Aviation

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday that he was going to look into the changed National Mediation Board rules for airline and railroad employees.

The NMB changed the rules last year to ensure that absentee votes were not counted as votes against forming an union.

That was later undone by the House, but the proposed rule consumed debate over the Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill. It also caught the attention of President Obama, who promised to veto the entire FAA bill if the NMB rules were undone.

Now, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says he wants to take a look at whether the NMB was trying to "advance a partisan policy agenda."

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The Transportation Security Administration's pat-down of an 8-month-old baby has been spoofed by comedian Conan O'Brien.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Washington connects are good for Chicago.

The Los Angeles Times says California high-speed rail plan is a wreck.

While it fights over where it is going to build 787 airplanes, Boeing is producing more 777s.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) became the latest Republican presidential candidate to criticize the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing, calling its actions illegal and calling upon the government to defund the group if it persists in the suit.
 
The NLRB is suing Boeing, which has been building 787 airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, claiming that the aircraft manufacturer is retaliating against strikes by its Washington state-based union by opening a plant to build 787s in South Carolina.
 
South Carolina is a so-called “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.
 
The lawsuit has infuriated South Carolina Republicans and, since South Carolina is an early 2012 primary state, it has also caught the attention of GOP presidential hopefuls.

Your daily transportation speed-read:

An AirTran Airways pilot in Minneapolis, Minn., was arrested for being drunk before his scheduled flight.

Hawaii is having some second thoughts about rail.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be among the attendees at Rahm Emanuel's inauguration as Chicago mayor.

Washington state has a transportation budget.

With a long-term appropriations bill for the beleaguered Federal Aviation Administration bogged down in a dispute over labor rights and the agency set to run out of money this month, House Republicans said Friday they would introduce another stop-gap funding bill to keep the FAA running.

That current measure, the 18th short-term FAA bill, funds the organization through the end May. The new measure (H.R. 1893) would provide funding for another month for the FAA, which has come under fire after a spate of reports of air traffic controllers sleeping on the job.

Though he has criticized the short-term FAA extensions, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said another one is a must.

“This extension is simply a backup plan as negotiations on a long-term bill continue,” Mica said Friday in a statement.  “The introduction of the extension will also serve to reserve debate time on the House Floor and ensure that Congress has an opportunity to consider final long-term legislation before the end of the month.”

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Air traffic controllers haven't been just sleeping on the job. They've also been making more errors.

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) is pushing Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to accept another railway in central Florida.

They can't decide what type of trains they want for high-speed rail in Texas.

Another bus crashed in Maryland.

Likely Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney compared the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit to stop Boeing from building a new plant in South Carolina to the federal healthcare reform law.
 
While delivering a widely watched speech in Michigan Thursday, the former Massachusetts governor called the NLRB’s lawsuit "a power grab from states, with the federal government saying we know better than the state."
 
"That was the most recent [example]," Romney said during his remarks at the University of Michigan. "The most egregious example was the healthcare plan itself."

Boeing Vice President J. Michael Luttig told a Senate panel Thursday that the National Labor Relations Board has exceeded its authority by trying to block his company from building a new plant in South Carolina instead of its home state of Washington.

The NLRB is trying to win concessions for Boeing employees the union was not able to win, Luttig said during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The problem is, that is not the NLRB's job, Luttig told lawmakers Thursday.

"At bottom, the acting general counsel is seeking to change radically the balance between management and unions struck by the NLRA, as the Act has been interpreted for the last 75 years," Luttig said in remarks prepared for the committee. 

The White House will not comment on the National Labor Relations Board's complaint against Boeing because the panel is an "independent agency," a spokesman said this week.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and several GOP senators have argued that the NLRB's effort to block Boeing from locating a new plant in South Carolina is an assault on capitalism.

South Carolina is a "right-to-work" state, with laws on the books that generally prohibit mandatory union membership.

The NLRB has argued that Boeing wants to build the plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes in Washington state. Republicans say the lawsuit shows the Obama administration is too cozy with unions.

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday said the matter is between Boeing and the NLRB.

"Well, it’s obviously been in the news, so we are aware of it, but I would refer any questions about it to the NLRB because it is an independent agency, and we do not get involved in particular enforcement matters of independent agencies," Carney told reporters.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says Amtrak already has a terrorist watch list.

California's state auditor is saying not so fast on a proposed high-speed railway there.

Three-hundred Tampa area students are losing their school buses.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) thinks Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University should locate its third campus in Illinois.