Shipping and Cargo

Lawmakers in the House will begin working in earnest this week on the two largest pieces of transportation legislation that are expected to be approved this year.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has scheduled hearings on water resources development and Amtrak's budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

The hearings, on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, are being cast as the first steps toward the passage of new bills to boost waterways and long-distance rail service in the United States.

President Obama will visit the port of Miami on Friday.

The visit is intended to call attention to the importance of port and shipping facilities to the national economy.

Obama has pushed for expedited expansions of several ports along the East Coast, including the port of Miami.

Commercial truck drivers who fail drug tests might soon have their names listed in a federal database.

The White House has received a proposal to create a registry of drivers that test positive for drugs or alcohol while on the job. The rule would eliminate a loophole that allows drivers to “job hop” by not reporting failed drug tests on applications.

“We’re very excited that the rule has gone over to [the Office of Management and Budget],” said Abigail Potter, a research analyst for the American Trucking Associations’ regulatory and policy affairs department. “This is something we've been advocating for since the late '90s.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) publicly acknowledge that it has no legal right to end Saturday delivery service.

“I am urging you to make it clear to the American people that the USPS will continue Saturday mail delivery in adherence with the law,” Sanders wrote Tuesday in a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.

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Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and David Vitter (R-La.) have filed a bill that would eliminate antitrust exemptions for freight railroad companies.

The bill, dubbed the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act, would prevent freight rail companies from operating monopolies in rural areas, the lawmakers said Thursday.

“It’s simply unfair that companies like Blandin Paper Company in Minnesota pay higher prices because railroads enjoy an exemption from the antitrust laws,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “This legislation makes commonsense reforms that will require the railroad industry play by the same antitrust rules as other industries and will help keep costs down for businesses, farmers and consumers.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Senate Democrats on Tuesday that he would bring a large infrastructure authorization bill to the floor as early as April, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told reporters in a conference call.

The Water Resources Development Act, known as WRDA, authorizes a slate of flood prevention, harbor and aquatic ecosystem restoration projects through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Congress has not approved a new WRDA bill in six years.

The bill is garnering attention from environmental, spending and insurance groups who are pushing for beefed up coastal infrastructure to minimize damages from extreme weather events. Such options include restoring beaches as coastal buffers and bolstering levees.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) questioned the Senate’s approach to a reauthorization of federal waterways funding on Tuesday, arguing that the upper chamber’s draft gives too much power to the Obama administration.

The Senate released a draft of its version of a new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which both chamber’s transportation committees have identified as an early priority for 2013.

The Senate proposal calls for investment in projects that have been identified by the Army Corps of Engineers as a boost to U.S. system of inland waterways.

In a speech to the Arlington, Va.-based Waterways Council on Tuesday, however, Shuster expressed wariness of leaving Congress out of the decision making process.

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

The union for pilots is pushing the Obama administration to enact tougher rules for shipping of lithium-ion batteries.

The rules should be the same for U.S. lithium batteries as they are for the international shipments, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said Friday in response to a proposed rule change from the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The DOT is accepting comments on a change to federal hazardous material regulations involving lithium batteries that would do just that.

ALPA Dangerous Goods Program Director Mark Rogers said the pilots' union was concerned about the possibility of fires when they are flying with lithium batteries.