| | | | |  | | By Chris Marquette and Oriana Pawlyk | | | — A Microsoft vendor brings several industries to their knees — including airlines. — FRA’s investigation into the East Palestine derailment calls for action from Congress on wayside detectors. — Kamala Harris is now endorsed by President Joe Biden and DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Here's why her climate stance could be more ambitious than Biden's. 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 Chris at cmarquette@politico.com and Oriana at opawlyk@politico.com and follow us at, @Oriana0214 and @ChrisMarquette_. “Freight train, each car looks the same, all the same.”
| | | | Live briefings, policy trackers, and procedural, industry, and people intelligence from POLITICO Pro Analysis gives you the insights you need to focus your policy strategy this election cycle. Secure your seat. | | | | | | | | | WORLDWIDE TECH DISRUPTION UPENDS AIR TRAVEL: A massive tech outage on Friday put airline passengers in a world of hurt with grounded flights and delays all over from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Sonoma County Airport in California. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, said a software update in a Microsoft system was at the center of the chaos, which affected flights and other operations across the spectrum of industries, and stressed it was working with impacted customers and that it was not a cyberattack or security incident. Reax: Airlines for America said "carriers are working to accommodate customers as quickly as possible during CrowdStrike’s IT outage, impacting millions of people" and that the airlines' priority is "taking care of their customers by offering vouchers, rebookings, refunds and other accommodations." U.S. Travel said “U.S. airlines affected by the global technology outage are working diligently to fully restore operations and help customers reach their destinations as quickly as possible," noting that “disruptions in the travel system are frustrating and have a cascading effect that impacts people’s lives and the economy." Major airlines, such as American, Delta and United, said their operations were adversely affected, experiencing delays and offered options for travelers to change plans. Over 3,400 flights in the United States were canceled and just under 13,000 delayed Friday, the flight tracking service FlightAware said. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the agency was monitoring the situation and made clear to passengers that they can redeem refunds and other tools. Chris has the story. Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are investigating the matter. DELTA STILL HAVING PROBLEMS: On Sunday, Buttigieg spoke with Delta CEO Ed Bastian, an airline that has continued to have difficulties while others largely recovered, the DOT said. Buttigieg reminded Bastian of Delta's responsibilities to their customers and of the agency's enforcement role. Buttigieg and other senior officials are closely monitoring how airlines are rebounding from the incident. Under the law, when a flight is canceled or significantly delayed, and the passengers choose to no longer travel, passengers are entitled to a refund in their original form of of payment. DOT has been engaging with Delta's leadership through the weekend to remind the company of its legal obligations. In a statement, Bastian said the airline has "issued a travel waiver to enable you to make a change to your itinerary at no charge" and encouraged customers to "take advantage of that flexibility if possible. In addition, for those whose flights have been impacted, we continue to offer meal vouchers, hotel accommodations and transportation where available. And as a gesture of apology, we’re also providing impacted customers with Delta SkyMiles and travel vouchers." Buttigieg posted on X regarding the issue:
Buttigieg said the DOT is receiving reports of "unacceptable disruptions and customer service conditions" at Delta, along with hundreds of complaints, including long customer service wait times and people stuck at the airport overnight. "I have made clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to be rebooked, and free rebooking and timely reimbursements for food and overnight hotel stays to consumers affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance to all of their passengers," Buttigieg said. Lisa Hanna, a spokesperson for Delta, said the airline is "providing compensation over and above refunds." Here’s an interesting time lapse of what the tech issue looked like:
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| | FRA + NTSB: The FRA on Friday released the results of its investigation into the train derailment last year in East Palestine, Ohio — and it largely echoes one released recently by the NTSB, faulting an overheated wheel, Norfolk Southern’s “procedures and the inadequate staffing for communicating information from” certain wayside detectors, among other items. The investigation yielded 12 enforcement cases and 117 counts against Norfolk Southern and other entities. Congress should do something: And, FRA’s report notes that while the agency doesn’t regulate many aspects of wayside detectors — including where they’re located, their installation, operation or maintenance — FRA plans to “aggressively use its existing authorities” but also noted it “encourages Congress to also act in any future rail safety legislation.” About that: The FRA found that Norfolk Southern’s procedures and inadequate staffing regarding communication on hot box detectors may have contributed to the derailment. The agency doesn’t regulate those detectors and called for Congress to act on that issue to help bolster rail safety. There are a few bipartisan bills on rail safety in the Congress, but they have yet to get floor votes. Norfolk Southern response: Heather Garcia, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern, said the railroad has been making strides to improve, including on wayside detectors. That includes installing 187 additional hot bearing detectors, reducing core network average distance between detectors to approximately 12 miles and quadrupling acoustic bearing detectors.
