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— The FAA is standing by the information it gave Congress regarding a whistleblower allegation, which the U.S. Office of Special Counsel says was misleading.
— Sen. Ted Cruz wants to “reset” the conversation as he weighs another attempt at overhauling the air traffic control system.
— President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans say the rapidly escalating impeachment moves in the House are getting in the way of policy work, including infrastructure.
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THE OTHER WHISTLEBLOWER: The FAA on Tuesday publicly denied it had misled Congress about whether a whistleblower’s allegation relating to safety inspector training applied to the grounded Boeing 737 MAX. In a statement, the agency said it “stands behind” its responses to the Senate Commerce Committee and all of the inspectors who evaluated the MAX “were fully qualified for those activities.”
Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said OSC’s findings are “very troubling” and his committee will continue to investigate a potential link between inadequate inspector training and the MAX.
Our Brianna Gurciullo has the tick tock and more details from the documents released by OSC earlier this week.
What’s next: Lawmakers will have a chance to dive into the issue today, when Deputy FAA Administrator Dan Elwell testifies before the House Appropriations Transportation-HUD panel. Chairman David Price (D-N.C.) said he’ll bring it up, tweeting: “The @FAA aviation certification process must ensure safety comes before company profits and production timelines.”
CRUZ WANTS NEW LOOK AT AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL REVAMP: The Texas Republican, who chairs the Senate Commerce Aviation Subcommittee, said at a Tuesday hearing he’s not interested in rehashing old fights about overhauling the air traffic control system — he wants a reset. As your MT host reports, he didn’t indicate much else about how he’ll approach the issue, but the message was clear from his questions to the general aviation advocates testifying, whose groups fought efforts to separate air traffic control from the FAA in 2018. “What would be a win for you that you would be able to go back to your members and celebrate?” he asked.
One other thing from the hearing: The bipartisan, bicameral legislation, which would protect the FAA from future government shutdowns, has wings. “I find no one who is opposed to this legislation,” said bill sponsor Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). He said the only argument against the measure, S. 762 (116), is that eliminating the consequences of a shutdown causing problems with air traffic control could increase the chances of a shutdown. But that hypothetical earned scorn from Ed Bolen, head of the National Business Aviation Association. “That’s an ‘only in Washington’ explanation,” Bolen said.
EPA TARGETS CALIFORNIA’S HIGHWAY FUNDING: Agency officials defended the administration’s threat to slash the state’s highway funding as an effort to clean up the country’s worst air quality, instead of retaliation for pushing back on Trump’s policies. “The administration and EPA’s goal is to get the country into attainment with National Ambient Air Quality Standards that will protect public health with an adequate margin of safety for Americans across the country,” said an EPA official who spoke to reporters on background, according to Pro Energy’s Alex Guillén.
Alex broke down the situation in a longer story for Pros, looking at how the EPA has put California in the crosshairs, which environmental advocates and state officials argue is a thinly veiled political attack.
If the administration followed through on its threat, it could, in a strange twist, be “the most pro-transit thing the Trump Admin. has ever done,” noted Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation. The move would allow the state to use its highway formula funds for transit projects instead.
PAI’S GOT THE POWER: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday that discussions with DOT are ongoing over how to handle the lightly used spectrum that’s reserved for vehicle communications. Pai postponed a rulemaking earlier this year that would have looked at opening up the 5.9 GHz band to other users — and apparently doesn’t like reports suggesting he gave in to a request from Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
“Just to clarify, I did not say that I deferred to the Transportation Department on timing, but rather that I was working with DOT. Those discussions continue and are productive and we hope to make progress in the near future,” Pai said at a spectrum management conference on Tuesday morning, according to an MT reader in the room.
IMPEACHMENT AS AN INFRASTRUCTURE IMPEDIMENT? Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Democrats’ push toward an impeachment inquiry is stopping Congress from getting anything done on “gun safety, lowering of prescription drug prices, infrastructure, etc.” (For the record, that’s the third time in the last few weeks he’s described a list of policy priorities that ended with “infrastructure, etc.,” according to the archivists at www.trumptwitterarchive.com.)
House Transportation Republicans agree. “There are many important infrastructure issues we should be addressing. The House has failed thus far to put forward any workable infrastructure bill, despite the American people’s and the President’s desire to pass a bipartisan package,” the members, led by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), tweeted.
MT’s fact check: True but could use context. The House hasn’t put forward a surface transportation bill to match the Senate’s legislation — but the delay doesn’t appear to be connected with impeachment. And, of course, bipartisan talks on infrastructure earlier this year at the White House blew up when Trump stormed out of a meeting with Democratic leaders.
LIPINSKI’S PLANS: Rail should stay embedded in the next surface transportation bill, according to Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Transportation Railroads and Pipelines Subcommittee. “In the FAST Act, passenger rail was explicitly part of the reauthorization bill for the first time. It’s a top priority of mine to do that again,” he said, according to our Tanya Snyder.
SENATE PANEL ADVANCES DHS FUNDING BILL: Senate appropriators approved a fiscal 2020 DHS spending bill that would boost staffing at TSA and CBP, our security expert Stephanie Beasley reported. For TSA, the legislation would allow for the hiring of more than 1,000 new checkpoint staff members, the purchase of 237 computed tomography machines, and 50 new canine teams. CBP would be able to send an additional 119 agents to ports of entry, and the Coast Guard would get enough funding to update its fleet with a new polar icebreaker and other ships and aircraft.
WHOOPS: The FAA updated its list of flight deck secondary barrier working group members to include the correct company of Luize-Mihaela Avrigeanu, who’s with Mitsubishi. The agency first announced it had selected the members last week.
ICYMI: The Coast Guard issued an emergency safety bulletin for passenger vessels, including recommendations for commercial boat operators to keep operational safety equipment on board and to reduce potential hazards from lithium batteries, power strips and extension cords. The bulletin came in response to a recent deadly dive boat fire off the coast of Santa Cruz, Calif. The boat’s designer told the LA Times he believed the fire was sparked by lithium battery chargers in the belly of the boat.
Steve McGough, president of the Texas-based construction software developer HCSS, will be chairman of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association through 2020, the organization said this week.
— “VW executives charged with misleading shareholders over diesel emissions.” Wall Street Journal.
— “Lyft tweaks its app to boost bikes, scooters, and mass transit.” The Verge.
— “Tech-powered trucks force transport sector to consider cybersecurity.” Wall Street Journal.
— “Fiat manager charged with lying about emissions tests.” POLITICO Pro.
— “UAW-GM picket lines become 2020 U.S. presidential campaign battleground.” Reuters.
DOT appropriations run out in 6 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,468 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 373 days.
