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| Washington Notebook: The economy, a transport bill and Twitter |
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch U.S. GDP slows to 2.2% The U.S. economy grew 2.2 percent in the first quarter, down from the 3 percent output of goods and services in the fourth quarter, according to preliminary figures from the Commerce Department. Personal consumption and exports were the strongest contributors to Gross Domestic Product. Exports of goods and services increased 5.4 percent in first quarter, compared with an increase of 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter. &nbs...
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| Washington Notebook: Political maneuvering stalls transportation bill |
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed another 90-day extension of the surface transportation bill last week, which would provide funding for road building and transportation programs through the end of the fiscal year. The current three-month extension lasts through June. So why move on another extension before the existing one nears expiration? Well, for one thing, it provides a little bit of certainty to state transportation planners that money will ...
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| Washington Notebook: Obama touts trade at Port of Tampa |
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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President Obama visited the Port of Tampa Friday and spoke about the benefits of trade with Latin America on his way to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia. The president reiterated that increasing exports to the rest of the world is a part of his plan to help restore American manufacturing and create jobs. "Part of building that economy is making sure that we're not a country that's known just for what we buy and what we consume. After all,...
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| Washington Notebook: Regulatory nuggets |
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
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DOT bans motor carrier The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Monday ordered J&A Transportation of New Jersey to shut down operations because it posed a threat to public safety. The agency, part of the Department of Transportation, placed J&A out of service after multiple hours-of-service, driver and vehicle maintenance violations were discovered during roadside inspections. FMCSA found the trucking company continued to operate without an ...
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| U.S. publishes roadmap for risk-based air cargo screening |
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Wednesday, April 04, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday publicly released its strategic plan for securing air cargo by screening advanced data from carriers and forwarders. A pilot program quickly initiated by the agency in conjunction with express carriers following the October 2010 Yemen printer-bomb plot, has pre-cleared 14 million transactions using shipment-related data to assess for anomalies prior to loading on a plane, Acting Deputy Commissioner Thom...
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| Members of Congress pay homage to ports |
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and leaders of the House PORTS Caucus visited the American Association of Port Authorities spring conference in Washington last week to express their commitment to seaports as vital engines of economic growth. Mica received a standing ovation as he accepted the AAPA's "Port Person of the Year" award during a lunch ceremony. The AAPA honored him in large part b...
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| Cook handicaps election at AAPA function |
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch The presidential election will be very close because the economy is improving too slowly to provide a decisive boost to President Obama, but Democrats likely will pick up five to 15 seats in the House of Representatives, political analyst Charlie Cook told a gathering of port officials Monday. Democrats would need to gain 25 seats to retake control of the House. That’s a tall order, but Republicans captured so many seats in 2010 that they’re bound to follow prece...
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| Maritime law, trade deficit, drug seizure |
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch Thompson Coburn LLP said it hired Jonathan Benner as a partner to head the law firm's Maritime Regulatory and Ports Practice within its large Transportation and International Trade Group. A former general counsel at the Federal Maritime Commission, Benner most recently worked as a partner at Reed Smith. He also helped establish multi-mode transportation practices as managing partner of Haight Gardner Poor & Havens in Washington and then as group leader ...
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| Industry opposes Obama tax on overseas profits |
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Tuesday, March 06, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch A major part of President Obama's economic blueprint for sustainable growth focuses on ways to promote U.S. manufacturing and create more jobs. One of the ways he wants to do that is through the tax code, lowering rates for companies that operate in the United States and closing loopholes for companies that shift production overseas. More specifically, the White House calls for eliminating the deduction for outsourcing and instead offering a credit t...
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| U.S.-EU regulatory cooperation slow for trade security |
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch Business people involved in trade compliance and security usually think of countries integrating their supply chain security programs when they hear the term mutual recognition. But the practice of trade partners granting reciprocal recognition to each other's rules and regulations really can apply to all types of cross-border activity. The agreement signed by the United States and European Union earlier this month regarding how "organic" products grown in one re...
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| LaHood's son caught in Egyptian power struggle |
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch Senate Budget Committee leaders expressed their concern during a hearing last week about the detention of Sam LaHood and 15 other young Americans by Egyptian authorities because of their work for non-governmental organizations dedicated to fostering and strengthening democratic institutions around the world. The key witness was Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Sam's father, who was there to testify about the Obama administration's fiscal year 2013 transportat...
