| | | | | |  | | By Sam Mintz and Stephanie Beasley | Presented by Raytheon Intelligence & Space | Editor's Note: Weekly Transportation is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Transportation policy newsletter, Morning Transportation. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | | | UNIONS CHIME IN ON BIDEN'S DOT CHOICE: Several major transportation unions are lining up behind a candidate for President-elect Joe Biden's DOT. As our team reported on Friday, John Porcari, a former deputy secretary of Transportation, is a favorite of transpo labor. Most notable was a direct endorsement from Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson, which came Friday evening. "He's the most experienced and most ready to lead us forward," Nelson told POLITICO. The resume: Porcari led Maryland's Department of Transportation, twice, before taking on a job in the Obama administration as the number two to Ray LaHood. His supporters see him as someone who could hit the ground running on day one, and as a top adviser to the campaign and transition, he's already been speaking with authority and detail about how the Biden administration will handle transportation. The caveats: Porcari remains a long-shot candidate, with the biggest hurdle being the increasing pressure on Biden to name a diverse cabinet. There's also a sense that the president-elect might prefer an "elected official with a natural constituency base and a higher political profile" for the job, as one source put it. Meanwhile, Rahm's stock drops: Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has been the subject of unions' ire, is continuing his apparently self-propelled mission to get the DOT job, but it may not be getting through. "I wouldn't call him a leading or the leading contender," one source familiar with the transition told Business Insider. "I don't think the transition is answering his calls," the person said. Another person, described as a "key player in Democratic Chicago politics," said: "Knowing Rahm, he's trying to will it." IT'S MONDAY: Thanks for reading POLITICO's Morning Transportation. If it moves, we cover it. Get in touch with tips, feedback and song lyrics at smintz@politico.com or @samjmintz. Saturday morning, take the train for a ride / The sun is up, I got my homies by my side Rock out to our transportation playlist on Spotify. | | A message from Raytheon Intelligence & Space: Raytheon Technologies is poised to help the FAA replace an aging telecommunications infrastructure with an enterprise network services program powered by AI, machine learning, cloud-based systems and advanced cybersecurity. Learn how we'll enhance network survivability, reliability, flexibility and scalability. | | | | | | WINDING UP: The transportation network will play a major role in distributing the vaccines that are almost ready for the American people, and both companies and the federal government are gearing up to launch those efforts. There's a hearing this week in the Senate Commerce Committee featuring executives from both FedEx and UPS, which will "examine transportation and logistics plans for ensuring Covid-19 vaccines are delivered across the country." DOT says it's taken "necessary regulatory measures" to ensure that vaccines can be transported by land and air. Transportation authorities and other Operation Warp Speed officials have been coordinating with the companies mentioned above and others, and have "established the appropriate safety requirements for all potential hazards involved in shipping the vaccine, including standards for dry ice and lithium batteries used in cooling," DOT said. | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION & NEW ADMINISTRATION HEADING INTO 2021: President-elect Biden is pushing full steam ahead on putting together his Cabinet and White House staff. These appointments and staffing decisions send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. What do these signals foretell? Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | ONE STEP FORWARD: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had agreed on the idea of attaching a coronavirus relief bill to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package. "That would be a hope, because that is the vehicle leaving the station," she said. Pelosi credited a $908 billion proposal introduced last week by a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers for helping to restart stimulus talks. As MT readers know, that measure would provide $45 billion to be divided among airlines, airports, Amtrak, private bus companies and transit agencies — less than what the industries have said is necessary for them to survive the pandemic. The usual disclaimer : While Pelosi sounds optimistic, POLITICO's Burgess Everett reports that with an end-of-the-year spending bill, coronavirus relief and a must-pass defense bill (which President Donald Trump has threatened to veto) on this week's tight schedule, there's a good chance that things could fall apart. "The coming days will require bicameral, bipartisan coordination and some buy-in from the outgoing White House to avoid a complete debacle," he writes. NDAA NUGGETS: Lawmakers are expected to start voting on a final fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 6395 (116)) on Tuesday. We found a few more interesting items folded into the compromise version unveiled late last week. For example, it includes long-sought