With help from Stephanie Beasley and Alex Guillén
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— A former NHTSA official is heading to Uber, joining the ranks of former regulators populating the D.C. office of the rideshare giant.
— A much scrutinized drone company is joining an FAA pilot program exploring the integration of UAS into the national airspace.
— Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) wants DHS to stop moving forward on a proposal that would require U.S. citizens to have their faces scanned at airports when they enter and depart the country.
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DOT OFFICIAL JOINING UBER: Brian Barnard, a top aide to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, is heading to Uber’s Washington office, Theodoric Meyer scooped in POLITICO Influence. Barnard, who previously worked at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and for former Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.), will be a senior manager of federal affairs at Uber and plans to register to lobby. He’ll abide by the administration’s ethics pledge, according to Uber, which bars him from lobbying the Transportation Department as well as senior Trump appointees, Theodoric reports.
The pipeline: He’ll join fellow former DOTers Susan Hendrick, an Obama administration deputy press secretary at the agency, and Nat Beuse, another former NHTSA official, at the rideshare giant. And it’s part of a broader trend of auto safety regulators taking jobs with driverless or other tech companies.
CHAO BRINGS DEREGULATORY MESSAGE TO FLORIDA: Chao, speaking in Florida earlier this week, touted the administration’s deregulatory efforts, according to a local report. “The results have been spectacular,” Chao said, as quoted in the publication Florida Politics. She told the audience at the annual conference of Florida TaxWatch, a taxpayer watchdog, that regulatory costs at DOT have decreased by a net of $3.7 billion during the Trump administration.
DJI JOINS FAA PROGRAM: The Chinese drone giant has joined DOT’s Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program at Memphis International Airport, which is using the company’s drones for aircraft inspections, delivery of aircraft parts, airport perimeter security and other safety inspections. DJI drones have been used in the FAA’s drone pilot programs before, but it’s the first time the company has been brought in as a partner, after being selected by the Memphis airport.
The Department of Homeland Security has warned that Chinese-made drones might not be secure enough for federal agency use. And the Interior Department recently grounded its Chinese-made drone fleet over security concerns.
“We’re excited to be involved at this level, and we think it shows once again that the people who use drones for a living understand the value of our products and the built-in protections that let them use our products with confidence,” said DJI spokesperson Adam Lisberg.
OFFICE (OF) SPACE: The FAA is reorganizing its Office of Commercial Space Transportation to “be more responsive to industry,” the division’s chief said. Wayne Monteith, FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said this week that “licensing activity has increased about 1,000 percent” in the last seven years. “We see that there’s a potential for that to happen again over the next five years,” he said. Pros can get more details from our Brianna Gurciullo.
737 MAX UPDATE: Indian aviation safety officials are weighing instituting tougher requirements for the Boeing 737 MAX when it returns to service, Reuters reported Tuesday. On top of the new pilot training plan that Boeing is readying for FAA approval, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation “may consider mandating a minimum number of flying hours for pilots of the 737 MAX,” according to the story.
More MAX hearings on tap? Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee may hold another hearing on problems with the grounded jet before the end of this year, Chairman Roger Wicker said Tuesday evening.
FACE TIME: Markey is calling for DHS to halt plans to release a proposal that would require U.S. citizens to have their faces scanned when they enter and depart the country, and he plans to introduce legislation that would block such a mandate. “This proposal would amount to disturbing government coercion, and as the recent data breach at Customs and Border Protection shows, Homeland Security cannot be trusted to keep our information safe and secure,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
The backstory: The Trump administration said in a regulatory agenda published last month that it wants to issue a proposal for U.S. citizens to provide photos and participate in the biometric entry-exit system operated by CBP by July 2020. Currently, the agency collects biometric data for foreign travelers but has said it eventually wants to collect biometric data on all travelers. As POLITICO previously reported, the rulemaking notice has appeared in the agenda before.
LONG DISTANCE, NO FUTURE? Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson sounded off in an interview with NPR this week, suggesting that he does not see the famed long-distance routes as being important to Amtrak’s future. “Americans live in a very different way and all the growth in our country has come in urban corridors like the corridor from Boston to New York,” Anderson told “Here and Now”. “If we’re going to deal with congestion, growing population and the carbon footprint of automobiles, Amtrak is the best answer for inner-city transportation in a 200 to 300-mile market.”
Regardless, he said, the railroad is also searching ways to serve rural communities and the vocal group of people who appreciate “the beauty of going 45 miles an hour on a train for a couple of days.”
MANAGING CONGESTION, AND MAKING MONEY: Managed lanes, like high-occupancy toll lanes, have been working well but may not be recession-proof, Fitch Ratings warned in a new report this week. While standard toll road revenue has grown just 1 percent so far in fiscal 2019, managed lanes grew by a median rate of 21 percent, our Tanya Snyder writes. Managed lanes charge drivers to ride in less-congested lanes when highways are crowded, meaning they do well when demand is high. But “this same dynamic leaves MLs more vulnerable to corridor traffic declines, whether caused by recession, increased corridor capacity, or new competing routes,” Fitch warned.
Another interesting paper released Tuesday by the credit rating agency compares “cordon pricing” (charging drivers to enter a particular geographical area like part of a city) in Europe and the U.S. The analysis suggests that there’s a smaller pool of U.S. cities where cordon pricing could work, because many don’t contain a single central business district or urban core, are lower density, and have fewer public transit options.
TRAILER MAKERS WANT SUIT TO KEEP ON TRUCKIN’: The Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association has lost its patience waiting for EPA and NHTSA to reconsider an Obama-era rule that for the first time applied emissions and fuel economy standards to trailers, which don’t have engines. The agencies said they would reconsider the rule but “have made no discernible progress and there is no prospect of progress in sight,” TTMA complained in a court filing Tuesday night. If the lawsuit is not revived soon, the standards that take effect in 2021 will start affecting trailer orders, which are made months before delivery, TTMA argued. “The continuing uncertainty as to what the Agencies will do, with no end in sight, is untenable for TTMA’s members,” the group wrote.
— “‘It appeared that we had time’: How the FAA missed a chance to save Jennifer Riordan.” Washington Post.
— “Burbank airport sits in the path of California’s bullet train, so a tunnel is in the works.” Los Angeles Times.
— “Volkswagen headquarters raided again over diesel scandal.” Reuters.
— “Rep. Duncan Hunter pleads guilty to misusing campaign funds.” Associated Press.
— “Tesla’s Cybertruck to join Mexican city’s police force.” CNET.
— “Uber’s free-wheeling era of growth is coming to an end.” Quartz.
DOT appropriations run out in 16 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,397 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 302 days.
