With help from Tanya Snyder and Brianna Gurciullo
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— As they line up an infrastructure bill that relies on massive deficit spending, Democrats are blaming Republicans for failing to find a funding method.
— The EU may shut out travelers from the U.S. when it reopens its borders next week.
— An association representing low-cost airlines says it’s hoping for a second round of federal assistance when CARES Act funds expire.
IT’S WEDNESDAY: 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 [email protected] 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, railways, rivers and runways.
PUT IT ON THE CREDIT CARD: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer acknowledged on Tuesday that Democratic leaders plan to pass their $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill with $145 billion of deficit spending, and he blamed the White House for not coming up with a pay-for. House Transportation ranking member Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said it was “disingenuous at best” for Democrats to put together a huge bill with no Republican input and then ask Republicans to help them figure out how to pay for it.
GOP PILES ON: Graves doesn’t like the Democrats’ infrastructure plan much anyway, saying it “has been completely swallowed up in the Speaker’s partisan agenda” and would “pile more debt onto future generations with a massive General Fund bailout.”
And Energy and Commerce ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) knocked the bill’s auto safety provisions as “another win for the well-funded trial bar,” referring to a trial lawyers group that’s been a major thorn in the side of efforts to pass autonomous vehicle legislation. The Republicans are annoyed that the bill doesn’t include the committee’s AV legislation that passed the House in 2017 and that several of the safety provisions “have had absolutely no committee process or Republican input,” according to a Republican E&C aide.
Mnuchin says, ‘meh’: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been talking to House tax-writers about infrastructure pay-fors with no conclusion thus far, said at a Bloomberg event on Tuesday that despite the president’s abiding interest in infrastructure, it’s probably not going to make its way into the next coronavirus package, which he thinks will come together in July. “The issue with infrastructure is normally these are not shovel-ready,” he said. “So normally, even if we pass something, this isn’t going to impact getting people back to work in September and October.”
Data point: The National League of Cities surveyed officials from more than 1,100 municipalities and found that 65 percent of cities have had to delay or cancel capital expenditures and infrastructure projects since the coronavirus pandemic broke out.
A BIG FENCE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC: The EU is preparing to block Americans from entering as Europe gets ready to reopen its borders next week. Ahead of a July 1 deadline, “EU diplomats are considering plans that would see only a limited number of countries placed on a safe list to restart flights with the EU — threatening tensions with some of the bloc’s biggest global partners” like the U.S. and Brazil, report POLITICO’s Florian Eder, Saim Saeed and Jacopo Barigazzi.
There’s a meeting today among EU ambassadors to determine the criteria, but it’s expected that countries will have to have an infection rate below the EU’s average to be on the list, which would rule out the U.S.
In addition to being an embarrassment for the Trump administration, the restriction would also be a major blow to the airline industry, which desperately wants international travel to pick up as soon as possible. Travel and airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt summed it up succinctly: “Well, this sucks.”
IT’S OVER 600,000: In better news for the airline industry domestically, daily air travel numbers in the U.S. rose to more than 600,000 on Monday for the first time in more than three months, according to TSA data.
LOOKING BACK AT AIR CARGO: Airlines transported 651,000 tons of cargo between the U.S. and other countries in April, a 21 percent decrease from the same month in 2019, according to preliminary data from DOT on Tuesday. They carried 117,000 tons between the U.S. and Europe — a 44 percent drop from last year.
LOW COST CARRIERS CALL FOR MORE CASH: A lobbying group representing budget U.S. air carriers is calling for more federal government funding for airlines, saying that more assistance (in the form of a “clean extension”) will be needed when CARES Act funds run out on Sept. 30. “I think a second tranche will be there,” said George Novak, CEO of the National Air Carrier Association, during a webcast with Aviation World. “There’s going to be political desire to see it, particularly in an election season.” Read more from Bloomberg, which first reported on the comments.
By our count: NACA, which represents airlines including Spirit and Frontier, joins unions representing flight attendants and pilots in asking for a second round of aid.
CEO CORNER: Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian reupped the airline industry’s stance that the federal government should be doing more to mandate masks aboard planes during an interview with Axios on Monday, saying a regulatory change would give weight to airlines’ own policies. “If you take your mask off, no, we will not forcibly remove you from the plane,” Bastian said. “If the government were to mandate it, I think that would help. Because if the government mandated, then you can enforce it.”
Bastian also notably declined to criticize President Donald Trump’s handling of the ongoing protests over police brutality. “I can’t speak to the president’s actions,” the Delta chief said at first, but Axios’ Jim VandeHei countered: “One of the reasons you … can’t speak out is you need Donald Trump. … You need the federal support. So even if you did want to speak out, you really couldn’t, right?” Bastian again demurred: “Listen Jim, I’m not going to judge the president’s actions. He will take appropriate steps as he deems fit.”
ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN: A federal watchdog on Tuesday criticized DOT for not taking the lead on developing a plan to address the role of aviation in spreading diseases like Covid-19. We’ve covered the report that said as much in the past few months, but the GAO’s Heather Krause reinforced the point at a House hearing. Such a plan could have “reduced some of the confusion” caused by airports and airlines having a lack of federal guidance, and could have established better “communication mechanisms.” Pros can read more from our Brianna Gurciullo.
ON THE FAA COFFERS: FAA Administrator Steve Dickson says the agency’s aviation trust fund might need help from the federal government’s general fund, as we reported earlier this month. But Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, isn’t buying it after crunching some numbers: “There is no dire or immediate need for a general-fund bailout of the Trust Fund.”
FORWARD LOOKING: TSA on Tuesday detailed Administrator’s David Pekoske goals for the next two years. Among them: “Research and pilot remote screening and contactless or lighter touch transportation security equipment and processes,” and create “programs that ensure the resilience of the workforce and its ability to continue operations during exigent circumstances,” such as a government shutdown or a pandemic.
— “India mulls international air ‘bubbles’ after U.S. cries foul.” Bloomberg.
— “Delta will be first U.S. airline to resume flights to China.” Atlanta Journal Constitution.
— “A low-flying ‘show of force.’” The Washington Post.
— “WMATA replaces rail control center leadership amid train safety violations.” WAMU.
— “Italy arrests Siemens, Alstom executives over Milan subway deals.” Reuters.
— “The first US airline pilot with diabetes captains commercial flight.” CNN.
— “Senators want the public to see the government’s UFO reports.” POLITICO Pro.
DOT appropriations run out in 98 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,194 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 98 days.