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| Freight railroads reach deal with final union |
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch The nation's freight rail system avoided disruption when railroads and a holdout union, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, reached tentative agreement on a labor deal. Agreement was necessary by Feb. 8, the deadline for parties to be allowed to take measures into their own hands through a strike or lockout. The compromise also kept Congress from intervening and imposing contract terms. Among the issues at play was healthcare benefits. E...
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| TRB takeaways and birthdays |
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Monday, January 30, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch TRB steps on State of the Union The Transportation Research Board held its week-long annual conference in Washington the last full week of January. I found it odd that several committee meetings and panels were scheduled to run in the evening until 9:30 or later on the same day that President Obama gave his State of the Union address. The speech started at 9 p.m. The TRB is a division of the National Research Council, a non-profit institution that disseminates re...
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| Republican opposition to python import ban rings hollow |
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Monday, January 23, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch On Jan. 17, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said a ban on the import and interstate transportation of four non-native constrictor snakes - pythons - would go into effect in two months. The decision was made to protect the ecological balance of the Florida Everglades where these giant predators feed on birds, mammals, and reptiles, some of them endangered species. The population of the Burmese python, yellow anaconda...
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| DOT research grants include freight applications |
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch The Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration on Tuesday awarded $77 million in grants to 22 University Transportation Centers to research issues such as shared rail corridors for passengers and freight, multimodal freight and infrastructure innovations, distracted driving and reducing roadway fatalities and injuries. Each center will receive $3.5 million and match the funds with non-federal resources. ...
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| HOS becomes smaller factor on truck capacity |
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Monday, January 09, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch I noted in this space a couple weeks ago that the U.S. Department of Transportation's pre-Christmas update of the anti-fatigue rules governing drivers was not as burdensome to the trucking industry as most experts and officials feared. The new hours-of-service rules do further limit the maximum amount of driving time available to truckers each week, but the change mostly affects a minority of drivers who are on the road for long stre...
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| ACE participation picks up |
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
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By Eric Kulisch U.S. Customs and Border Protection is making progress getting more entry summary filings for imports entered in its new Automated Commercial Environment. The entry summary is the document submitted by an importer or its customs broker after cargo has been accepted into the country that covers the merchandise classification, duty, taxes and fees. ACE is the new commercial trade processing system that has been under d...
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| Merry Christmas truckers |
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
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By Eric Kulisch The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Thursday issued its final anti-fatigue rule governing how much time commercial truck drivers can spend behind the wheel before getting rest. The hours-of-service rulemaking had been highly anticipated for months. Within the trucking industry and its customer base there was almost universal consensus that the final outcome was a done deal: Rollback of the daily cap on driving time as well as a reduction ...
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| Let's put U.S. economic condition in context |
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Monday, December 19, 2011
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By Eric Kulisch If you don’t watch Fareed Zakharia’s “GPS” program Sunday mornings on CNN , you should. The journalist and foreign affairs analyst gets past the surface noise to provide provocative analysis about what’s really going on at the intersection of global economics and politics. GPS stands for Global Public Square. It’s a forum for exchanging ideas about the critical issues of the day. The show offers important lessons for freight executives at the domestic and ...
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| The elephant in the room |
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Monday, December 12, 2011
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Washington Notebook: By Eric Kulisch We are finally beginning to see a Customs bureaucracy that views part of its role as assisting the U.S. economy by making it easier for companies to engage in international trade and generate profits. Beyond that, Customs and Border Protection is maturing into an organization that works smarter. Rather than each office or port of entry exercising separate control over various aspects of the import process, the agency is looking to ...
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| How regulations die in White House office |
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Monday, December 05, 2011
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Washington Notebook - by Eric Kulisch In my previous Washington Notebook column I wrote that the Obama administration has gotten an unfair reputation as anti-business because of some of the regulations it has promulgated. But taken in total, the volume of regulations under Obama has actually been less than under some of his predecessors. More evidence backing that thesis comes from the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), which says that a small office tucked ins...
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| The truth about Obama and regulation |
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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Washington Notebook: The U.S. business community has vociferously complained about the burden it faces dealing with a rising tide of regulations from Washington. Regulations are a political punching bag in the Republican primaries because they supposedly represent know-nothing bureaucrats trying to hinder hard-working Americans. “What really would help if you’re not going to do the major stimulus would be to reduce regulations and to at least allow the economy to grow and n...
