The Treasury Department's investment in General Motors is continuing to shrink as the government winds down one of the last major pieces of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The Treasury announced Monday that it had entered the second stage of its exit from the domestic car manufacturer, as it continues to sell off the roughly 241.7 million shares it has in the company. The government anticipates it will have fully exited its rescue of GM sometime in the first quarter of 2014.

"Earlier this year, Treasury launched an effort to sell its remaining shares in GM common stock," said Tim Massad, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability. "We are pleased with the progress to date and will continue exiting this investment in accordance with our previously announced plan and timetable and in a manner that maximizes returns for taxpayers.”

President Obama's Office of Management and Budget has implemented technical adjustments called for by law that reduce the $85 billion indiscriminate sequester spending cuts to about $80 billion, administration and congressional sources said Monday. 

The $4.9 billion in changes come as a result of Congress enacting a full 2013 spending bill last month. That bill extended stopgap funding for most agencies but contained full appropriations titles for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and Veterans Affairs. 

Congress added money to some accounts but also cut other accounts below sequestration levels, which hit March 1.

The furor over the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) sequester budget cuts has receded from the fever pitch it reached during flight delays at the end of April. But the agency’s plan will continue to hit bumps  as lawmakers turn their attention to air traffic control towers.

Forty-one senators have written the FAA to push the agency to use money that was included in the bill that was passed two weeks ago to end the flight delays to keep 149 air towers were the FAA contracts with private companies to monitor airplane traffic open.

The FAA had planned to begin closing the contracted towers on April 7, but the agency pushed the date back until June 15 after airports and lawmakers whose districts they are in strongly objected.

Passengers on San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) could be banned from riding trains if they break the systems rules beginning on Monday.

The agency is planning to begin enforcing a state law that allows it to ban passengers for anywhere between 30 days and a year.

Offenses that could get passengers the boot include "engaging in unruly behavior," carrying hazardous materials or urinating on BART trains or stations, the agency said this week.

BART officials said the "prohibition order" law would make its transit system more safe. 

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

The State Department on Thursday lifted a visa ban on Burma's military and government officials as part of the Obama administration's efforts to encourage the country's transition to democracy.

The 1996 ban targeted “persons who formulate, implement, or benefit from policies that impede Burma’s transition to democracy, and the immediate family members of such persons.” Burma, also known as Myanmar, remains subject to other travel sanctions under the Immigration and Naturalization Act, the 2008 JADE Act targeting regime leaders and President Obama's Executive Order 13619 of last July that targets human-rights abusers and people who threaten peace.

“This termination, effective immediately, is consistent with the Administration’s calibrated approach to strengthen and encourage further reform while holding Burma to its commitments on human rights and democratization,” the State Department said.

A group of 41 senators is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use money that was included in a bill to end sequester-related flight delays to keep open the flight towers the agency had intended to close.

Prior to the debate over flight delays caused by the FAA’s air traffic controller furloughs last week, the agency had planned to close 149 air towers where it contracts with private companies to monitor flights.

The agency said both cutbacks were necessary because of the automatic budget-cutting law known as the sequester, but the senators said they meant for the flight towers to be included in the bill they passed to end the FAA’s budget cuts.

“As you know, Congress recently passed legislation giving the Secretary of Transportation the flexibility needed to avert air traffic controller furloughs and contract tower closures,” the lawmakers wrote to outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We urge you to ensure that in addition to ending furloughs for 47,000 FAA employees, the agency also end the planned closure of 149 contract towers.” 

After ending air traffic controller furloughs that caused flight delays, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering other ways to cut its budget, including a plan to phrase out some of the people who monitor weather in flight towers. 

The plan, which was scheduled to begin this month, has raised questions about flight safety.

The FAA proposal, which has been pushed back now until at least September, calls for eliminating positions at 140 airports where it contracts with private companies to monitor weather developments that could impact flights.
 
The agency says it began considering eliminating the contracted weather observers before the sequester was implemented.

However, the FAA said it could save money by relying on air traffic controllers to monitor the weather as they are watching flights.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Reps. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) announced Wednesday that they would introduce a bill to end doping in horse racing and kick cheaters out of the sport.

“The chronic abuse of race horses with painkillers and other drugs is dangerous and just plain wrong," Udall said. "Racing groups have promised drug reform for decades, but this bill would bring in real standards and enforcement from an organization with a proven record for cleaning up sports."