Aviation

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A former House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staffer is going to work for airplane manufacturer Boeing.

Amy Smith, who went by Amy Steinmann for most of her Transportation Committee tenure, will be the director of aviation policy integration at Boeing.

Smith is a 17-year veteran of Capitol Hill, serving as policy director of the Transportation Committee under the panel’s former chairman, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.).

Frontline employees of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) were not consulted about the agency's decision to begin allowing knives onto airplanes, the union that represents TSA workers said Thursday.

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) General Counsel David Borer told a committee of lawmakers in the House that the TSA union supported the agency’s “risk-based” security initiatives, but thought that it was too risky to begin allowing knives onto planes.

“Operational experience and common sense tell us that allowing knives through the checkpoint and onto the aircraft increases the safety and security risk to [Transportation Security Officers], crew members and passengers,” Borer said in testimony submitted to the House Homeland Security on Thursday. 

Your morning transportation speed read:

The bill would require FAA to cancel plans to make sequester cuts by closing 149 flight control towers.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) said the stabbings of 14 students should convince TSA not to allow knives on planes.

The FAA has identified 149 flight control towers at small, regional airports it intends to close because of the sequester.

The top lawyer at the Department of Transportation (DOT) is leaving his post to join one of the nation's largest airlines.

Robert Rivkin, the general counsel at the department for the last four years, will be joining Delta Air Lines as a senior vice president and deputy general counsel for international and regulatory affairs.

A group of House Democrats say it's time the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) stop defending its decision to allow knives on airplanes — and instead just drop the controversial proposal.

"On March 21, 2013, we along with 133 members of Congress, wrote to you requesting that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) maintain knives and sporting equipment on the Prohibited Items List (PIL) until a process of formal consultation is conducted with all stakeholders through the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC)," Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to TSA administrator John Pistole.

"On April 3, 2013, we received a letter from you outlining the reasoning behind your decision to permit certain sporting goods and knives to be carried aboard a plane by a passenger," the lawmakers continued. 

"While we appreciate your effort to elaborate on the factors you used in reaching your decision, we continue to question the failure to include stakeholders through the established ASAC process. Your response letter did not address this central concern."