| | HOW DOES HARRIS COMPARE TO BIDEN ON CLIMATE: Vice President Kamala Harris now has the backing of President Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, and her environmental agenda could be more assertive than Biden's. Five years ago, when Harris was running against Biden in the primaries, she called for a $10 trillion climate plan, figures that loom large over the $1.6 trillion cost of Biden's major legislation on climate, energy and infrastructure. If she gets the nomination, her energy and climate record will likely be more scrutinized, which includes her prior call to ban fracking in the drilling of oil and gas. While she was representing California in the Senate, she co-sponsored the Green New Deal along with lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Before that, as attorney general of California, she amassed tens of millions of dollars in settlements from oil and gas companies and reportedly investigated Exxon Mobil’s role in climate change. Kelsey Tamborrino explains why Kamala Harris’ "green ambition" could exceed Biden’s. BUTTIGIEG ENDORSES HARRIS: Sunday evening, Buttigieg posted on X his endorsement of Harris for president. While Biden has "earned his place among the best and most consequential presidents," Buttigieg said, he described Harris as the "right person to take up the torch, defeat Donald Trump, and succeed Joe Biden as President."
LABOR REACTION TO BIDEN STEPPING ASIDE: UAW, in a statement, praised Biden for "his incredible term of service, and the leadership he has shown in putting country before self, once again, in passing the torch to a new generation" and said that Biden "made history by joining us on our picket line last September and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the working class throughout his term in office." The group said: "Vice President Kamala Harris walked the picket line with us in 2019, and along with President Biden has brought work and jobs back to communities like Lordstown, Ohio, and Belvidere, Illinois. That’s the legacy President Biden leaves, and that’s the work we will continue to build on as a union."
| | CHECKING BACK ON BOEING/DOJ DEAL: With this news cycle, it feels like Boeing’s guilty plea happened ages ago. But if you’re keeping track, Boeing pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge — conspiracy to defraud the government — stemming from its role in two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 MAX jet that killed a combined 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, it made a plea agreement with the Justice Department that would have given them a probationary period to avoid trial for said charge, offering instead to pay millions in fines and improve on its internal business and manufacturing practices. DOJ in May said it violated said agreement, which Boeing contests and says it’s honored. Time is on my side: The jetmaker perhaps has a bit of breathing room when it comes to this guilty plea deal. Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas has given families one week to file objections (which must be done today). Boeing and DOJ then have two weeks to mull that over and respond. Last week, Boeing and DOJ also requested an extension to allow the court to accept the fine-tuned details of the agreement — asking for that extra cushion to go no later than July 24. (O’Connor will then hopefully deliberate all those proposals, unless there’s another proposed extension.) Even though the families want Boeing to head to trial and face steeper fines, the guilty plea comes after weeks of deliberations within the DOJ, which began probing Boeing following the door plug blowout on board an Alaska Airlines flight that occurred over Oregon in January. Guilty plea aside — should the judge accept — there will be some hurdles for Boeing going forward even though the federal government will still in the most likely scenario continue to be a customer when it comes to military and space contracts. They’re not out of the woods just yet: Boeing’s next public lashing will come in early August when it sits before NTSB board members and investigators, alongside other parties directly impacted by the door plug incident.
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