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A strange Memorial Day weekend awaits


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— Empty roads and half-full planes will bring a strange Memorial Day weekend that analysts say could see the lowest travel number on record.

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— TSA announced a set of minor procedure changes, but it continues to hold off on implementing temperature checks at airports.

— DOT defended the Trump administration’s decision to place a new acting inspector general at the agency, firing back at House Democrats’ criticism.

IT’S FRIDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Surely there won’t be any more transportation news over the long weekend? In any event, we’ll be back Tuesday. Get in touch with tips and feedback: [email protected] or @samjmintz.

“Kickin’ in the front seat / Sittin’ in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up / Which seat can I take?”

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, railways, rivers and runways.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Due to Memorial Day weekend, Morning Transportation will not publish on Monday, May 25. It will return Tuesday, May 26.

‘IT WILL NOT LOOK THE SAME’: A strange, quiet Memorial day weekend gets underway today, with record lows expected for all travel. As your host and Anthony Adragna report this morning, instead of kicking off the typically robust summer travel season, the next few days are likely to be a grim summation of just how hard transportation has been hit by the pandemic. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said it simply but perhaps most eloquently earlier this week, when speaking on the Senate floor: “Every year, Memorial Day looks the same. It will not look the same in very many places this year.”

Here’s how weird things are: AAA decided not to even try to make its famous Memorial Day travel forecast for the first time in 20 years. A survey by the Harris Poll found that 95 percent of respondents are not planning to travel. And airlines aren’t expecting much of a bump either, as most of their flights remain less than half-full.

The silver linings: It’s expected to be the safest Memorial Day weekend on the roads in at least six years, according to the National Safety Council, as fewer drivers mean fewer deaths. And for those who are hitting the highways, the conditions have led to extremely low gas prices.

CHANGES AFOOT: TSA will implement some minor changes to how it screens passengers, including that travelers won’t hand over boarding passes for agents to scan and they’ll have to put food items in clear plastic bags when going through security. The changes are intended to avoid as much contact as possible between the agency’s workforce and passengers in the already-crowded environs of a security checkpoint. Pros can read more about the adjustments.

Absent from the list, for now: Any mention of temperature checks, which have been the subject of debate among government agencies and the airline industry. It appears that the idea of federally managed temperature checks at airports has been temporarily shelved as some airports individually institute policies and buy equipment to check for fevers. But acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told the Dallas Morning News that “we’re looking at temperature checks, thermal imaging and other technologies to see what we can do to provide some layer of security.”

SPARRING WITH THE HILL CONTINUES: DOT shot back at House Democrats on Thursday, calling their criticism of the Trump administration’s move to place a new acting inspector general at the agency inaccurate. In short, the department defended the lawfulness of its move, said the new acting IG Skip Elliott (also the PHMSA administrator) can ethically uphold the duties of the IG, and added that his experience as a police officer and rail safety official make him well-qualified for the job. “The unsupported assertions in your letter do a gross disservice to Mr. Elliott, to the Department, and to the American people,” DOT wrote to the high-ranking House Democrats, who had trashed the decision earlier this week. “The Department looks forward to a public correction to these unfair assertions.”

Democrats’ response: House Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) brushed off the answer, saying in a statement that it is “absurd” and the “very definition of a conflict of interest” for a political appointee to also serve as the watchdog over Secretary Elaine Chao’s actions. “The fact that the Department does not understand this basic principle is extremely troubling and reflects a much broader deficiency with ethics across the entire Trump Administration,” they said.

ANOTHER BIT OF AMMO FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL DEBATE: Nav Canada, the private air traffic control body frequently used as an example by advocates pushing to change the U.S. system, is jacking up its rates about 30 percent because of the coronavirus pandemic. As the dynamic duo of Brianna Gurciullo and Lauren Gardner report, the company said sinking revenues have forced it to raise fees as of Sept. 1. “All available alternatives including further government assistance will continue to be explored and utilized in order to minimize or avoid the proposed rate increase,” CEO Neil Wilson said.

Legislation by former House Transportation Chair Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), backed by U.S. airlines, would have set up a nonprofit corporation that charged for air traffic control services in a model most often compared to Nav Canada.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? It’s been a few weeks since this issue was in the news (we last wrote about it on May 8), but a group of prominent Senate Democrats led by vice-presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren wrote to Delta Air Lines and JetBlue this week decrying their decision to cut workers’ hours, saying such actions are “inconsistent with congressional intent” of the financial assistance in the CARES Act, H.R. 748 (116). “United Airlines has already reversed its decision to reduce the hours of all employees, and instead is allowing employees to volunteer to reduce their hours,” they wrote. “You should do the same.”

SOME LIGHT WEEKEND READING: Courtesy of the Surface Transportation Board, which issued a final rule changing its railroad performance data reporting rules to include certain chemical and plastics traffic as a distinct category.

AMTRAK BACK: When it resumes Acela service on June 1, Amtrak will also fully restore its Pennsylvanian line and restart modified service on the Keystone line, the railroad announced on Thursday, another sign that travel demand is slowly creeping back up. “Other trains in the Amtrak network will be restored to service by monitoring demand, working with state partners and continuing to prioritize customer and employee safety,” Amtrak said.

Debbie Hersman, chief safety officer at Waymo, is stepping down, the company said Thursday. Hersman, a former NTSB chair, will remain with the company as a consultant.

— “D.C. reaches $125,000 settlement with Greyhound over Union Station bus idling.” Washington Post.

— “March 2020 U.S. airline cargo data (preliminary): International cargo weight down 14%” American Journal of Transportation.

— “Truck driver pay rose almost $6,000 in 2019, study shows.” Northwest Arkansas Business Journal.

— “Trump visits Michigan Ford plant amid political tensions, does not wear mask.” Reuters.

— “NFL player sues United over incident with another passenger.” Associated Press.

DOT appropriations run out in 131 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,227 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 131 days.





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