— Boeing revamped its lobbying team following the 737 MAX disasters in 2018 and 2019 and now faces the door blowout crisis with a new crew.
— The Japan Airlines evacuation took 18 minutes. Are U.S. regulations, requiring that a plane can be fully evacuated in 90 seconds, realistic?
— With the first anniversary of the East Palestine derailment approaching, DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg pressed Congress to pass a rail safety bill.
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NEW CRISIS, NEW LOBBYING TEAM FOR BOEING: Boeing overhauled its lobbying team after the 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. Now the aerospace giant faces a new safety crisis with a new crew, as it’s replaced more than a third of its registered federal lobbyists since 2019. In addition, many of the new people come from other industries, including a handful from Ford and FHWA. “They weren’t brought in as issue experts or with ties to the committees and members of jurisdiction, but as generalists, relying on outside consultants for expertise and access,” said one person familiar with the new team. “It’s a different model and one that could definitely leave them flat footed in a recurring crisis.”
Advantages and disadvantages: But while the new team may not have the same technical knowledge or deep understanding of the inner workings of the FAA, “the new in-house team has responded aggressively to the newest incident,” Hailey Fuchs reports, and have “been in touch with offices for every member of Congress since the door failure in Portland.” The new lobbyists are also “working in an atmosphere in the Capitol where support for Boeing eroded during the furor over MAX 8 fatalities.” Now, members are renewing calls for congressional investigations into Boeing and how the FAA oversees aircraft manufacturing.
The new guy: Ziad Ojakli, Boeing’s new top lobbyist who joined in 2021, took over a team that was not “fully formed” at a “really difficult time,” according to one aviation government affairs person interviewed. Ojakli, known as “Z,” spent his career at SoftBank and in the George W. Bush White House, as well as at Ford during the auto bailouts in the 2000s.
LESSONS FROM JAPAN: Airplane evacuation standards could get a fresh look after a burning Japanese airliner was successfully evacuated earlier this month, breathing new life into a long-running issue, Oriana reports. Some Democrats say the standards should reflect real world conditions that account for increasingly cramped airplane seating and the needs of people with disabilities, children and the elderly. Many experts agree.
90-second benchmark: At present, in order for an airplane to be certified by the FAA as safe to fly, the manufacturer must conduct an evacuation drill and demonstrate that everyone on a full flight can get out within 90 seconds. But critics, including Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chair Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), question whether that standard is realistic and takes into account hearing-impaired and disabled passengers, children and senior travelers.
“It’s not about 90 seconds, or five minutes or 10 minutes,” Duckworth told POLITICO earlier this month. “To test unrealistically at the 90 seconds and say we met the standards, but you’ve rigged the test — it doesn’t help anyone and it doesn’t improve safety.”
The Japan Airlines example: The crew on board a Japan Airlines flight that collided with a Japanese Coast Guard plane on Jan. 2 were able to get everyone off safely — but it took 18 minutes. And while speed is important, the Japan Airlines experience shows that a timing threshold shouldn’t be elevated above the other factors needed to evacuate safely, including having an assertive crew and giving passengers the right tools and instructions so they know what to do, an evacuation expert told Oriana.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE: SNL spoofed the Alaska Airlines flight this weekend.
JETBLUE AND SPIRIT SAY THEY WERE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER: JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines will appeal a court decision last week blocking their $3.8 billion merger, Josh Sisco reports. JetBlue and Spirit maintain that the merger would help them compete with bigger airlines and that, even merged, the two companies together would account for only about 10 percent of the U.S. market. A judge last Tuesday said a deal would reduce competition and raise prices for low-income travelers — a win for the Biden administration’s strong stance on antitrust enforcement.
ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas took to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Saturday to call out United Airlines for a disagreement his family members had with a ticketing agent recently — all caught on video — with Crenshaw alleging the ticketing agent got handsy with his dog, Joey. The incident was elevated to United’s leadership, prompting further disagreement on what exactly happened. Crenshaw said the matter remains unresolved. In a statement, the airline said it “attempted to work with the Congressman to resolve his concerns amicably,” adding that United disagrees “with his characterization of what happened, and stand behind our employees who were upholding United’s policies on in-cabin pets to ensure the safety of his dog.”
BUTTIGIEG TALKS BOEING FALLOUT: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addressed the FAA’s current playbook to sign off on 737 MAX 9 inspections before any of those planes take to the skies again. Speaking to the impacts from the grounding on MSNBC Friday, Buttigieg said “the timeline can only be dictated by one factor, and one factor alone, which is safety.” He said DOT has conveyed “the severity” of its concerns to Boeing and said that while Boeing has “pledged to do everything necessary to make sure that anything that is found is fixed,” DOT can’t just “go off of pledges.” He said “an extremely rigorous process” is taking place, with FAA reviewing the process and the procedures to make sure the system is adequate.
WORK TO DO BEFORE EAST PALESTINE ANNIVERSARY: Speaking Friday also to the Washington meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Buttigieg called on Congress to pass a rail safety bill, S. 576, before the one-year anniversary of the East Palestine derailment that inspired it. “Let’s not allow America to get to that one-year mark and not have that Railway Safety Act become law,” Buttigieg told the assembled mayors and city officials, adding, “Your voices need to be heard in this, because mayors and your emergency services department shouldn’t be in the dark about what’s coming through your communities.” He said DOT is doing what it can with the authorities it has, including increased accountability and new safety guidance for railroads, but said, “Congress ought to be helping.”