provisions to require physicians and appropriate numbers of medical staff be aboard cruise ships, which is "an issue that's gained prominence in the wake of a series of high-profile Covid infections," Tanya writes . The provisions were taken from a separate bill that has been introduced several times by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.). The NDAA would also require surveillance equipment in passenger common areas on cruise ships to record possible criminal activity and would direct operators to keep the recordings for at least 20 days. In aviation: The conference report also has language that would prevent CIMC-Tianda, a Chinese-state owned company, from selling its airport boarding bridges in the U.S. The company was previously banned from operating in the U.S after being found guilty of stealing information from an American manufacturer in 1998. But it has again started bidding on U.S. airport contracts since the ban expired, as Sam reports .The NDAA would prevent foreign state-owned boarding bridge companies "determined by a Federal court to have misappropriated intellectual property or trade secrets" from entering into federally funded contracts. Reminder: As we reported last week, NDAA negotiators rejected a House proposal to ban drones and drone equipment made in China and other countries considered to pose national security threats. Chinese drone manufacturer DJI, which has been targeted by such ban proposals, said in a statement to MT that it was pleased lawmakers "took seriously the many concerns voiced by federal agencies, American companies, industry groups, universities and end users — all of which have indicated a country of origin ban would have serious, unintended consequences." Others were less pleased. The Heritage Foundation's John Cooper tweeted Friday that the omission was a "big win" for the Chinese Communist Party. Heritage has supported ban proposals. Also tucked in: Lastly, there is a provision that would require DHS to develop a plan for eventually scanning all vehicles and freight trains entering the country with non-intrusive inspection equipment instead of relying on physical inspections by agents. The provision is similar to legislation (H.R. 5273 (116) ) approved by House and Senate Homeland Security committees earlier this year. | | | |   | | | | | | HIGH STAKES: A story laying out a national public transit crisis topped the New York Times homepage Sunday morning, underscoring the dire situation many agencies find themselves in nearly a year into the pandemic and many months after receiving federal assistance that advocates have repeatedly said needs to be re-upped for them to continue operating. In recent weeks, transit officials from cities such as Atlanta, Boston, New York and Washington have warned that they will have to make severe service cuts as they confront an "extraordinary financial crisis" that has "starved transit agencies of huge amounts of revenue and threatens to cripple service for years," NYT's Christina Goldbaum and Will Wright report. "The profound cuts agencies are contemplating could hobble the recoveries of major cities from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, where reliable transit is a lifeblood of the local economies," they write. | | | | LISTEN TO THE NEW SEASON OF GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps to identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | | | | CHANGING DIRECTION: On Friday, Nissan became the second automaker to back out of a lawsuit challenging California's right to enforce greenhouse gas rules. "Nissan said it was withdrawing from the litigation over California's waiver for greenhouse gas standards, in which it was backing the Trump administration's revocation of the waiver," Debra Kahn writes for POLITICO Pro. "As General Motors did last week, Nissan said it would work with the Biden administration and California on national standards." | | | Jazmin Vargas is now press secretary for Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.). She previously served as press secretary at BOLD PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. | | A message from Raytheon Intelligence & Space: From drones to hypersonics to commercial space flight, tomorrow's airspace will be filled with new technologies and new challenges. Preparing for them means modernizing — and securing — an aging network architecture. That's why we've formed the Alliance for Innovation & Resiliency, a network of innovators and industry leaders committed to helping the FAA protect tomorrow's skies. It all starts with a unique portfolio of automation, surveillance, navigation and landing solutions. Learn more. | | | | | | DOT appropriations run out in five days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,028 days. The surface transportation reauthorization expires in 298 days. | | | — "Biden's 100-day mask plan 'a good idea,' Trump's vaccine chief says." POLITICO. — "New South African airline to fly even as crisis grips market." Bloomberg. — "I-66 is expanding amid a pandemic, and toll lanes are two years away. Commuters already are seeing the changes." The Washington Post. —"How the tumult of 2020 will shape the future of ride sharing." Wired. — "EU to target 30 million electric cars by 2030 – draft." Reuters. — "Feds grant $638M more for light rail extension in Phoenix." The Associated Press.
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