The president said labor and management shouldn't be fighting "at a time when we are competing against China and Germany."

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman will be renominated for another term, the White House said this week.

Hersman, who has been a member of the NTSB since 2004, will renominated for another two-year term by President Obama. She has worked the scene of 19 crash sites.

In a recent interview with The Hill, Hersman said she hoped the president would give her another term.

“I feel privileged to lead a great agency with a great mission,” she said, though she said she would not campaign for the job.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Lawmakers are expected to approve another short-term extension of the Federal Aviation Administration's funding.

The sun is setting on Florida Gov. Rick Scott's (R) review of a proposed commuter railway in Orlando.

Boeing is facing a $1 billion fine from the FAA.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has been named 'Chief Executive of the Year' in the auto industry.

A key Democratic member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday that House Republicans' plan to privatizing Amtrak rail service could have an unintended consequence: draining the fund for the retirement of rail employees of all stripes.

Amtrak employees make up 10 percent of the national railroad retirement system, Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) said. Thus, they make up a provide a large percent of the money in the trust funds that pay for those retirements, the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance trust funds, she said.

"Last week, Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman’s announced that the 'Competition for Intercity Passenger Rail in America Act of 2011,' introduced by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) and Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) would 'likely mean the end of Amtrak and the national passenger rail system that Congress authorized nearly 40 years ago,'" Brown said in a statement released Tuesday by her office. 

"In light of that announcement, I asked the Railroad Retirement Board to determine the financial impact of a 100 percent decline in Amtrak employment on the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance trust funds," she continued. "The Board concluded that the decline in Amtrak employment would result in an immediate loss in tax income that would overshadow any supposed gains from long-term benefit decreases.  As a result, the balance in the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust would plummet from the current $26.246 billion to $9.553 billion by 2026, leaving the freight railroads and its employees to make up the difference."

Texas lawmakers are on the verge of banning Transportation Security Administration pat-downs at airport security checkpoints, but it appears the measure will not go as far as some opponents of the TSA would like.

The Texas House passed a measure this week to make it a misdemeanor for TSA agents to pat down travelers who did not have probable cause for suspicion. The penalty would be a $4,000 fine and one year in jail.

But the Lone Star State Senate, which did not vote on the measure the last time the Texas House passed it, added provisions to allow TSA agents to deliver hand searches if they have a reasonable suspicion one is necessary. 

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is heading to Detroit to visit two General Motors plants.

Vision Airlines is canceling several of its routes.

Officials in New Jersey are increasing security on trains and buses.

The driver of a truck that crashed into an Amtrak train in Nevada has been identified.

The agency said airport screeners did not ask a 95-year-old woman to remove her diaper, as was reported.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott says he will make a decision on a proposed commuter railway in Orlando, Fla.

The liberal magazine The Nation hailed the election that resulted in the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) becoming the union for the Transportation Security Administration.

AFGE won a runoff election this week with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) for the right to represent TSA workers.

The magazine said Friday that the win was significant.

"These are tough times for labor unions," the paper said in an op-ed titled "TSA Gets Some Security of Its Own." "They are under attack in the private sector and at all levels of government. But workers are waking up to the reason for the attacks: Unions are essential sources of protection for essential workers.

"So it is that the labor movement has now secured one of the most important victories of recent years in a high-profile area of the public sector," the article continues.