| | | | |  | | By Oriana Pawlyk and Tanya Snyder | | Presented by |  | | | | | — Get ready for two back-to-back Boeing hearings this week. — Sen. Maria Cantwell has stopped accepting donations from Boeing execs. — There’s a new chair of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. IT’S MONDAY: You’re reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. We’re glad you’re here. Send tips, feedback and song lyrics to Tanya at tsnyder@politico.com and Oriana at opawlyk@politico.com, and follow us at @TSnyderDC and @Oriana0214. “We used to run through city run houses / We used to drink from half full glasses / We used to ride through the city on buses / We used to fight the underground rushes” (h/t Carolyn Mulvihill)
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| | BOEING 1, BOEING 2: Senate lawmakers plan to hold tandem Boeing-related hearings this week — both on Wednesday — which will likely dictate Congress’ future moves on keeping the planemaker in check as agencies and lawmakers continue to investigate what led to a door plug of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 to pop off mid-flight in January. Looking at ODA: First up, the Senate Commerce Committee will hear from aviation experts who may be able to shed more light on Boeing’s needed safety improvements, which a recent expert panel report said fell short even after Congress mandated increased scrutiny in the wake of the 2018 and 2019 737 MAX 8 crashes that killed 346 people. The hearing will also likely explore what role the FAA has in ensuring the safety of the 737 MAX line going forward as it manages risks at aircraft manufacturers and more — all while the committee intends to craft standalone legislation responding to safety issues, separate from the pending FAA reauthorization. Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has pressed for a series of aviation safety hearings related to the ongoing Boeing saga. Responding to the panel’s findings in February — which finished up amid the door plug incident, but did not directly address it — Cantwell said it’s “clear that Boeing's safety culture and [safety management systems] need to improve, and FAA should hold them accountable in doing so.” — A quick reminder that by next month, Boeing owes the FAA its comprehensive plan to address its systemic quality control issues. The witnesses include Javier de Luis of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s department of aeronautics and astronautics; Tracy Dillinger, manager for safety culture and human factors at NASA; and Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California’s aviation safety and security program. Next up: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who leads the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will host a whistleblower who recently came forward about alleged unresolved assembly discrepancies with the 787 Dreamliner line. (Blumenthal also requested Boeing CEO David Calhoun join in, but whether Calhoun or another executive commits to showing up is still TBD.) Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour reached out to Blumenthal’s office last month, which motivated the committee to give Salehpour the stage to air his observations out in public, the senator told Oriana last week. Boeing, meanwhile, says it's confident in its widebody Dreamliner assembly process, though the FAA is still investigating to be sure. IN RELATED NEWS: Cantwell has decided to stop accepting campaign donations this year from Boeing executives because of the Senate inquiry she’s leading into the company’s safety practices, Oriana and Daniel Lippman report for POLITICO Playbook. “Given the increased scrutiny of Boeing’s activities by the Senate Commerce Committee, the 2024 Cantwell campaign is not taking contributions from Boeing leadership,” the campaign said in a statement. As part of her new policy, Cantwell returned a donation of $500 in December from Elizabeth Lund, who was promoted in February to SVP of quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. A spokesperson for Boeing declined to comment. Lund didn’t respond to a request for comment. More in Playbook.
| | | | A message from Honda: When it comes to strengthening America’s workforce, Honda isn’t taking its foot off the pedal. We’re investing in our team of over 30,000 U.S. associates and training the next generation. We’re building automobiles, power equipment, powersports products, and an advanced light jet, all here in the U.S., using domestic and global parts. After more than 40 years of manufacturing in the U.S., Honda remains committed to leading America on the road to tomorrow. Learn more. | | | | | BUILD BACK BETTER: When the Francis Scott Key Bridge is rebuilt, experts agree that it won’t be like the old bridge from the 1970s. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said last week that the current vehicle and maritime traffic and height needs are being evaluated in order to make sure it’s “replaced with a bridge that represents the modern capacities for a bridge of this type.” Bridge pier protection will undoubtedly factor into the new design to guard against future ship strikes, but other features of modern bridges are under consideration. — “It might be a completely new design; it might have cable stays and towers and everything looks different,” said Rick Geddes, director of the Cornell University infrastructure policy program. “We would probably design it wider so that there would be wider shoulders, maybe bike lanes.” New, more flexible concrete technology could expand and contract with the weather, embedded sensors could emit data about the “vibration, temperature, alkalinity” inside the bridge materials. Build back faster: Ronnie Medlock, chair of the Technical Committee of the National Steel Bridge Alliance, says they can build a new bridge faster by configuring the floor in such a way that it won’t need to be assembled in a shop, and bolt-on “rocket launcher” cable anchors can be made much faster than the “shark-fin style rocket launcher.” And he recommends a two well-chosen coatings instead of three, saying “it offers similarly robust protection but would likely be faster with improved curing time, no need for masking, and only simple touch ups required in the field.” The Key Bridge was a toll road, meaning it’s capable of recouping some of the costs, said Geddes. He’d like to see a system where “some of the toll revenue would continue to go to Maryland DOT” and some would “be paying back the federal taxpayer.”
