Aviation

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Flooding shut down trains near Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport on Monday morning.

A trash facility is being blamed for birds that congregate near New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Hackers targeted the website of San Francisco's Bay Area Transit Authority.

Los Angeles officials are considering linking Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to rail.

Rep. Darrell Issa on Friday described the National Labor Relations Board as a “rogue agency.” 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) should withdraw subpoenas he issued for documents related to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing, a trio of veteran Democratic lawmakers said Friday.

Over the objection of Democrats on his own House Oversight Committee, Issa subpoenaed the labor oversight panel after saying the NLRB did not provide enough documents for his investigation into the panel's case against Boeing. The NLRB argues that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

But in a letter to Issa released Friday, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), George Miller (D-Calif.) and John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said the chairman should let the legal proceeding run its course.

"We are writing to request that you withdraw the unilateral subpoena you served on Sunday to the National Labor Relations Board in light of a recent court ruling that effectively eliminates the purported basis for the committee's investigation," the Democrats wrote, referring to Seattle Administrative Law Judge Clifford Anderson's ruling in June against a motion to dismiss the NLRB case from Boeing.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee again took to the pages of a newspaper Friday to defend his role in the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, saying an editorial in the Jacksonville Times-Union in his home state that criticized the shutdown "told only part of the story."

In an op-ed published earlier this week, the Times-Union's editorial board said "Washington can't seem to do anything right, as illustrated by the partial shutdown involving the Federal Aviation Administration.

"A Republican-dominated House and a Democratic-dominated Senate played power games — and then left on vacation," the editorial continued. "Eventually, they figured out a solution, but not until damage had been done. The damage to the institution of Congress can't get much worse. At 82 percent disapproval, Congress has the highest negative rating in the history of the CBS-New York Times Poll. But the damage to the people they represent is serious."

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Transportation committee, disagreed with the paper's take. Mica wrote in Friday to say "Democratic Senate leaders chose to demagogue the issue and attempted to cast blame," placing the fault squarely on that party's shoulders.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) went to the other side of the country to make the case for a new Federal Aviation Administration bill.

Airplane manufacturer Boeing is expecting the first delivery of 787 airplanes soon.

The lawsuit involving a man who stripped at Richmond International Airport to protest Transportation Security Administration procedures will come before a judge.

Costs are rising on the proposed California High-Speed Rail project.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is right to issue subpoenas for documents related to the National Labor Relations Board’s legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing, a pair of newspaper editorial boards said this week.

Issa has launched an investigation into the labor oversight panel’s case against Boeing. The NLRB argues that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

Issa has said the case appears politically motivated, an idea with which the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review agreed.

“By subpoenaing documents from the National Labor Relations Board’s lawsuit against Boeing Co., Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is appropriately pressuring the Democrat-dominated NLRB, which is intolerably pressuring businesses’ freedom to locate where they wish,” the paper opined Thursday.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Airport tarmac delays are up again.

Massachusetts's lieutenant governor has criticized Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on transportation funding.

A lawsuit over the proposed California high-speed rail will be heard by a judge Friday.

A former Playboy model was arrested by the Transportation Security Administration for allegedly trying to board a plane at the Orlando International Airport with a gun.

The trade association representing airports is using August town halls to pressure lawmakers to support Federal Aviation Administration funding.

The FAA Managers Association called Wednesday for more donations to a relief fund it set up during the nearly two-week shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, saying Congress won't be able to pass a bill providing back pay for the furloughed agency workers until September at the earliest. 

On Aug. 3, the FAAMA announced it was creating a relief fund for FAA workers who were out of work when Congress was at an impasse over a funding bill.

Lawmakers reached a deal last week on a bill that provides money for the FAA through Sept. 16, and they have said they would pay back the workers for the time they missed.

No longer at the epicenter of a political fight over government spending in Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration got back to business regulating airlines Wednesday, announcing it was fining American Eagle Airlines for operating flights with incorrect weight and balance data.

About 4,000 FAA workers, mostly in research and design, were furloughed for nearly two weeks earlier this month when Congress could not agree on a funding bill for the agency. But after 13 days, lawmakers reached a deal on a bill that provides money for the FAA through Sept. 16.

On Wednesday, with its operations back to normal, the FAA proposed fining American Eagle $155,000 for eight flights to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport it said it observed arriving with heavier luggage than documents filed by airline employees specified. The FAA said the flights occurred between Dec. 28-29, 2010.