Context: A Norfolk Southern train derailed in the small Ohio town of East Palestine on February 3, 2023. The Railway Safety Act was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee in May 2023 but has yet to receive a floor vote in the Senate. A House companion bill, H.R. 1674 (118), has not yet been marked up.
Birthday cheer: President Joe Biden also spoke at the mayors’ meeting and led a round of “Happy Birthday” to Buttigieg, who turned 42 on Friday.
TRUCKING CHIEF OUT: FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson will step down this Friday, Jan. 26. She started at DOT when Biden took office in January 2021, first as deputy assistant secretary for safety policy, then deputy administrator and finally administrator at FMCSA. FMCSA Executive Director and Chief Safety Officer Sue Lawless will lead the agency under the title of acting deputy administrator once Hutcheson leaves. Tanya has more.
Applause from ATA: American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear lauded Hutcheson’s leadership through unprecedented challenges including “the pandemic, natural disasters, workforce shortages and supply chain disruptions.” He said she values “data and stakeholder input” and that ATA applauds “her communication, transparency and commitment to ATA and our members.”
COMMS GEAR NEEDED IN RED SEA: Nine maritime labor organizations are asking the United States Transportation Command for communication support to ensure the safe transit of vessels and crew in the Red Sea amid attacks on U.S. ships by Houthi rebels. In a letter Friday, the groups said that though there have so far been no casualties, the groups say the missile strikes are “the most significant attacks on the United States Merchant Marine in more than half a century.” They wrote that “continued communication, especially at the tactical level, is crucial,” whether in the form of equipment or personnel.
UAW ENDORSEMENT COMING? The United Auto Workers is expected to discuss its 2024 presidential endorsement this week during a lobbying conference in Washington. The UAW is “the most visible union holdout” that has so far refrained from endorsing Biden’s re-election campaign, despite his administration’s pro-union actions and Biden’s unprecedented step of joining auto workers on the picket line last year. Olivia Olander and Holly Otterbein have more.
BIDEN FEELS THE EV CHILL: Last week’s Arctic blast that swept across the nation has opened up a new attack line on President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle agenda. Reports emerged out of Chicago of EV drivers waiting hours for a charging station in negative wind chills only to find their vehicles wouldn’t charge — or that their cars ran out of juice before they could plug in. It’s well known that batteries — and vehicles of all types, for that matter — don’t perform as well in extreme cold.
Tesla warns drivers to keep their cars charged above 20 percent when it’s cold, and use a preconditioning function to warm up their batteries to optimum charging temperature before they plug in. But Republican opponents quickly seized on the latest negative headlines to attack Biden’s support for the machines.
“You see how they operate in cold weather, how they operate in hot weather,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), chair of the House Small Business Committee, said during a tirade against EVs at the Washington Auto Show on Thursday. And on Friday, the attorney general of West Virginia, Patrick Morrisey, urged Biden in a letter to “reconsider the pace of the attempted transition to EVs” in light of the cold weather difficulties. “This widespread failure of EVs to handle seasonally routine weather is distressing. Consumers rely on their vehicles to get to work and back home and to obtain the necessities of daily life,” wrote Morrisey. “EVs are simply not ready for prime time, as the recent cold-weather incidents and so many other negative experiences show.”
“The American people deserve to be served by a President who admits when he has gotten something wrong or gone too far, too fast,” Morrisey added.
White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said in a briefing on Thursday that car troubles in cold weather are “not unique to electric vehicles,” but noted the administration is examining the charging difficulties in Chicago. “We think these are isolated incidents, but we are looking into them and seeing where we can make an impact,” she said.
The EV industry is also working to play defense. The Zero Emission Transportation Association is distributing a tip sheet on handling cold weather in an EV. And at the auto show, Michael Cottone, president of Volvo Car USA, pointed out that Norway leads the world in EV adoption despite its harsh climate. He said consumer education is key, particularly drivers preconditioning their batteries before leaving home. “Does it impact it? Of course it does,” Cottone said. “But it’s also talking with consumers, preconditioning your car before you go out there into the cold — those things can help with the range.”
TAILPIPE RULE HEADS TO OMB: EPA late last week sent its proposed tailpipe rules for model years 2027 to 2032 to the White House for review, bringing the EV regulation that has drawn the fiercest opposition from Republicans and industry one step closer to being finalized. The proposed rule, Reg. 2060-AV49, is designed to make 67 percent of vehicle sales electric by 2032 but has been painted by Republicans as an “EV mandate.”
— “A cargo plane was forced to land in Miami after a reported engine fire sent sparks flying midair.” CNN.
— “Death spiral or new dawn: How did WMATA get here?” Greater Greater Washington.
— “Hands-on US aviation regulator flies into a new Boeing storm.” Financial Times.
— “More than 7,000 flights delayed or canceled as winter storm hits East Coast.” The Points Guy.
— “Small plane makes emergency landing on Loudoun County Parkway.” NBC4.
— “Lost Highway: The trials of trucking school.” Harper’s Magazine.
— “Waymo seeks to expand driverless service to Los Angeles.” Reuters.
