| | | | |  | | By Sam Ogozalek and Oriana Pawlyk | | Presented by |  | | | | | — FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker returns to Congress this week for Boeing hearings. After nearly a year leading the agency, will lawmakers’ tone shift? — Union grief or an economic disaster? Biden faces tough choices as a ports strike looms before the election. — The Senate Commerce Committee will consider Amtrak, NTSB and Federal Maritime Commission nominees. 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 Sam at sogozalek@politico.com, Chris at cmarquette@politico.com, Oriana at opawlyk@politico.com and Cassandra at cdumay@politico.com and follow us at @SamOgozalek, @ChrisMarquette_, @Oriana0214 and @cassandra_dumay. “All we do is drive/ All we do is think about the feelings that we hide/ All we do is sit in silence waiting for a sign/ Sick and full of pride/ All we do is drive.”
| | | | A message from Moms Clean Air Force: Methane leaks are dangerous– incidents associated with gas pipeline leaks can cause explosions, as well as death or injury to people nearby. Leaks from gathering pipelines, which transport unprocessed gas, can also expose nearby communities to harmful air pollutants, putting their health at risk. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg must advance substantial action to cut methane emissions, by finalizing protective standards for natural gas pipeline leak management as soon as possible. | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
| | BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT: It’s a busy week in Congress for FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, who has become the public face of the Biden administration’s response to systemic manufacturing issues at Boeing, which remains under a microscope. He’s set to brief lawmakers in both the House and Senate this week on details of how the FAA-ordered Boeing quality-control plan is going. (In case you forgot, Boeing tendered that to the agency in late May.) HONEYMOON OVER: For Whitaker, who the Senate confirmed last October, Boeing has dominated his first year on the job. On Capitol Hill, he’s testified about the state of aviation — with Boeing taking center-stage, whether he liked it or not — twice since the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout in early January. WHAT WE’RE WATCHING FOR: Lawmakers in both chambers will want specifics on how Boeing is complying with the action plan, how effective it’s been at arresting some of the planemaker’s internal problems and how well the FAA’s own oversight is going of the blue chip aerospace company. (Whitaker earlier this year acknowledged his agency had been “too hands off.”) And, now that he’s spent almost 12 months helming the FAA, your MT host will be watching to see if any lawmakers take a more hard-line stance regarding his leadership and how he’s handling Boeing.
| | BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: With a dockworker strike possible as early as Oct. 1 at East and Gulf coast ports, your MT host caught up with Michael LeRoy, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign labor professor. He advised the Council of Economic Advisers for President George W. Bush on the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, a federal labor law that Bush invoked in 2002 to end an 11-day lockout of longshoremen at West Coast ports. — LeRoy, who has researched Taft-Hartley, said presidents (both Democrats and Republicans) have used it 33 times. The law allows them to get an injunction and force workers back to their jobs — or avert a strike entirely — while contract negotiations continue during an 80-day “cooling off” period. It’s reserved for work stoppages, ongoing or imminent, they believe threaten the nation’s “health or safety.” Here’s an excerpt from our conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length: MT: Do you expect President [Joe] Biden to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, when it comes to this looming strike? LeRoy: I think he would be extremely reluctant to do this. ... On the one hand, if he intervened he could very likely get the injunction. On the other hand, it would sour unions on voting for Kamala Harris. It would definitely have a political effect. MT: I guess he could preemptively invoke it to stop the strike from occurring, but it sounds like you wouldn’t expect that to happen? LeRoy: Any time an injunction is used to shut down a strike, labor views that as an existential threat. ... I don’t think he would preemptively do it whereas, objectively speaking, it might make some sense. ... I think he could bring the parties to the White House and ask them to commit to a cooling-off period. ... That’s the public pressure part. MT: He has different options at the table. It’s not just a one-size-fits-all approach here. LeRoy: That is true. And he also has the option ... of just letting the dispute run its course. That’s an option too, I mean it’s fraught with a lot of economic consequences that would be very unappealing. I mean you would start to see layoffs almost immediately in the supply chains. BIDEN’S TAKE: As MT readers will know, an administration official previously said it is not considering invoking Taft-Hartley and urged the parties to remain at the bargaining table.
