Capitol Agenda for the Week of June 21: Summer in the Capital City
CAPITOL AGENDA: Summer in the Capital City
Photo by @MarkWarnerPolicymakers in the Washington, D.C., area kicked off the start of summer June 20 by checking out the conditions at the Memorial Bridge. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Mayor Muriel Bowser were among the lawmakers who inspected the bridge’s “deterioration,” as they put it. Bowser indicated that D.C., Maryland, and Virginia have developed a solution to repair the bridge.
The bridge’s condition has improved little since the National Park Service oversaw emergency repairs last year. The Park Service has indicated it might shut off traffic along the bridge in five years if $250 million in repairs are not carried out. Nearly 70,000 vehicles utilize the bridge during an average workday, and amazingly a sense of urgency is lacking on Capitol Hill from Republicans in the majority to see to it that repairs to the once-majestic structure linking the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery are completed. In recent years, policymakers moved extraordinarily quickly to rehabilitate the bridges that collapsed in Minnesota and Washington state. Let’s hope we never get to that point in D.C.
WEEK AHEAD: June 21-22: The National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled a forum titled, “PIREPs: Pay it Forward…Because Weather for One is Weather for None.” PIREPs is short for: Pilot weather reports.
June 22, at 10 a.m.: The Subcommittee on Aviation will hold a hearing titled, “FAA Oversight of Commercial Space Transportation.” IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
OCEAN STATE: The $8.9 billion budget approved by Rhode Island’s House on the night of June 15 included $4 million in reductions in registration fees for large trucks. The Senate Finance Committee was considering the measure June 16. If the Senate passes the budget, it would go to Gov. Gina Raimondo for her signature before the start of the fiscal year July 1.
AUDIT: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General has begun a congressionally mandated audit to assess available data on motor carrier delays in loading and unloading.
WHAT EXIT?: Less than a week after Gov. Chris Christie termed the state’s Transportation Trust Fund “obsolete,” New Jersey legislative leaders are pushing a 10-year, $23 billion infrastructure plan that’s largely funded by a 26 cents-per-gallon tax hike on diesel and 23 cents-per-gallon hike on gas.
WHAT WE’RE READING:
In bizarro transportation world, the Federal Highway Administration would come out and tell the public potholes are pretty. The Onion romanticized the notion.
FAVORITE QUOTE:
Jane Mathis, a member of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration advisory committee, posed a question at a June 14 meeting during which the committee was reviewing interpretive “guidance” for each of the 700 federal regulations governing motor carriers and drivers. “Why can’t the regulations be written clearly in the first place?” Mathis asked of Larry Minor, the agency’s associate administrator for policy.
The smiling Minor reminded Mathis that the agency attempts to write the regulations in plain English, but they don’t always end up that way after they undergo scrutiny by agency lawyers.
FAVORITE VIDEO:
Our editorial director, Neil Abt, sat down with outgoing American Trucking Associations President and CEO Bill Graves. The interview was part of Transport Topics’ exclusive interview with Graves. The former governor of Kansas spoke candidly about his recent state of the industry addresses, such as the speech in Orlando, Florida, in 2013. There, Graves called the right-wing, tea party presence on Capitol Hill a “very corrosive force.” He followed that up with a similar sentiment during his address in Philadelphia last year where he criticized the Republican presidential field’s executive acumen.
FAVORITE TWEET:
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx really wants people to care about the DOT’s Smart City challenge. Many of us are disappointed the Jersey Shore didn’t make the finals.
Missed the #SmartCityPitch? Watch videos from each of our #DOTSmartCity finalists: https://t.co/2O6ZqcVNpT #TBT pic.twitter.com/28dkpmIFYh — TransportationGov (@USDOT) June 16, 2016
PHOTO OF THE WEEK:
Will the real Susan Collins, please stand up. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Truckstop.com’s Susan Collins ran into each other recently on Capitol Hill.
When Congress is in session, we publish. Follow us @transporttopics, @eugenemulero, @SethClevenger, @ericdmiller46, @neilabt, and @davidelfin. Also, contact us at: emulero@ttnews.com.
