With action on an economic stimulus package stalled on the Senate floor, Congressional transportation leaders may change strategy to attempt to include additional security spending in another bill, such as the defense appropriations bill.

Senate debate of an economic stimulus package reported by the Finance Committee began on Tuesday. Although the chairman's amendment forwarded by Senator Max Baucus included $15 billion in spending for security measures, Baucus did not include a proposed $5 billion in additional highway obligation authority as many transportation advocates had hoped. An amendment to add the highway obligation authority was filed by Republican Sens. Robert Smith (NH), James Inhofe (OK) and Craig Thomas (WY). However, the defeat of two procedural motions brought action on the bill to a standstill and no action on the amendment was taken.

Action on the bill stalled after the Senate failed to waive two "points of order" which were raised against the bill by Republicans. In each case, 60 votes were needed to overcome the points of order, and in each case they were sustained by a vote of 51-47. The vote was not entirely unexpected because the Finance Committee's proposal was crafted by the Democratic majority and had no Republican support. In the closely divided Senate, neither party has sufficient votes to overcome procedural roadblocks.

The administration also weighed in against the Senate version of the bill in a letter issued on Thursday, which said that the bill did not include the tax relief measures needed to jump-start the economy. In an address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Vice President Richard Cheney also stressed the need for an approach based on tax relief rather than spending increases. He also urged Congress to take action swiftly, saying the economy could not wait for action until next year.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats appear unwilling to give up the homeland security package that had been crafted by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV), and insist that it should be considered in some manner, perhaps as part of the still-pending FY 2002 defense appropriations bill.

This week Byrd cut $5 billion out of his original $20 billion security package by eliminating the $2.5 billion in highway spending and $2 billion for drinking water systems. Byrd said that he took the action "so that those who attack it will be attacking pure homeland security."

With the Senate unable to act on the Democratic version of the bill, it appears that negotiations will now begin between the head tax writers from the House and Senate and the administration and will be focused on the tax relief proposals included in the House bill, H.R. 3090.

Although some alternative proposals regarding the operation of Mexican-based trucks in the United States have been developed, conferees on the FY 2002 transportation spending bill and the administration have been unable to reach common ground.

Conferees were tentatively scheduled to meet on Thursday, but the meeting was canceled because an agreement was not reached on alternative Mexican trucking provisions that were being offered. Senate Appropriations Committee chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and ranking member Richard Shelby (R-AL) presented a compromise Mexican trucking proposal this week that loosened some of the inspection and operation requirements contained in the Senate-passed bill, but the proposal apparently did not satisfy the administration's concerns.

According to the CQ Daily Monitor, the Bush Administration will be working this weekend on drafting an alternative proposal. The administration is still threatening to veto the transportation bill if the final package, in its view, is too restrictive on the Mexican trucking issue.

The Murray/Shelby proposal would require on-site inspections of Mexican trucks, but would allow those trucks that passed to operate for 90 days until another inspection was required. At the same time, it would require in-motion scales at designated border crossings.

AASHTO Writes Conferees

This week AASHTO sent a letter conferees to the transportation appropriations bill regarding language in the House report that directs the Department of Transportation to publish a final rule on rural consultation procedures by February 1, 2002.

In the letter, AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley urged conferees to support language in the conference report "that recognizes provisions in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) that preserve state discretion in their processes for consulting with local officials in rural areas."

Noting that TEA-21 required states to submit their consultation procedures to the Federal Highway Administration, Horsley stated that TEA-21 "respects the fact that each state has very individualized approaches for working with local officials that reflect each state's unique geographic, political, and demographic character, as well as state statutory requirements."

"AASHTO believes that the resources and attention of the Administration, along with states and localities, should be focused on reauthorization of TEA-21 as well as other current transportation issues, including for example, transportation security. In the meantime, we pledge to work cooperatively with Congress, the Administration and localities on the issues surrounding state and local consultation in non-metropolitan areas," Horsley said.

