMING IN HOUSE: House appropriators will hold a hearing on the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX on Sept. 25, our Brianna Gurciullo reported. Transportation-HUD Subcommittee Chairman David Price (D-S.C.) told MT the hearing will be on the FAA’s performance as an agency. “We want to know about [the FAA’s] in-house capacity to do these certifications, what needs to be changed, what they can do with the appropriated funds that we have allocated and so on,” he said.
Double whammy: Brianna also caught up with House Transportation Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who said he’s planning another hearing on Boeing in October. He wouldn’t specify who would appear at the hearing, but said that “I do believe that Boeing will be testifying in the very near future.”
MAILBAG, PART II: Two Senate Democrats are calling on Boeing to fully cooperate with international aviation authorities, after The Wall Street Journal reported regulators had been frustrated by dealings with the company as they work on bringing the MAX back to service. “If Boeing’s intention is to convince the international community that MAX aircraft are safe to operate in our skies again, this recent demonstration of evasiveness is not only startling, but also contradictory,” Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal wrote to the company.
MAX VICTIM FAMILIES TO MEET WITH CHAO: Families of the victims of the March MAX crash in Ethiopia are meeting with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao this morning before a vigil outside the agency to mark the six-month anniversary of the accident. The group is trying to draw attention to what they feel could be a rushed ungrounding of the jet, and calling for a full recertification.
“These families know all too well the consequences of cutting corners when it comes to passenger safety. They are unified in unprecedented fashion on insisting that this plane undergo a thorough assessment of its airworthiness, and not another expedited review to support a patchwork fix,” said Frank Pitre, an attorney representing some of the families.
FIRST IN MT: We’ve got the witness list for a Wednesday hearing in the House Transportation Committee on road congestion pricing and technology. Those testifying include Oliver Gilbert, mayor of Miami Gardens, Fla.; Travis Brouwer, assistant director for public affairs at the Oregon Department of Transportation; Tilly Chang, executive director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority; Darren Hawkins, CEO of YRC Worldwide Inc.; Timothy Lomax, Regents Fellow at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute; and Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
STOP NEW STARTS? The head of the conservative nonprofit Americans for Limited Government said Monday that Congress should eliminate the FTA’s flagship Capital Investment Grant program, which Republicans have argued could save $2.7 billion. “If a community wishes to build or expand a transit system, the community should pay for it — without federal subsidies paid for by out-of-state residents who may never visit the area,” Rick Manning said.
SELF-DRIVING TRUCKS COME TO VIRGINIA: Leading truck manufacturer Daimler will test automated trucks on public roads in Virginia, the company said Monday. All of the runs will have an engineer overseeing the system, which was developed by newly acquired Torc Robotics, and a safety driver in the cab. According to Daimler, the deployment on public roads comes after months of testing on a closed track.
HYPERLOOPY? Fans — and skeptics — of the concept of hyperloop should check out Aaron Gordon’s latest in Jalopnik, in which he traveled to a hyperloop conference to meet some of the technology’s most enthusiastic backers, including a retired scientist, a Cornell professor and a former Amtrak conductor. Here’s Gordon’s ultimate takeaway: “What all of these ideas have in common is they are merely that. Ideas, barely vetted for any semblance of practicality, but thrown out in the world based on perceived failures of what humans have thus far invented.”
Monica Chinn, formerly of DOT and the House Rules Committee, has joined American Airlines as director of policy and administration on the government affairs team.
— “Uber will spend $200 million to expand its Uber Freight trucking venture.” The Verge.
— “U.S. rescues last crew member from stricken South Korean ship.” Reuters.
— “Nissan ousts CEO Saikawa as car maker seeks to revive business.” Wall Street Journal.
— “‘A massive mess’: SFO runway construction delays mount despite reduced flights.” San Francisco Chronicle.
— “Boeing defeats attempt to unionize South Carolina plant.” Puget Sound Business Journal.
— “Southwest aims to share Max grounding reimbursement with workers.” Bloomberg.
DOT appropriations run out in 21 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,483 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 388 days.
