Airports pan short-term 5G deal

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Jan 10, 2022 View in browser   By Alex Daugherty Presented by Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l With help from Tanya Snyder and Oriana Pawlyk Quick fix — FAA releases 5G airport list, but airports call the analysis "irrelevant" and argue that flight delays and cancellations are coming. — CDC says conditional sailing order for cruise ships is unnecessary because the companies are largely adhering to CDC guidelines on their own. — An eventful weekend for Senate Commerce Committee Republicans who were coy about their 2022 plans. HAPPY MONDAY: You're reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. Send tips, pitches, feedback and song lyrics to adaugherty@politico.com, tsnyder@politico.com and opawlyk@politico.com. You can also find us on Twitter: @alextdaugherty, @TSnyderDC and @Oriana0214. "I wish that I could fly/Into the sky/So very high/Just like a dragonfly."   A message from Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l: Keeping US aviation safest in the world means prioritizing air safety. Working with pilots is the only way to ensure new 5G technology is implemented without risk to aircraft so we keep passengers and crew flying. Get the latest update on potential impact of 5G on air travel here.   Aviation FAA 5G 50 LIST RELEASED: The FAA on Friday night released its list of 50 airports that it says most need wireless 5G interference mitigate to ensure planes can land safely, Oriana reports . The list is part of a deal reached by AT&T, Verizon and DOT last week that allows the government to designate no more than 50 airports in the 5G service area that will have "buffer zones" when wireless companies activate 5G. "In addition to asking for input from the aviation community, the FAA selected the airports based on their traffic volume, the number of low-visibility days and geographic location factored into the selection," the agency said in a statement.' AIRPORTS AREN'T HAPPY: The Airports Council International – North America on Friday called the FAA's analysis "irrelevant," arguing that the ripple effects of the deployment will hit the entire national airspace hard, including flight cancellations and delays. Last week's deal pushed the 5G expansion date to Jan. 19, and AT&T and Verizon agreed to employ additional protections at certain airport zones until July. "Despite eleventh-hour efforts to resolve obvious concerns that could have been addressed months ago, this attempt at a short-term fix does not address a number of critical uncertainties about the potentially adverse impact of 5G on certain low visibility approaches," ACI-NA President and CEO Kevin Burke said in a statement." This so-called fix will create winners and losers within the airport community, and the entire aviation system will suffer under the terms of this deal."   A message from Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l:   Around the Agencies CDC SPEAKS: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky faced questions Friday on whether companies, specifically airlines, pressed the federal government to cut its recommended isolation and quarantine period to five days from 10 for individuals who test positive from Covid. Walensky didn't directly say whether the CDC faced pressure from business interests, instead saying the CDC's Dec. 27 change was driven by health care staffing issues. "I wanna sort of go back to where we were on December 23rd, where we were starting to hear from health care systems, and it was really important to just reflect back where hospitalizations are most definitely increasing," Walensky said during a telebriefing. "One of the challenges that we're having now, unlike prior days in this pandemic, is not that we don't have enough beds, but that we don't necessarily have enough staffing for those beds. And we were really seeing hospital health care work staffing as a real challenge just as the holidays were hitting." Cruise contradiction: Walensky was also asked why the CDC's conditional sailing order is ending on Jan. 15, despite a CDC recommendation advising against cruise ship travel amid an explosion of cases involving the Omicron variant on board. She said the advisory was issued "when we started to see exactly what we are seeing on land," which is more and more Omicron cases. And she argued that the conditional sail order, something Republicans have generally opposed for months , is unnecessary because cruise ships are voluntarily imposing standards that meet or exceed the CDC guidelines. "What I will say about the conditional sail order is that, generally ,ships and companies are subscribing to the order without arguing to have the order that they are voluntarily practicing all of the things within that order and that we are doing the exact same oversight as we would do if the order was in place," Walensky said. Biden vaccine mandates go to SCOTUS : The validity of two vaccine-related mandates that cover large businesses and health care facilities appeared to break down among ideological lines during oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Friday, Josh Gerstein and Eleanor Mueller report. LIBERAL V. CONSERVATIVE: The vaccine or test-and-mask mandate for employers with more than 100 workers would cover many transportation providers. Most of the conservative justices sounded sympathetic to business interests and Republican-led states trying to block the rules. The court's liberal justices sounded flabbergasted at the arguments that the rules should be halted amid the latest, huge wave of infection. But Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether the current danger from Covid amounted to the kind of crisis that justified OSHA's using an expedited process to issue an "emergency temporary standard." "The vaccine's been around quite some time. Covid's been around even longer," Thomas, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, said. "The government could have had notice and comment."   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. On the Hill THUNE COMING BACK: It was an eventful weekend for Senate Commerce Committee Republicans who were coy about their 2022 plans. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) announced Saturday that he will run for reelection in 2022, and the onetime Senate Commerce Committee chair is favored to win a fourth term, Marianne LeVine reports. Thune, who gave away the Commerce Committee gavel in 2019 to serve as Republican whip, is the longest-serving GOP member of the committee and currently is the ranking member of the Communications, Media and Broadband Subcommittee. He is viewed by many Republicans as a potential successor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , and faced pressure in recent months from former President Donald Trump, who called on Thune to be primaried after he dismissed the House GOP effort to challenge the 2020 election results. RONJON BREAKS PLEDGE: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) announced in a Sunday Wall Street Journal op-ed his plans to run for a third term, breaking a previous pledge to serve for on 12 years. Johnson is another Commerce Committee member who faces a tougher reelection path in a state President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020. HOUSE IS BACK: The House of Representatives returns for the first time in 2022, with extensive remote voting and virtual committee hearings widely expected. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is back with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the Water Resources Development Act, a biennial bill that authorizes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects and funds for maintaining harbors and ports.   DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE.     The Autobahn — "Pass closures prevent travel between east and west sides of Washington state." The Seattle Times. — "U.S. appeals court revives Boeing 737 MAX shareholder suit." Reuters. — "Canada resists pressure to drop vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers." Reuters. — "Norwegian and Royal Caribbean call off voyages, marking first mass cruise cancellations due to omicron." Miami Herald.   A message from Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l: Did you know 5G technology uses the same radio frequency that aircraft altimeters use to determine altitude? Probably not, but ALPA pilots do. We put air safety first every day. The information gathered by altimeters is critical to onboard flight systems and essential when landing in uncertain weather. We welcome a pause in 5G implementation so air safety concerns can be addressed. Pilots support new 5G technology, but it is essential that it is implemented without risk to air passengers and crews. Get the latest update on potential impact of 5G on air travel here.     Follow us on Twitter Kathryn Wolfe @kathrynwolfe Oriana Pawlyk @Oriana0214 Tanya Snyder @tsnyderdc Julian Sorapuru @juliansorapuru   Follow us

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