With help from Oriana Pawlyk and Tanya Snyder
— Democrats will maintain control of the Senate, meaning Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won’t lead the Senate Commerce Committee.
— NTSB investigates a mid-air crash at the Wings Over Dallas airshow.
— The CBP commissioner resigns after pressure from the Biden administration.
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NO GAVEL: The Senate will remain in Democratic hands, which means Cruz won’t be in charge of the Senate Commerce Committee come January. Instead, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is expected to maintain leadership of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over most transportation issues. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) is expected to remain chair of the Senate EPW Committee.
NOMINEES REJOICE: While Georgia’s Senate runoff will decide the ultimate Senate composition, and determine whether or not Commerce Committee member Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) will return to Congress, Democratic victories in Arizona and Nevada over the weekend mean that a major potential roadblock to confirming President Joe Biden’s DOT nominees is now gone. Democrats, if they’re united, can confirm nominees like Biden’s FAA administrator pick Phil Washington.
FINE MARGINS: That doesn’t mean we’ll see speedy confirmations for nominees like Washington that have faced controversy. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in particular is a vote to watch over the next two years before he faces voters in deep red West Virginia in 2024. Expect Democratic leadership to proceed carefully on nominees like Washington, as there are other issues that leadership will lean on Manchin and others like Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chair Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to potentially take tough votes.
HOUSE WATCH: The House is still in limbo, with 10 seats in doubt — six with Republicans leading, and four where Democrats are ahead — both parties have a shot, though the GOP is still favored. While a slim GOP majority will be a major headache for party leadership, it will mean that Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) is expected to lead the House Transportation Committee, where he’s is likely to convene oversight hearings on the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act — with high-profile witnesses like DOT secretary Pete Buttigieg getting letters on the daily and called in for hearings.
Rep.Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is running for GOP whip, summed up the likely position of House Republicans on Sunday should they win a slim majority.
“We have an opportunity over the next two years to be the last line of defense to block the Biden agenda,” Banks said on Fox News Sunday.
BLAME GAME: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), blamed GOP under-performance in part because 19 Republican senators voted with Democrats for the infrastructure law. Scott, who released his own “Rescue America” plan that was criticized by both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Biden, oversaw the GOP’s Senate campaign arm this cycle and has openly fought with McConnell over the last year.
“What Republican leadership has done in this last year was they caved in on the debt ceiling, caved in on the gun bill, caved in on a fake infrastructure bill and we make it difficult on our candidates and we can’t do that,” Scott said on Fox News.
BUT THEY WON: It’s worth mentioning that among Senate infrastructure law backers who faced voters this year, only Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is not yet assured of another term in Congress — and that’s mostly due to the state’s ranked choice voting system. The other Republicans all easily won reelection, along with the six House Republicans who voted for the law and made it to Election Day.
Scott, along with a group of Republican senators, are calling on a delay for Senate GOP leadership elections that are scheduled for this week.
TWITTER BEEF: On Friday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted that a reporter was easily able to create a verified account impersonating the senator and frequent Tesla critic. Elon Musk responded on Sunday by mocking Markey, tweeting “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?”
That prompted Markey to issue a warning and a swipe at Tesla.
“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree,” Markey tweeted. “Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”
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NTSB ON SCENE: The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are launching investigations into this weekend’s horrific mid-air collision between a Boeing B-17G and a Bell P-6 near Dallas, both vintage military planes. All six people aboard the two World War II era planes were killed, according to local authorities. No one on the ground was hurt.
MAGNUS OUT: Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus resigned on Saturday evening, Daniel Lippman reports, after he clashed with immigration officials over how to handle an influx of migrants at the southern border. Magnus had lost the confidence of his bosses and been asked to resign or be fired, POLITICO reported Friday.
LONGTIME ISSUES: POLITICO reported in October that five current administration officials who worked with Magnus said he was unengaged in his job, saying he often failed to attend White House meetings on the situation on the border, badmouthed other agencies to colleagues and superiors, and had not built relationships within CBP and across other immigration agencies to address the influx of migrants at the border.
DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the CBP workforce on Saturday night that deputy CBP commissioner Troy Miller is now acting commissioner of the agency, which helps facilitate trade and travel across borders.
WHERE ARE THE WAIVERS: When the FCC threw the vehicle-communications universe into disarray in 2020, it promised that new rules were coming — and in the meantime, those who wanted to deploy “vehicle-to-everything” communications technology, with its promised life-saving benefits, could apply for waivers to do so. But, Tanya reports, two years after the commission gave more than half of the “safety spectrum” over to non-automotive uses and threw its weight behind cellular-V2X technology, no waivers have been issued. States, cities, universities, tech companies and automakers have together filed more than a dozen requests.
The timing is especially fraught for three reasons: First, after 20 years of underusing the 5.9 GHz band reserved for vehicle safety, the industry has finally coalesced around a single technology — C-V2X and is ready to deploy, only to find itself in a new regulatory limbo. Second, the infrastructure law has made available huge new pots of money for transportation safety technology that states would like to put to use, if they only had FCC’s blessing. But most importantly, roadway deaths have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, and this technology could help prevent crashes.
Widespread support for the waivers — from members of Congress from both parties, the National Safety Council, DOT and state DOTs among others — have not yet moved the FCC, but several state DOT officials and industry sources told POLITICO that FCC has recently met with waiver applicants and asked questions, and they hope the commission will act soon.
— “Mass transit extension to Dulles Airport opens at tough time.” Associated Press.
— “American Airlines’ pilots encourage union APA to explore merger with ALPA.” FlightGlobal.
— “Ford vs. GM: Same industry, two increasingly different companies.” CNBC.
— “Frontier Airlines flight diverted after unruly passenger discovered with a box cutter.” NBC News.
