— Biden, Dems trying to get Manchin to agree to $2 trillion on reconciliation.

— BIF could get vote as early as Wednesday.

— Another surface transportation extension?

IT’S MONDAY: You’re reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. Send tips, pitches, feedback and song lyrics to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. You can also find us on Twitter: @TSnyderDC, @Oriana0214 and @JulianSorapuru.

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WE BEGIN THIS WEEK WHERE WE ENDED LAST WEEK: Which is to say, without a deal on a reconciliation framework, though Democrats say they’re very close. On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the White House and came back telling reporters she believed a deal was within reach, though wouldn’t commit to a vote this week on either the social spending bill or the Senate-passed infrastructure bill.

Key quote: “There are many decisions that have to be made, but more than 90 percent of everything is agreed to and written,” Pelosi told reporters Friday.

Cutting away: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer went to Delaware on Sunday to meet with President Joe Biden in his home, but an agreement on even a topline number hasn’t been announced. Manchin is sticking to his $1.5 trillion price tag; Biden and other Democrats are trying to talk him up to $2 trillion. Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to sacrifice all the lambs to get a deal done, even if it ends up being a hollowed-out version of their original ambitions. The Medicare expansion and paid leave could be cut from the package, report Heather Caygle, Alice Miranda Ollstein, Eleanor Mueller and Marianne LeVine, citing a half-dozen sources close to the discussions. (The White House denies this.)

Another consideration: The Virginia gubernatorial election is eight days away. Democrat Terry McAuliffe has openly expressed his frustration that Democrats’ failure to deliver on their promises is making his path to victory harder. Passing the infrastructure bill, at least, would be a tremendous boost to McAuliffe in his razor-thin race against Republican Glenn Youngkin. A fellow Virginia Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, has been pushing to get this done ahead of the election.

House leaders could hold a vote on the Senate's bipartisan infrastructure deal as soon as Wednesday, sources tell Heather, Marianne and POLITICO’s Burgess Everett. CNN's Manu Raju reports a vote could also happen Thursday.

A governor’s race may not seem like a top concern for Capitol Hill Democrats, but Democratic strategist and infrastructure advocate Marcia Hale says a high-profile loss could be a momentum-killer for Democrats. “If Terry loses it’ll be hard to get anything done,” Hale said. “They’ll all go into panic mode. It’ll be really unattractive.” The reverse is true, too, Hale adds: If McAuliffe wins, “it’s a big win for Dems.”

EXTENSION FOR SURFACE TRANSPO: Lawmakers begin the week facing the real possibility of having to pass another surface transportation extension, and they can’t agree on how long it should be. House Transportation ranking member Sam Graves told our Julian E. J. Sorapuru on Friday that Democrats “need to start looking at a long term extension if they can't get this thing done,” noting that short-term extensions “create more limbo for all of the state Departments of Transportation out there.” But House Democrats are trying to keep the heat on to push the reconciliation bill through. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she thinks it would be a short-term extension but acknowledged that there hasn’t been a lot of talk about it.

MORE REGULATION REQUIRED: A new DOT inspector general report says the FAA hasn’t provided enough oversight to ensure safety compliance at American Airlines, our Tanya Snyder reports. According to the report, the FAA “lacks effective oversight controls“ to make sure that American is addressing the root causes of problems they fix.

T&I’s request: While American hasn’t had a fatal accident in nearly 20 years, reports of “potentially unsafe maintenance practices have raised concerns” about FAA oversight of the airline, Tanya notes. The IG report was originally requested by House Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Aviation Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) in 2016.

The IG found that “in 171 of 185 (92 percent) of cases we sampled, FAA inspectors accepted root cause analyses by the air carrier that did not identify the true root cause of the problem.”

Plans in progress: The agency responded to the IG recommendations, stating it has accepted several resolutions and has a plan in place to implement improvements.

ANOTHER IG REPORT says the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s web servers do not have adequate protections from hackers, Tanya reports. In a simulated test, DOT auditors were able to gain access to 13.6 million unencrypted records with personally identifiable information and planted malware that the agency wasn't able to detect, investigators found. The accessible data is from the 13 web-based applications FMCSA uses for vehicle registration, inspections and other activities.

Not that sophisticated: DOT said FMCSA wasn’t following basic protocols in some cases, including passwords that did not use “a minimum number of characters and mixes of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.”

— “A federal transportation official deletes Twitter account to avoid Elon Musk’s fans.” Curbed.

— “Federal investigation into suspended rail cars puts focus on inspections, maintenance.” The Washington Post.

— “SkyWest cancels more than 100 Saturday flights: American, Delta, United, Alaska airlines impacted.” USA Today.

— “As climate concerns threaten air travel, aviation industry banks on technology solutions.” The Seattle Times.

— “How the supply chain broke, and why it won’t be fixed anytime soon.” The New York Times.

— ICYMI: “Federal panel recommends military drivers help clear ports.” FreightWaves.

— ICYMI: Biden’s vaccine mandate has cargo giants in a pre-holiday panic. POLITICO.

Did we miss an event? Let MT know at [email protected].