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| Costly pro-union rulings inundate industry |
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Monday, November 28, 2011
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Our captains of industry are frustrated with the Obama administration’s efforts to rewrite the rules governing labor relations. They disagree not only with the substance of many of the proposals, but also in the blatant attempt to avoid normal procedures and transparent debate. Business groups are rightly upset with several rulings by the National Labor Relations Board that together represent a backdoor attempt to implement "card check" legislation that would mandate unions...
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| SmartWay Conference’s lighter moments |
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Monday, November 21, 2011
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I picked up some good wise cracks at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Freight Sustainability Summit, a.k.a. the SmartWay lovefest. There were lots of shippers and carriers at the D.C. event on Nov. 17-18 talking about how the EPA’s SmartWay program has really given them an avenue to reduce the environmental impact of their operations and save money in collaboration with their business partners. The event was a bit self-congratulatory, but the positive attitude of the compan...
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| Washington Notebook: Flight chaos review |
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Monday, November 14, 2011
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbit will convene a forum on Nov. 30 at DOT headquarters to discuss ways to better deal with aircraft that have to be diverted to alternate airports due to bad weather. The announcement comes in the wake of the surprise snow storm Oct. 29 that forced 23 flights to be routed to Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn. Six of the flights were flown by JetBlue and, in at least...
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| Washington Notebook: One down, one to go |
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Monday, November 07, 2011
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The Senate on Nov. 1 confirmed Eric L. Hirschhorn’s nomination to be undersecretary of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, a position he has held through a recess appointment by President Obama since April 2, 2010. Hirschhorn is highly regarded among U.S. export interests for the work that he and Kevin J. Wolf, Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration, have done to steer reform of the nation’s Cold War-era export control regulations. &...
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| Washington Notebook: Possible policy solutions for driver shortage |
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Monday, October 31, 2011
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The shortage of drivers in the trucking industry is real. Companies are not overhyping the problem to scare shippers. They truly are having a difficult time finding qualified drivers, especially with tighter monitoring by the Department of Transportation of one’s driving history. Under the new Compliance Safety Accountability program, drivers receive a personal safety performance score and that score attaches to a motor carrier’s score. Bad score = toug...
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| Toll roads must deliver service to gain public trust |
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Monday, October 24, 2011
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Washington Notebook By Eric Kulisch Nobody likes to pay higher taxes or tolls to use roads and highways because we’ve become conditioned to feeling that these are free assets that once built last forever. That mentality has made it difficult to pass a surface transportation reauthorization bill to fund highway maintenance, new capacity and safety programs. Congress recently passed another extension of existing funding authority that will last until the end of March....
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| A regulator with a good sense of humor |
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Friday, September 30, 2011
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Al Gina, assistant commissioner for trade at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, did a good job impersonating a stand-up comic when he addressed members of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America at their government affairs conference in Washington Sept. 19. Here are some of the native New Yorker’s best jokes: • “I’m a diehard Jets fan. Flying back from the APEC meeting Sunday and unbeknownst to me, and to my great pleasure, Virgin America has live, in-flight TV. “I will admit...
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| It’s time for business to fight for Bersin |
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Friday, September 23, 2011
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Washington Notebook By Eric Kulisch The clock is ticking on Alan Bersin’s short tenure as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Unless the Senate confirms him by the end of the year he is finished -- at least one year sooner than necessary depending on the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. Bersin’s in this predicament because President Obama used the recess appointment process to install him on an interim basis in March 2010, when the Senate Finance Commi...
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| Piecemeal infrastructure planning |
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Friday, September 16, 2011
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Washington Notebook By Eric Kulisch Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently pointed in his blog to two construction projects as examples of the type of infrastructure upgrades the United States needs to maintain an efficient and safe transportation system that can support economic activity. One is the modernization of the control tower at Oakland International Airport in California and the other is the Interstate 10 Twin Span Bridge in Louisiana. The I-10 bridge replaces o...
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| NLRB action impacts Port of Charleston |
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Friday, September 09, 2011
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Washington Notebook By Eric Kulisch The House Republican agenda this fall for creating jobs includes passing legislation targeted at a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that attempts to block Boeing Corp. from locating an aircraft production line in South Carolina. Boeing recently opened the plant in North Charleston and has hired 1,000 workers. The NLRB alleges Boeing violated federal labor law because its decision to transfer some production fro...
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