Lawmakers in both parties predicted Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was heading toward the helm of the Department of Transportation. 

A group of 145 House members has signed a letter to the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) calling for the agency to permanently drop its idea of allowing small knives on airplanes.

The TSA had planned to begin allowing airlines passengers to carry knives with blades shorter than 2.36 inches in their carry-on bags last month. But the agency relented on the proposal after intense push back from lawmakers and aviation groups.

The bipartisan group of House members who wrote to TSA Administrator John Pistole on Wednesday said that that agency should retire the plan to allow knives onto planes for good. 

Relatives of the victims of a 2009 Continental Airlines crash will be in attendance at Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx's confirmation hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

A group formed to lobby for the families of victims of the 2009 plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., said it would push Foxx, who is currently mayor of Charlotte, N.C., to continue the DOT's effort to enact more stringent rules for regional airlines.

The doomed flight that killed their relatives, which crashed as it approached the Buffalo airport in February 2009, was being operated for Continental Airlines by Colgan Air.  

South Carolina resident Scott Maurer, who lost his 30-year-old daughter Lorin in the crash, said the relatives of the accident's victims would ask Foxx to continue the effort to make regulations of smaller airlines more uniform with their larger counterparts. 

Virginia gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe (D) is touting his work across the aisle to support Gov. Bob McDonnell's (R) transportation bill, an effort to burnish his centrist image.

McAuliffe focuses on his effort to help garner Democratic support for the bill, which passed over resistance from some Tea Party-affiliated Republicans in the statehouse — as well as from Virginia Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli (R), who opposed the bill until shortly before its passage.

A House bill would require Amtrak to open at least one car of each train for passengers transporting dogs and cats.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

More than a month after the Boston Marathon bombings, the Senate candidates have become embroiled in an emotionally charged fight.

House Republicans and Amtrak debated on Tuesday who should be picking up the tab for long-distance rail lines in the U.S.

Each side agrees that the routes are sure money-losers. But the agreement stopped Tuesday when it came to whether or not the federal government should be subsidizing the service.

"Year after year these routes lose money," Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) said during a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee after acknowledging Amtrak's gains in ridership on its shorter routes. 

"In 2012, they lost a combined $600 million," Denham said of the company's long-distance service. "We simply cannot afford to continue these levels of subsidized losses year after year."

The oil and gas industry’s leading trade association accused the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday of skirting federal law by cutting short public consideration of new regulations meant to curb air pollution.

By limiting the comment period for the rule to just 23 days, the EPA is would be violating the Clean Air Act – in the name of clean air, the American Petroleum Institute (API) charged.

“EPA is cramming through unnecessary new regulations for gasoline that could drive up costs without providing significant environmental benefits,” said Bob Greco, director of API downstream group Director Bob Greco. “By limiting public comments, EPA is trying to skirt public participation and transparency in the rulemaking process.”