On November 9 a group of national associations representing city and county officials urged conferees to support the House report language. The letter states that despite an extensive comment period on the proposed regulations, along with focus groups and national studies, "more than three years after the enactment of TEA-21, we are still waiting for FHWA to issue final regulations...We believe there is no valid reason to further delay the final implementation of the rural planning rules."

The letter was signed by the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, the National Association of County Engineers, the American Public Works Association, and the National Association of Development Organizations.

The agreement would make all airport security screeners full federal employees within two years, and would maintain that status for at least three years -- a position closer to the Senate version of the bill. After that, five airports would be allowed to participate in pilot programs that would let them use law enforcement or privately contracted screeners. At the same time, after the three year period other airport authorities could opt-out of the federalized system if approved by the Secretary of Transportation. An impasse had earlier developed between the two chambers over the question of whether an estimated 28,000 screeners should, or should not, be federal employees. Currently they are private workers contracted by the airlines.

President Bush on Tuesday urged Congress to work night and day, if need be, to place an aviation security bill on his desk, in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. He is expected to sign the bill before the close of the weekend.

Conferees also agreed to provisions in the House bill that puts the Transportation Department, rather than the Justice Department, in charge of security operations under a new Transportation Security Administration under the DOT. To help pay for the new system a $2.50 surchage would be added to every leg of a one-way trip, but would be capped at $5.00.

In other aviation security developments on the Hill, Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey and Kenneth Mead, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, testified Wednesday before the Senate Government Affairs Committee about continuing problems with U.S. airport security since Sept. 11.

While many steps have been taken to increase security ? from United Airlines' announcement this week that its pilots will have access to shock-inducing "stun guns" to reinforcement of cockpit door, background checks on airport personnel and using FBI watch lists to identify suspicious passengers ? airports are not using bomb-detection machines as frequently as they should be, Mead said.

"You can see across our whole economy, businesses, including airlines, are cutting back," said Robert O'Brien, Aviation Director at Illinois' Springfield Capital Airport.

Some small airports may not survive what Erin Travis, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Airport Executives, described as Sept. 11's "economic tsunami."

"There was no warning -- costs shot up as revenues fell off a cliff," she said.

Some airports have substantially cut flights, such as the Redding, California municipal airport which has cut flights from nine to two per day, and the Lynchburg, Virginia airport which has cut daily departures in half.

New security rules also have curbed business ? from the removal of close-in parking spaces at some airports to restrictions or no-fly rules at such facilities as flight schools located too close to security-sensitive facilities, such as nuclear facilities.

Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board have not yet declared the 27-foot-high fin -- which was found virtually intact in Jamaica Bay near the site of the landside crash into a residential neighborhood ? to be the focus of their probe. However, the part is essential to control of an aircraft, and American Airlines decided on Wednesday to inspect that part on its 34 remaining Airbus A300s, planes identical to the one that crashed about four minutes into its flight from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday.

The Times reported that Airbus, the European manufacturer of the A300, was discussing with other airlines whether to make similar checks, and federal investigators called in materials experts to the crash site to study the tail fin, which along with its attachment fittings is made of a combination of plastic and carbon fibers rather than metal. According to the Washington Post, other factors being looked into include the possibility the plane encountered severe turbulence from the air wake of the jet in front of it or possible damage to the plane from a previous encounter, several years earlier, with "clear-air turbulence," an incident that sent several passengers to hospitals.

Joseph H. Boardman, Commissioner of the New York Department of Transportation and Chairman of AASHTO's Standing Committee on Railroad Transportation, said "The Amtrak Reform Council's decision could not have come at a worse time. In light of the attacks on September 11th, Americans are more dependent upon a reliable inter-city rail system than ever. Rail ridership has increased and now is not the time to begin a liquidation process. Inter-city rail transportation should not be de- railed because of this decision, but it highlights the need for Congressional support."

The reform council's 6-5 vote on Friday, November 9, will not end Amtrak service. Congress will review the liquidation plan, due in 90 days, and a proposal to be drawn up by the reform council for a restructured nationwide passenger-rail system, also due in 90 days, the Associated Press reported. Following those presentations, Congress will make a decision about how passenger rail should be carried out in the United States.

Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, a member of the council, responded swiftly to the announcement by the ARC to assure travelers that "Amtrak trains are running today, they will run tomorrow and throughout the coming months as Congress takes up this important national debate." Both Mineta and Amtrak Reform Council Chairman Gil Carmichael voted against the council's finding.

Mineta added, "Intercity passenger rail remains an important component of the national transportation system. The events of September 11 underscore this fact. I have consistently called for Congressional consideration of structural reforms to passenger rail. In July, for example, I wrote to Congress to urge that 'formal consideration' of what that rail transportation network should be, what we can afford, the reforms that may be necessary, and how they will be implemented should take place soon, well in advance of the expiration of the current Amtrak authorization."

Congress created the Amtrak Reform Council in 1997 to evaluate Amtrak's financial status and make a decisive judgment about the railway's financial viability. Amtrak, which has existed since 1971, has faced financial losses throughout its history and has been sustained by federal subsidies. Congress laid a requirement on the rail line that it become financially "self-sufficient" by 2003 or face liquidation.

Amtrak management had pegged much of the line's hope for self-sufficiency on its new line of "Acela" high-speed trains up and down the eastern seaboard. However, manufacturing problems have made the trains late in going into service. Amtrak, however, has picked up passengers in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that have made some passengers skittish about air travel. Amtrak has reported daily, sellout conditions on its Metroliner and Acela Express services in recent weeks, as well as some long-distance sleeper cars.

OPEC agreed Wednesday to reduce its daily production target for oil by 1.5 million barrels ? a cut of about 6 percent ? but only if the non-OPEC producers shared the burden by making a deeper cut, equal to about 2 million barrels a day altogether. The plan is for the cuts to begin on Jan. 1.

However, industry analysts said it's unlikely the non-OPEC oil-producing nations will take the step unless they first see OPEC members make a serious effort to keep from outproducing their own quotas. Currently, OPEC is pumping some 800,000 barrels above its daily target of 23.2 million barrels.

"In many ways, it's a game of chicken," said Yasser Elguindi of Medley Global Advisors, a New York consulting firm. At midweek, the oil markets responded to OPEC's uncertain message with a large-scale sell-off, dropping December contracts for North Sea Brent crude by $2.06 to close at $18.75 a barrel on trading on the International Petroleum Exchange in London. OPEC officials have spoken of trying to raise the price to $22-$28 per barrel.

OPEC replies that its members have already cut output by 3.5 million barrels a day this year, without responding cuts from other oil producers, and that leads to a "free ride" for those non-cartel producing nations.

Late Wednesday Mexico announced that it will cut oil exports by up to 100,000 barrels a day, while Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer, said it will offer a token cut of 30,000 barrels a day. Norway on Thursday said it will consider cutting its crude petroleum output, but made no promises; in the past, it has cooperated with OPEC efforts to boost prices.

Prices got a modest boost from President George W. Bush's announcement on Tuesday that the government will put more oil into America's emergency stockpile, for the first time aiming to fill the reserve to full capacity.

The action springs from the litigation over a more stringent ozone pollution regulation that rose all the way to the Supreme Court. The EPA in 1997 issued the tighter ozone restriction, which mandated compliance with a new right-hour standard. That standard was challenged by the American Trucking Association and other organizations, and in 1999 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia remanded the standard to the EPA on several grounds. One of those issues was whether the delegation of authority to the EPA by Congress for setting such standards was unconstitutional. That issue was ultimately appealed and overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, a second issue -- whether there might be some positive benefits of ozone pollution -- not considered by the EPA at the time of its rulemaking, was not appealed to the Supreme Court. Consequently, the EPA has assessed the potential beneficial effects of ozone. Its finding, published in the November 14 Federal Register, was that the potential impact of ozone pollution on shielding people from harmful effects of the sun is "too uncertain at this time" to warrant any change to the proposed regulation.