Transportation: Flight Glitch Puts Pressure Back On FAA
• "The failure of a single piece of computer gear in Utah disrupted travel for thousands Thursday, exposing the risks of the long-running patchwork upgrade of the nation's air-traffic-control system," the Wall Street Journal reports. "It is the second time in 15 months that a tech glitch threw air travel into disarray across large swaths of the country."
• "The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday approved a bill aimed at improving the security of hazardous materials being transported by truck and aircraft, after defeating a Republican effort to strip a provision governing the shipping of lithium cells and batteries aboard cargo airplanes," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.
• "The Federal Election Commission approved new rules on Thursday that limit how Congressional campaigns use private and corporate jets," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "The new regulations restrict and in some situations prohibit federal candidates from spending campaign funds for noncommercial air travel. The new rules were designed to remove the influence that some special interests have on lawmakers, and they coincide with the provisions of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007."
NOTE: This week's discussion is taking place in conjunction with NationalJournal.com's Energy & Environment expert blog. Responses should be made there.
How can Washington regulate and reduce the transportation sector's oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? What are the appropriate roles and responsibilities for the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency? How should those roles be incorporated into the climate change legislation and surface transportation reauthorization that Congress is expected to tackle?
-- Lisa Caruso and Margaret Kriz, NationalJournal.com
