With help from Tanya Snyder
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DEFAZIO HAS A REAL CHALLENGER: A titan of transportation on Capitol Hill is facing the toughest reelection battle of his career, and the outcome could impact an early infrastructure push by Joe Biden, if the former vice president takes the White House next month. Peter DeFazio, who’s been in Congress since 1987 and led Democrats on the Transportation Committee for the past six years, is facing a massive fundraising blitz in favor of his GOP opponent, Alek Skarlatos, a 27-year old best known for his role in stopping a terrorist attack on a train in France. “I can’t outspend him. We can’t even match him. He raised more money in a quarter than I’ve ever raised in a year in my life. But we can outwork him,” DeFazio told supporters last week. Read the full story from your MT host and Sarah Ferris.
The Oregon Democrat would be a natural point-person on the Hill for infrastructure if BIden wins. DeFazio said he’s already spoken to Biden’s team several times and plans to be ready to go in February, when Biden would launch an infrastructure package. And he’s also pushing Biden’s campaign to consider his own surface transportation legislation, a climate-focused bill with $494 billion worth of investment in highways, rail, transit and more.
DeFazio is also an ally of transportation labor groups, whose influence has been instrumental in airline workers’ push for government help, and he would be hard to replace in that role. “If he lost, it would be devastating for all transportation workers,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, who grew up in his Oregon district and cast her first vote for DeFazio when she was 18. “There’s just never been anyone like Peter DeFazio in terms of his knowledge base, his grit and determination to get results, his fundamental centering as a worker and average person.”
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STIMULUS UPDATE: The Senate will vote Wednesday on a coronavirus relief bill similar to one it took up in September, a “targeted” package that does not include any aid for airlines, airports or other transportation interests. In a separate negotiation process, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin are still trying to hash out disagreements over their own deal. They spoke for an hour and 15 minutes on Saturday night and plan to talk again today.
Tight timeline: Pelosi said on Sunday that if a deal is to be done before the election, it would have to be in the next 24 hours.
MAX IN THE AIR IN 2020? The Boeing 737 MAX is approaching approval to fly again. The formal process isn’t complete, but European aviation regulators say they’re satisfied with the changes Boeing has made to the plane since the two crashes a year-and-a-half ago. Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, also told Bloomberg that the plane could fly again in Europe before the end of the year, which likely means that the process is even closer to ending in the U.S., because regulators at the FAA have to be the first to sign off. “The comments mark the firmest endorsement yet from a major regulator of Boeing’s goal to return its beleaguered workhorse to service by year-end, following numerous delays and setbacks,” writes Siddharth Vikram Philip.
American Airlines is also planning to return MAX jets to service for passenger flights by the end of this year, Reuters reports, although the carrier said that will depends on the FAA’s timeline.
WE’RE CONFUSED, TOO: The Highway Trust Fund excise tax numbers out of the Treasury Department continue to be, frankly, a little wacky. According to figures released Friday, HTF excise tax revenues were up 22 percent in September over the same month last year. But take those numbers with a large grain of salt. Treasury appears to be catching up with receipts not logged earlier in the pandemic — relatedly, the 79 percent decrease posted in May probably presented a far more dire picture than the actual receipts would have shown.
Overall, Treasury is showing that 2020 to date is just 2 percent below where HTF receipts were at this time last year.
CHAO TODAY: Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is set to speak at the Milken Institute’s virtual 23rd annual Global Summit at 1:15 p.m. Watch it here.
HOW YA DOING? The FAA is launching a new effort to collect information about how well U.S. airlines and airports have implemented DOT’s voluntary recommendations for reducing coronavirus spread through air travel. The agency said in a Federal Register notice that the government will use the information to “gauge implementation, identify the impact of recommended practices on aviation safety and operations, understand potential barriers to implementation, and identify additional mitigation practices.” Around 520 airports and 60 airlines will be contacted.
Reminder: Critics said the “Runway to Recovery” guidelines that this survey will look at were too lenient because they failed to mandate mask wearing or any other measures on board aircraft or at airports.
THE JUST-IN-CASE REGULATORY PUSH: The Trump administration is speeding to make regulatory changes across a wide range of industries, including many impacting transportation, as summed up in a new story by the New York Times’ Eric Lipton. Some examples:
— Limiting comment on a Labor Department proposal to set federal standards for defining when a worker is an independent contractor or an employee, a step that could affect millions of gig workers for companies like Uber and Lyft, in an attempt to finish it before the end of the year.
— Pushing to finish a rule that would allow railroads to carry liquefied natural gas on freight trains.
— Advancing an hours-of-service exemption for truck drivers hauling agricultural commodities via an interim final rule, which limits public comment.
— “Trump’s 2016 campaign pledges on infrastructure have fallen short, creating opening for Biden.” Washington Post.
— “Gov. Abbott’s office to ‘re-evaluate’ bullet train project stance after being provided ‘incomplete information.’” Dallas Morning News.
— “Tesla’s seven-day return policy has been quietly removed.” The Verge.
— “It’s a U.S. territory where the coronavirus never arrived — but some residents can’t get home.” Buzzfeed News.
— “An outlier union is trying to raid American Airlines mechanics.” Forbes.
— “Uganda’s ‘taxi divas’ rise from Covid-19′s economic gloom.” Associated Press.
DOT appropriations run in 53 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,076 days. The surface transportation reauthorization expires in 346 days.
