The Transportation Security Administration's proposed "trusted traveler" program will improve the airport security experience for frequent fliers traveling for work, an Alexandria, Va., business group said Tuesday.

The Global Business Travel Association, which calls itself "the world's premier business travel and meetings organization," said the TSA pilot of a program that would allow passengers who agree to provide personal data is a "much-needed" improvement.

"Our members have the utmost respect for the work TSA does and we applaud the launch of this pilot program as an important next step in advancing our air transit system," GBTA Executive Director Michael McCormick said in a statement. "Our 5,000 members have been advocating for a Trusted Traveler system and the way this pilot program is designed, business travelers are going to see benefits.

President Obama's administration has pulled as many bus and truck companies out of service for safety violations in the last two years as the number ordered off of the road in the previous decade, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

The issue of bus safety has been potent in Washington this spring after several crashes that killed about 20 people. The Senate held hearings after two crashes in the Northeast in March, and the House revisited the issue again in May after another crash in northern Virginia.

DOT responded to the incidents by stepping up random roadside inspections of buses, and on Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said those inspections have resulted in a high number of unsafe drivers and buses being sidelined permanently. From 2000-2009, 14 bus companies were put out of service, the same number cited in the two years since.

"From Day One, I have pledged to put public safety above all else, and we will continue to take action when we see carriers placing passengers at risk,” LaHood said in a statement released by the DOT.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A woman who was arrested for assaulting a TSA agent has a lot of new friends on Facebook.

Is it safer for kids to drive with their grandparents than their parents?

Washington's Metro transit system is trying to win over social media critics.

The Federal Aviation Administration has made its acting Air Traffic Organization head permanent.

The conservative website RedState.com said Monday that complaints about the Republican proposal for a new federal highway bill were coming from an "unholy alliance of Big Labor and Big Business to raise taxes."

The Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO have both sharply criticized the proposal from House Republicans to spend $230 billion over six years on a new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU, transportation bill.

But RedState said Monday the plan, introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), showed "a new spirit of fiscal discipline" was gaining traction into Washington, and should be praised.

"Unfortunately, along with the Democrats, labor unions, and usual rent-seeking parasites, the Chamber of Commerce is condemning the new austerity measures in transportation funding," the website said. "Concurrently, they are calling for an increase in gas taxes to fund their construction projects that are either gratuitous or should be funded by the localities that so desire them."

With its legal complaint against airplane manufacturer Boeing under intense scrutiny from Republicans, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will hold hearings this week on changes it is proposing to its oversight of union election rules.

The NLRB, which has drawn criticism from the GOP for alleging that Boeing decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for strikes by workers in Washington state, is proposing several changes it says will streamline labor votes.

The proposed changes include allowing for electronic filings for petitions and other court documents and requiring parties to more quickly identify issues and provide evidence when they file complaints.

"One of the most important duties of the National Labor Relations Board is conducting secret-ballot elections to determine whether employees want to be represented by a labor union," NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman said in a statement about the proposed changes. "Resolving representation questions quickly, fairly, and accurately has been an overriding goal of American labor law for more than 75 years."

A passenger at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Ariz., was arrested for assaulting a Transportation Security Administration officer, the agency confirmed Monday.

The passenger, 61-year-old Arizona resident Yukari Mihamae, reportedly got into an argument about TSA's screening procedures while she was attempting to board a flight last week. In the course of the disagreement, Mihamae allegedly grabbed the TSA officers left breast.

The woman was taken into custody after the incident, and TSA said in a statement that similar incidents would be handled the same way.

"TSA officers work every day to protect the traveling public, and the agency will not tolerate assaults against its workforce," the agency said in a statement.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is in Orlando, Fla., for the signing ceremony for a commuter rail there.

Delta Airlines is eliminating flights to several small-town airports.

A Colorado woman tried to give a Transportation Security Administration officer a taste of the pat-down medicine.

A hailstorm in its hub of Denver caused United Airlines to cancel several flights.  

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the head of a subcommittee of the panel that held a hearing about airport security breaches this week said that the Department of Homeland Security's allegation that sensitive national security documents were released by the committee were "false" and "meritless."

Department of Homeland Security Deputy General Counsel Joseph Maher wrote to the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), in a letter obtained by The Hill Friday that sensitive security information (SSI) was made public in the run-up to the committee's hearing Tuesday about reports there had been tens of thousands of breaches of secured airport perimeters since 2001.

But Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) dismissed the allegations Friday afternoon.

"There meritless assertions appear to be a reprisal for committee  efforts intended to address TSA's deficiencies," Issa wrote in a letter Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

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Lawsuit argued the scans are a violation of the Fourth Amendment's clause on unreasonable searches and seizures.