| | | | A message from Honda:   | | | | | HOMELAND SECURED: Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) will lead the Homeland Security funding panel, Caitlin Emma reports, replacing Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio). Amodei’s new move comes amid a broader shakeup of leadership on the House Appropriations Committee after Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) was elected chair last week.
| | | CHINESE AIRPORT BUSES: Tucked inside the House-passed FAA bill, H.R. 3935 — but not the Senate version, S. 1939 — is a provision that would close a loophole that allows airports to use federal funds to buy transit vehicles from Chinese state-controlled companies. A law enacted in 2019 prohibits transit agencies from buying Chinese rolling stock, but the ban doesn’t apply to airports. In a letter to House Transportation and Senate Commerce leaders Friday, a dozen House Democrats expressed concern that now that transit agencies aren’t available buyers, Chinese-based rolling stock firms “will turn to the U.S. market for airport shuttles, trams, and monorails.” Conference time: As House and Senate leaders work to conference the two FAA bills before the May 10 deadline, the 12 Democrats want them to ensure that the House language on Chinese rolling stock ends up in the final version. “Congress should not wait for unscrupulous foreign companies to exploit this remaining loophole in our 'Buy America' laws before acting to close it,” they wrote.
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today. | | | | | | | | GET THAT REBATE: Around 90 percent of qualifying electric vehicle buyers have opted to claim their federal tax credit as an instant rebate at the dealership this year, a positive sign for President Joe Biden’s efforts to boost EV sales, James Bikales reports. The Treasury Department said Friday that more than 100,000 people have claimed the credit for new and used EVs since the beginning of the year, and it has reimbursed car dealers more than $580 million for offering the credit at the point of sale. More from James.
| | | | A message from Honda: Honda has been building automobiles in America for over 40 years. Last year, more than two-thirds of the Honda and Acura vehicles sold in America were built here. In total, we’ve built over 30 million vehicles on U.S. soil.
Our investment in the U.S. continues to grow. We directly employ a workforce of more than 30,000 associates across 74 facilities, bringing good-paying jobs to communities in 17 states.
We’ve invested more than $1.3 billion into our U.S. R&D operations, including major facilities in California and Ohio.
We’re using our purchasing power to strengthen American companies. Last year alone, we spent $30 billion in parts and materials from 600 U.S. suppliers, including many small businesses.
We are actively driving toward a stronger U.S. economy, and leading America on the road to tomorrow.
Learn more. | | | | | FIRST IN MT: With all the big pots of money in the trillion-dollar 2021 infrastructure law, it’s easy to overlook the small ones — like the Thriving Communities program, which is announcing its latest round of winners today. The program is aimed at helping small and disadvantaged communities navigate and benefit from all the new discretionary grant opportunities that the infrastructure law made eligible for cities, towns and tribes — not just states. The problem is, many of those cities, towns and tribes have never applied for a federal transportation grant before and don’t know how. Check out the list of new awardees. Most of the communities that work with the program have never gotten a DOT grant before, and many have never even tried. The $23.6 million in the latest round is going to 112 communities. The Thriving Communities program teams communities up with capacity building organizations to receive two years of free technical assistance. Of the 64 communities selected last year, 37 have now been awarded DOT discretionary grant funding. Buildings falling into the ocean: The Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe on the coast of Washington state is losing 100 to 130 feet of land per year to erosion. “It's been a common phenomenon throughout everyone's lifetime to see houses fall over the bluff,” said Quintin Swanson, the tribe’s planning director. The Coast Guard station and the education building have fallen into the ocean, too. They need to move the whole reservation to higher land, and they’ve already purchased a new tract of land of the same size, adjoining the current reservation but 300 to 400 feet above sea level. Now they’re trying to figure out if they should keep looking for more developable land and beyond that, how to build a whole new community uphill. They needed to get state and local partners bought in on the project. Thriving Communities brought in 40 of those people for an in-person meeting in the community to see the needs for themselves. “It's hard to conceptualize just how big and how massive this project is,” said Cynthia Toop, the tribe’s grant writer. The tribe has now won a RAISE grant too, after applying three times, though the grant came in just before the community was accepted as part of the Thriving Communities program.
| | | | Chris Tobin is now chief people officer at student transportation company Zūm. He is an alum of Intercom and Affirm. John Chartier is now director of media relations at NJ Transit. He most recently was director for Prudential communications.
| | | | — “Airlines Confront New Iran-Israel Risks as Disruption Grows.” Bloomberg. — “D.C. nixes plan for Connecticut Avenue bike lane.” The Washington Post. — “Ohio senator wants Biden to permanently ban Chinese EVs from US.” Reuters. — “Pittsburgh Reopens Bridge After 26 Barges Break Loose on Ohio River.” The New York Times. — Fashion that doesn’t fly: The turbulent issue of airline dress code policies. CNN.
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