| | SLATE OF NOMINEES: The Senate Commerce Committee at 10 a.m. Wednesday will hold a hearing to consider Biden nominations to the Amtrak Board of Directors, NTSB and Federal Maritime Commission. — Amtrak nominee: Lanhee Chen, a prominent California Republican who works at Stanford University, where he is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative public policy think tank. He was the chief policy director for Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) 2012 presidential campaign. — NTSB nominee: Thomas Chapman, an NTSB member since 2020. Prior to that, he served six years as minority counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation subpanel. — FMC nominee: Carl Bentzel, an FMC commissioner since 2019. Previously, he was vice president and head of the federal advocacy division at the DCI Group, a public relations firm.
| | | | A message from Moms Clean Air Force:   | | | | | AGREEMENT REACHED: Congressional leaders struck a deal Sunday on a stopgap funding bill to largely keep federal agencies on current budgets through Dec. 20. The House is expected to pass it mid-week. Jennifer Scholtes has the text here.
| | EMISSIONS RESOLUTION PASSES HOUSE: The House in a 215-191 vote Friday passed a GOP-led Congressional Review Act resolution, with eight Democrats in support, that would scrap the EPA’s recent tailpipe emissions rule on light- and medium-duty vehicles. Republicans criticize the rule as an electric vehicle “mandate.” (It’s unclear how the measure will fare in the Senate.) — The White House in a Friday statement said that disapproval of the rule would “generate uncertainty for the U.S. auto market and supply chains” and “artificially constrain consumer vehicle choice, weaken U.S. manufacturing and energy security, and harm public health.” The administration said Biden would veto the resolution if it lands on his desk. BATTERY BOOST: The Energy Department on Friday announced it is doling out a collective $3 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law for 25 critical mineral and battery manufacturing projects in 14 states, James Bikales reports. The grants are one of the Biden administration’s most aggressive actions yet to try to break China’s dominance of the battery supply chain for EVs and other clean energy technologies.
| | TOP EXECUTIVE OUT: In his first major shakeup as Boeing CEO, Kelly Ortberg on Friday announced that Ted Colbert, the head of the company’s defense and space division, is out. After heading the BDS for more than two years, Colbert will be succeeded by Steve Parker, chief operating officer for the defense unit. Ortberg said the move was in line with the company’s priority to “restore the trust of our customers and meet the high standards they expect of us.” — Colbert inherited yearslong delays and cost overruns across Boeing’s defense programs, plus the troubled Starliner program — the company’s spacecraft that was stuck at the International Space Station for months.
| | | — Hertz has hired Lauren Fritts as senior vice president and chief communications officer. She was most recently chief corporate affairs and marketing officer at WeWork. (h/t POLITICO Influence)
| | — “FBI boards ship managed by same parent company as vessel that hit Key Bridge.” Washington Post. — “Southwest Airlines Warns of ‘Difficult Decisions’ to Restore Profits.” Bloomberg. — “The Fight Elon Musk Is Ready to Pick in a Trump Administration.” Wall Street Journal. — “Cards Against Humanity Sues Elon Musk’s SpaceX for Trespassing.” Wall Street Journal. — “Mercedes, BMW Flash Warning Lights on China.” Wall Street Journal. — “Travel Docs Update: Online Passport Renewal and Digital Driver’s Licenses.” New York Times. — “GM to recall over 449,000 pickup trucks, SUVs in US.” Reuters. — “German economy minister offers help to Volkswagen to avoid site closures.” Reuters. — “The Key Bridge collapse: Six months later, six families are still grieving.” Baltimore Banner. — “Road work inspector who leaped to safety during Baltimore bridge collapse to file claim.” AP.
| | | | A message from Moms Clean Air Force: PHMSA has proposed protective standards for natural gas pipelines that would reduce climate pollution and improve community health and safety. The Advanced Leak Detection and Repair Rule would increase leak survey frequencies, establish clear standards and timelines for leak grading and repair, and ensure the deployment of more effective technologies to find and fix leaks. These leaks pose severe climate, safety, and environmental justice concerns. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg must finalize this rule as quickly as possible to cement substantial methane action into his climate and environmental justice legacy, and protect our climate and public health for future generations.
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