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The state of infrastructure talks is fractious


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ANOTHER WEEK OF INFRASTRUCTURE TALKS AHEAD: The bipartisan Senate working group crafting an infrastructure bill had hoped to produce an agreement by today and set up a potential second attempt at a test vote this week. That’s probably not happening. As an aide told POLITICO’s Burgess Everett, the group over the weekend was still trying to sort through funding for highways and bridges, water infrastructure, transit and broadband, in addition to utilizing unused Covid aid and Davis-Bacon labor provisions.

So, pretty much everything. The transit disagreements are a topic of particular interest (and growing concern) in most of transportation world. “Negotiations are in flux, but aides and lobbyists said that Republicans are angling for transit to not receive the full 20 percent of whatever the bill produces, but rather some lesser amount, arguing that transit interests have already received billions in Covid relief money,” our James Bikales reports. A number of Democratic senators, including committee chairmen Tom Carper and Sherrod Brown, have said they’re fighting to maintain the 80-20 split and will “not cut the traditional investment of transit programs in the Highway Trust Fund.”

Transit advocates are also growing uneasy about the direction of the talks — and some blame the Biden administration. Beth Osborne, the director of Transportation for America, said it appears that the White House believes it’s more important to secure a one-time infusion of funds than maintain transit funding in the long term. “They are under the impression that any deal is better than no deal,” she told POLITICO. “Frankly, I thought the Senate was a bigger problem than it turns out they are — it’s the White House that’s not backing the senators up that’s the bigger problem.”

The latest: On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), one of the lead Senate negotiators, clashed over the next steps for the bipartisan infrastructure package. Pelosi said that while House Democrats are “rooting for the infrastructure bill to pass,” she reiterated her pledge that the House will not take it up unless the Senate also passes a separate $3.5 trillion social spending package. Portman responded that her comments are “entirely counter to what President Biden has committed to” and “inconsistent with the agreement we have on a bipartisan basis.” Read more from POLITICO’s Marianne Levine.

IT’S MONDAY: You’re reading Morning Transportation, your guide to Washington policy and politics on planes, trains, cars and everything that moves. Send your tips, pitches and feedback to [email protected] or @samjmintz.

“The trouble train is comin’ / It’s been rollin’ through this town / Since I don’t know when / The trouble train they call it / And once you’re on it / You just can’t get off it, my friend.”

DeSANTIS GETS A BIG CRUISE INDUSTRY COURT WIN: A court battle between Florida and the CDC over cruise industry restrictions took yet another turn on Friday. A federal appeals court inexplicably reversed its week-old ruling that had kept intact rules put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis that came the same day as DeSantis had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the case, reports POLITICO Florida Matt Dixon.

“The cruise industry is free to safely set sail again!” declared a spokesman for the Republican governor. The political stakes for DeSantis are clear: “DeSantis used his fight with the CDC to amplify his hands-off approach to pandemic, which has helped him build a strong conservative following nationally and is increasingly seen as a top-tier Republican presidential candidate in 2024,” writes Matt.

HURRY UP, AND WAIT: A leaked presentation prepared by the Treasury Board of Canada suggests that even more than a year after the global pandemic hit, Canada still lags other countries in developing a system to issue and recognize proof of immunity to Covid-19. In a scoop for POLITICO, Jason Ling reports that based on shared pages from an internal PowerPoint presentation, Canada won’t have a national Covid-19 vaccine passport system until December 2021, at the earliest.

Why this matters: While there are no plans to make a vaccine passport mandatory, a lack of a standardized, national vaccine record could hobble Canadians’ ability to travel abroad as the world slowly reopens.

LOOKING FOR TOMORROW’S AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS: The FAA is launching a new awareness campaign to try to diversify the applications it receives to be air traffic controllers, aiming to hear from more women, minorities and individuals from disadvantaged communities. This year’s ATC application window is July 30 to Aug. 2, and the agency has created a toolkit that it’s sending out to partners about recruiting a more diverse set of applicants. “You know what it takes to keep the National Air System the safest and most efficient in the world. And you know we can’t do it without you. So help us find diverse, qualified, and motivated individuals from across the country to fill our applicant pools,” wrote Deputy Administrator Brad Mims.

— “Rush to build EV charging stations comes without promise of profit.” The Wall Street Journal.

— “The Senate’s E-BIKE Act could make electric bikes a lot cheaper.” The Verge.

— “Bus swerves off road in Croatia; 10 killed, 44 injured.” The Associated Press.

— “New cars are in limited supply in Alaska amid the microchip shortage. Prices for used cars are soaring.” Anchorage Daily News.

— “GM, Cruise sue Ford to block use of ‘BlueCruise’ name for hands-free driving.” Reuters.





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