The TSA is defending the money it spends on storing equipment it is not using.

"There’s only dirty oil and dirtier oil,” Gore told Canada’s The Globe and Mail.

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx (D) was a "wise choice" by President Obama.

Reid also added that the man Foxx will be replacing if he is confirmed for the DOT job, outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, was a standout member of Obama's first Cabinet.

"I think it's a wise choice," Reid said of Foxx during a press conference on Tuesday.

"He's someone that understands government," Reid continued. "He's head of transportation program that he's worked on as mayor…he was recommended highly by the president's secretary, who I think was a star of [Obama's first] administration." 

Sen. Rockefeller wrote to executives of three major cruise lines asking about their standards and the industry's role in the economy.

Sen. John McCain attributed the increase to budget cuts and the possible passage of immigration reform legislation.

Democrats in the House are pushing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to cut its spending on equipment storage ahead of a Homeland Security Committee meeting this week.

The top ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), said the agency was spending too much money on storage, citing a report by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) inspector general that showed TSA was spending $800,000 on warehouse space.

Thompson said the report "highlights serious deficiencies in TSA’s method for managing the storage of screening equipment."

"TSA must take immediate steps to stop spending $800,000 per year to lease space for obsolete and unusable technology. Every dollar wasted is a dollar that is not spent on protecting this nation and fixing known security vulnerabilities," he said in a statement.  

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is allowing international passengers to participate in its Pre-Check known traveler program.

The agency said that passengers flying to international destinations from 40 airports would be allowed to volunteer information to the agency in exchange for the possibility of receiving expedited screening beginning on Tuesday.

The Pre-Check program is part of the agency's move toward "risk-based" security techniques.

TSA Administrator John Pistole said this week that the agency was expanding the Pre-Check program to international flights because it proved to be successful in tests for domestic passengers. 

National Democrats are charging Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), running for Senate in West Virginia, with hypocrisy for suggesting she cut back on spending in her own life while going on congressional trips to foreign nations.