Reported by Zach Williams for Bloomberg Government Transportation
Panel Vote on Nominees: The Senate Commerce Committee will vote on nominations of Matthew Anderson to be NASA’s deputy administrator, Michael Graham to join the National Transportation Safety Board, Richard Kloster to join the Surface Transportation Board, and Seval Oz to be an assistant secretary of transportation overseeing research and technology issues. Labor Unions on Air Safety: Aviation labor groups are backing Senate-passed legislation known as the ROTOR Act (S. 2503), over its House counterpart, the ALERT Act (H.R. 7613), Zach Williams reports.
“We cannot support the bill until it sufficiently addresses multiple NTSB recommendations, including those for ADS-B In and military rotorcraft operations,” a letter from the groups said, referring to the House bill’s lack of requirements for aircraft to have safety technology known as Automatic Dependent Service Broadcast.
The letter goes on to cite several military-friendly loopholes in the House bill that allow military aircraft and other federal agency aircraft to operate without several safety technologies.
Congress Cap on Rail Funding: Railroads and their workers are supporting lawmaker plans to increase the Railroad Retirement Board’s spending cap, Zach Williams reports. Congress has imposed a $127 million limit for fiscal 2026 on what the agency can use for administrative expenses, but lawmakers are weighing an increase to $185 million in FY 2027 appropriations legislation, the coalition of rail business groups and unions wrote in a letter to Appropriations leaders.
“Due to this limited access to its funding, RRB has been unable to modernize its technology and operating systems,” reads the letter. “Modernizing that technology would strengthen program administration, reduce long-term maintenance costs, improve cybersecurity protections, and enhance service delivery.”
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