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— The House comes back today to pass the budget resolution — but not the infrastructure bill.
— The Defense Department has activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, pressing 18 commercial jets into service to help transport evacuees from Afghanistan.
— Liz Schuler is the new president of the AFL-CIO, but AFA President Sara Nelson could have her shot in less than a year.
IT’S MONDAY AGAIN: You’re reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. Welcome Sam back with tips, pitches and feedback at [email protected] or @samjmintz.
WELCOME BACK, CONGRESS: The House comes back today for a short interruption to its August recess. At 11 a.m., the Rules Committee will meet to pass the rule governing debate on three key bills: the bipartisan infrastructure bill, H.R. 3684 (117); a voting rights bill named after the late Rep. John Lewis, H.R. 4; and the Democratic budget resolution, S. Con. Res. 14. Per Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan, House members will pass the rule tonight and then pass the budget resolution Tuesday before heading back to their districts.
As you may have heard, there is disagreement over the proper order in which things should proceed from there: Pelosi refuses to hold a vote on the infrastructure bill until the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill is ready to be voted on, too. And the reconciliation bill can’t happen until after the budget resolution is enacted. Meanwhile, a group of nine House moderates is publicly — and reportedly dozens more are privately — pushing for the infrastructure bill to come to the floor now. They’re threatening to tank the vote on the budget resolution if the infrastructure bill doesn’t come to the floor along with it.
That’s the status as lawmakers head to the Capitol today.
The smart money’s on Pelosi: It’s never a good idea to bet against Pelosi’s whipping skills, and most people we’ve talked to think she’ll get her way. But it’s not just a handful of centrists in her caucus who would have liked a quicker vote on the infrastructure bill: The Chamber of Commerce and many others in the business community and in the transportation world are eager to see that money start making its way around the country.
What that means for the FAST Act reauthorization: Remember, swallowed up inside that infrastructure bill is the five-year reauthorization for surface transportation programs that expire Sept. 30. Pelosi said in a letter to Democrats on Saturday that “the House is hard at work to enact both the Build Back Better Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure bill before October 1st, when the BIF would go into effect.” But the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is worried that if Congress kicks the can now, they could run out of time and end up having to enact a short-term extension.
U.S. AIRLINES ENLISTED TO SUPPORT AFGHAN EVACUATION EFFORT: The federal government has activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet for only the third time since its creation in 1951, announcing Sunday that the Pentagon would use 18 commercial planes to airlift Afghan evacuees from locations in the Middle East and Europe to other areas of the world. Our Oriana Pawlyk reports that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for a “first stage” CRAF mobilization, utilizing three planes each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and Omni Air; two from Hawaiian Airlines; and four from United Airlines.
No-fly zone: The planes “will not fly into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul” but will move “passengers from temporary safe havens and interim staging bases,” Defense officials said. “Activating CRAF … allows military aircraft to focus on operations in and out of Kabul.”
Key things to know, per Oriana: The Defense Department and U.S. Transportation Command are the activating authority for CRAF. The airlines volunteer for the program, which also involves the Department of Transportation. Commercial carriers retain their civil status, while USTRANSCOM “exercises mission control via its air component, Air Mobility Command,” the Pentagon said. DoD said it “does not anticipate a major impact to commercial flights from this activation.”
The CRAF was previously activated for service in the Iraq wars in 1990 and 2003.
A note on the status of refugees: President Joe Biden sought to make clear on Sunday that planes evacuating refugees from Kabul are not flying directly to the U.S. but will go through comprehensive security screening at U.S. military bases and “transit centers” around the world. “Once screened and cleared, we will welcome these Afghans who helped us in the war effort to their new home in the United States of America because that’s who we are,” Biden said. “That’s what America is.”
FLIGHT STATS: More flights operated in June 2021 than any month since March 2020, but the total number of flights is still at 83 percent of pre-pandemic levels, “with 564,583 flights operated in June 2021 compared with 679,802 flights operated in June 2019,” according to DOT’s latest Air Travel Consumer Report. That’s still more than twice as many flights as in June 2020.
AFL-CIO HAS A NEW PRESIDENT: Liz Shuler is the new president of the AFL-CIO following an executive council vote Friday to determine a successor for Richard Trumka, who died unexpectedly earlier this month. Shuler, the first female president in the union’s history, will serve out the rest of Trumka’s term until summer 2022, at which point the AFL-CIO’s 50-plus affiliate unions will vote on a permanent successor.
Nelson in the wings: Shuler was unopposed, but flight attendant union president Sara Nelson had been floated as the most likely challenger to Shuler to take over the AFL-CIO, since long before Trumka’s death. More radical than either Shuler or Trumka, Nelson has become a charismatic star of the labor movement since the pandemic has launched her into the center of battles over federal relief for airlines, Covid safety measures, unruly passengers and more. But her star was already rising — The New York Times declared that the 2018-19 government shutdown “made Sara Nelson into America’s most powerful flight attendant.”
Crystal ball: Despite not being picked to finish Trumka’s term, Nelson can be expected to make a case for herself to take over next year.
BORDER TO STAY CLOSED FOR NOW: U.S. border restrictions, in place since March 2020, will stay in place at least until Sept. 21, DHS announced Friday. “To minimize the spread of #COVID19, including the Delta variant, the United States is extending restrictions on non-essential travel at our land and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico through September 21, while continuing to ensure the flow of essential trade and travel,” DHS tweeted.
The move was expected, but separated families, as well as business leaders and lawmakers, greeted it with frustration. Many had been pressing Biden “to loosen border measures or at least provide a detailed plan,” reports Andy Blatchford. “In contrast, Canada started welcoming fully vaccinated U.S. visitors Aug. 9. The country has higher vaccination rates than the U.S., though it is dealing with a fourth wave of the pandemic.”
CONGESTION PRICING IN THE SLOW LANE: DOT and New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority have agreed to a 16-month timeline to conduct the environmental assessment to roll out congestion pricing, MTA announced Friday. After that, a vendor would have up to 310 days to install scanners and do other technical work to get the system operational, reported Danielle Muoio. All of that means that the earliest congestion pricing could be installed would be 2023 — two years after the initial goal. That delay could deal a challenging blow to MTA’s $51.5 billion capital plan, which was counting on $15 billion in revenues from congestion pricing.
— “Flight attendants train in self-defense as air rage rises.” NBC News.
— “Tesla’s German factory pits politicians against environmentalists.” POLITICO Europe.
— “Most public transportation services suspended because of Tropical Storm Henri.” NBC Connecticut.
— “Millions of electric car batteries will retire in the next decade. What happens to them?” The Guardian.
