Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Transportation is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Transportation subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, at politicopro.com.
— As House Democrats get ready to roll out their infrastructure plans this week, the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee is focusing on VMT.
Advertisement
— Early indications suggest poor weather conditions may have played a role in the helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
— The International Civil Aviation Organization has been on a Twitter blocking spree for the last few days, after facing criticism of its position on Taiwan.
IT’S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Get in touch with tips, feedback or song lyric suggestions at smintz@politico.com or @samjmintz.
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, rails, rivers and runways.
INFRASTRUCTURE COUNTERPROGRAMMING: House Transportation ranking member Sam Graves on Monday passed around the results of a pilot study on a vehicle miles traveled fee from Washington state. “This study highlights the unsustainability of relying on declining fuel tax revenues for maintaining and improving our roads and bridges,” Graves said in a statement. As our Tanya Snyder reports, where the last surface transportation bill supported pilot testing and studying transitioning to VMT, Graves is signaling that he wants the next bill to start building toward actual implementation, or else “the refrain that VMT is always ’10 years away’ isn’t going to change,” said a committee spokesperson.
That’s generally a bipartisan position, as you’ll probably hear on Wednesday when the House Ways and Means Committee discusses infrastructure funding. Everyone wants to move away from the gas tax and toward VMT when feasible. But leading House Democrats have said they want to raise the federal gas tax to fill the gap in the short term, and that’s what House Transportation Committee leaders have been moving toward with the chamber on the verge of putting forward an ambitious infrastructure plan.
By the way: Appearing at that Ways and Means hearing will be former Trump administration infrastructure adviser DJ Gribbin, Joung Lee of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, New Jersey DOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, former Merrill Lynch bond research head Philip Fischer, and Laura Canter of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.
IN THE D.C. SUBURBS: Virginia is the latest state to weigh a gas tax increase, with Gov. Ralph Northam proposing a 4 cent increase to help boost rail, transit and highway infrastructure. The hike, part of a broad transportation bill Northam introduced Monday, has already been endorsed by two leaders in the Democrat-controlled state legislature, The Washington Post reports. The state’s gas tax hasn’t gone up since 1986, and in fact was lowered in 2013 by a Republican governor who had proposed getting rid of it altogether. It’s currently one of the lowest in the country.
WEATHER MAY HAVE PLAYED ROLE IN CRASH THAT KILLED KOBE: NTSB investigators are on the ground in California as they look into the helicopter crash that killed Bryant and his daughter, along with seven other people, on Sunday. It will likely be 12 to 18 months before a final report detailing the causes, but early clues are emerging about the conditions that led up to it. Audio recordings of air traffic control transmissions make it clear the pilot was approved for special visual flight rules, The Washington Post reports. That means the aircraft was allowed to fly in worse-than-normal weather conditions, without using instruments. The NTSB has about 20 people in Los Angeles, and its investigation will look into weather data, radar information, air traffic control communications, maintenance logs and the pilot’s record, the agency told the Post.
ICAO’S TAIWAN STANCE CAUSES SOCIAL MEDIA STIR: The organization found itself blocking critics left and right on Twitter after it came under fire for its stance on Taiwan. Several researchers and analysts noted that ICAO’s exclusion of Taiwan, which hasn’t participated in meetings of the U.N. agency since 2013, means the country can’t be part of any coronavirus planning among the agency’s members.
In response, ICAO blocked several people involved with the discussion. It then earned more backlash for that, including from the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
ICAO’s main public response has been to note that its social media rules prohibit “irrelevant, compromising and offensive material” and it will “preclude” anyone who publishes such material. But the U.N. agency has also responded to one critic with a (seemingly irrelevant) GIF of a minion from the movie “Despicable Me.” The agency did not respond to a request for comment.
VIRUS UPDATE: The U.S. is now conducting screenings for coronavirus at the 20 airports that make up the bulk of travel from China, Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday, according to a pool report. The count of confirmed cases in the U.S. is up to 5, with 3,000 reported globally. The State Department on Monday raised its travel advisory for China from level 2 to level 3 and recommended people reconsider travel to the country.
The epidemic has prompted automakers to evacuate workers and consider production delays at their Chinese factories, according to MSNBC. Both Honda and PSA Group are withdrawing employees working near Wuhan, and Nissan is planning to pull back its employees and their families. Others automakers, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, have expanded travel restrictions for employees to the country, Michael Wayland reports.
FROM THE COURTROOM: A trial on travel booking giant Sabre’s bid to acquire software company Farelogix started on Monday, and Pro’s Leah Nylen has the details.
DOJ’s opener: “Once Farelogix is swallowed up by Sabre, Sabre’s incentive to innovate to keep up with it will disappear,” said Julie Elmer, an attorney for the Justice Department, which is seeking to block the deal. “Sabre is a company with significant market power seeking to take out one of its most relevant threats.”
Sabre responds: “Sabre is not a dominant company. It’s not Google,” said Sabre lawyer Steven Sunshine, noting that Farelogix has had success in areas where Sabre is weaker, including selling add-ons like extra seat space, meals and extra checked bags. “We are embracing it because we have to be part of the future,” Sunshine said.
EU CONSIDERS NEW CAR CYBER RULES: The European Commission is weighing new rules to protect connected cars from hacking, our POLITICO brethren in Brussels report. A draft industrial strategy, dated mid-January, includes a set of measures to boost the cybersecurity of products on the EU market, write Laurens Cerulus and Bjarke Smith-Meyer. The action would include creating certification schemes and standards and updating old legislation, as well as calling for new rules on vehicle cybersecurity under the EU’s recently adopted system for testing the security and safety of cars and other vehicles.
— “Here’s how long Washingtonians are spending on their commutes.” DCIst.
— “Boeing’s assembly plant is shuttered amid 737 MAX crisis. Now the company has a falcon problem.” Seattle Times.
— “GM picks Detroit factory to build driverless shuttle, electric trucks.” Wall Street Journal.
— “Airbus poised for deal to settle corruption probes.” Financial Times.
— “Electric scooter startup Bird extends latest funding round by $75 million.” Reuters.
DOT appropriations run out in 246 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,341 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 246 days.
