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FAA, Boeing to take another beating on the Hill


With help from Brianna Gurciullo, Stephanie Beasley and Tanya Snyder

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The head of the FAA as well as former employees at the agency and Boeing will answer questions on the 737 MAX in a House hearing today.

Consumer advocacy groups and victims of a deadly 2015 Amtrak derailment are joining the growing crowd criticizing the railroad for its new arbitration policy.

House lawmakers are eyeing an extension of the October 2020 deadline for travelers to have REAL ID-compliant identification to fly.

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MORE SCRUTINY ON BOEING, FAA: The agency’s chief, a retired Boeing manager and family members of victims will come together in a House hearing room today as the Transportation Committee meets again on the 737 MAX. The hearing could be an explosive one. Ed Pierson, who left Boeing months before the Lion Air crash off the coast of Indonesia, will tell lawmakers that he “witnessed a factory in chaos” in Renton, Wash. He will also say that he was dissatisfied with Boeing’s response when he brought up concerns before and after the Lion Air accident, and he was disappointed again when he voiced concerns to the NTSB and FAA after the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March.

What else we’re watching for: Whether Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) tips his hand about potential legislation. He told us last week that lawmakers “have ideas on reforms,” but what specific changes could Congress mandate to the FAA’s certification process?

We won’t be surprised if Republicans complain about the lack of testimony from folks who were making decisions at the FAA when the MAX was going through certification. “Without that perspective, there is a gaping hole in the majority’s investigation,” a spokesperson for committee Republicans told MT.

The hearing will also be a chance for FAA Administrator Steve Dickson to give an update on the return-to-service process. Boeing has been hoping to get its MAX software changes certified by the end of the year, but Dickson recently told his employees to take the time they need to study the fixes.

CHANGE AFOOT AT THE FAA: The Washington Post reported Tuesday evening that the FAA is creating a new safety branch, called the “Aircraft Certification Safety Program Management Branch,” to address gaps in oversight and “concerns arising from the agency’s own ongoing reorganization of its certification offices.” The new branch will serve a “national safety program management function,” and “disperse safety information” across the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service.

The story tied the change to the 737 MAX crashes, but the FAA batted that down in a response sent to reporters. “The standup of this branch is not directly related to the 737 Max. The FAA is constantly evolving and changing to continue addressing the safety needs of the flying public. This move was part of an ongoing reorganization that began more than 2 years ago,” said spokesperson Brianna Manzelli.

DEMOCRATS CRITICIZE COAST GUARD HEAD FOR SKIPPING HEARING: House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) slammed Coast Guard Commandant Karl Schultz on Tuesday for refusing to appear at today’s hearing on how the agency addresses harassment, bullying and retaliation. In a letter to Schultz, they said his refusal is part of a “troubling trend of impediments to congressional oversight.”

USCG responds: Coast Guard spokesperson CWO Barry Lane said Vice Admiral Michael McAllister has been chosen to testify “because his areas of expertise and assigned responsibilities are most relevant to the inquiry, and he is best-suited to represent the Coast Guard at this hearing.”

LOVE FOR THE TRADE DEAL: The new North American trade deal reached on Tuesday between House Democrats and the White House was well-loved by the transportation sector. The Association of American Railroads said USMCA provides “much-needed certainty with our two largest trading partners.” The trucking industry and automakers are in favor, too. “It allows the U.S. auto industry to be globally competitive, encourages U.S. research and development in this new era of mobility, and provides a framework for good-paying U.S. jobs,” Ford said in a statement. Even the AFL-CIO is on board. Pros can read more from your MT host.

AMTRAK ARBITRATION POLICY SEES MORE BACKLASH: The latest critics of Amtrak’s forced arbitration policy for passengers are a coalition of groups, including the NAACP and Public Citizen, that wrote to Amtrak and Congress on Tuesday asking for a reversal of the policy, which was instituted in January. And 19 victims of a 2015 derailment in Philadelphia, including relatives of two people killed in the crash, also urged lawmakers to push Amtrak to remove the provision prohibiting passengers from suing. “We strongly believe that the only reason we received some measure of justice … is because we had the right to hold Amtrak accountable in a court of law,” they wrote.

‘DEATH TRAP’ HARNESSES: The NTSB said Tuesday that a helicopter crash in New York’s East River was the result of the operator using “a dangerous harness-and-tether system to strap in passengers who were taking photos of New York City,” our Brianna Gurciullo reports. The passengers drowned in the 2018 accident. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said their restraint systems “turned a perfectly good helicopter into a death trap.”

REAL CLOSE: House lawmakers expect DHS will need to extend the deadline for Americans to have a REAL ID-compliant identification card considering less than one-third have one and the deadline is just 10 months away, our Stephanie Beasley reports. Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are urging the Trump administration to work with Congress to extend the deadline. A Republican committee aide said DHS could make the change on its own, though it hasn’t expressed a willingness to do so.

A dealbreaker: Travel industry groups and state motor vehicle departments say compliance levels would quickly swell with an online application process. But setting that up might require a statutory change and House Republicans have already said they wouldn’t support the proposal if it allowed participation from states that provide ID cards to undocumented immigrants.

IN TSA’S CORNER: Members of a TSA advisory panel are weighing whether to press Congress to boost the agency’s budget, Stephanie reports. Aviation Security Advisory Committee Chairman Stephen Alterman said during a meeting Tuesday that it might be time for the panel to consider exercising its right to take a position on spending legislation given how fiscal constraints were hampering TSA’s ability to implement panel recommendations. He later told Stephanie that the idea “may not work” but will be discussed at a future meeting.

HALFWAY THERE: TSA chief David Pekoske said at the same meeting that he’s planning to “revise and refresh” the objectives he included in the agency’s eight-year strategy now that he’s at the midpoint of his five-year term. The updated document is expected to be released in spring 2020, he said. “I really want to revise those and really focus on where we go for the balance of my term and setting it up for whoever succeeds me in this position,” he said. Serge Potapov, TSA’s supervisory air marshal in charge of security assessments and insider threats and an advisory panel member, said he would work to ensure 21 insider threat prevention recommendations recently made by the panel were included in the updated strategy.

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: The Atlantic Council is out with a new report today that encourages the international aviation community to back the International Civil Aviation Organization’s efforts to create cybersecurity standards and to generally do more to incorporate cyber considerations into service contracts, personnel training and passenger protections.

Brianna Manzelli is now assistant administrator of communications at the FAA. She was most recently deputy communications director for Senate Commerce Committee Republicans.

Robert Pearce is NASA’s new associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, succeeding Jaiwon Shin. Pearce was acting associate administrator for the past few months.

— “D.C. sues Greyhound, saying buses idle illegally.” WAMU.

— “Wheelchairs on planes: why can’t passengers use their own onboard?” NPR.

— GAO double feature: “Information on airlines’ denied boarding practices,” “Effects of changes to the Essential Air Service program.”

— “How media coverage of car crashes downplays the role of drivers.” CityLab.

— “Exposed data shows where police departments fly their drones.” Vice.

— “Planes and ships face EU Green Deal double whammy.” POLITICO Europe.

DOT appropriations run out in 9 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,390 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 295 days.





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