Presented by

With help from Oriana Pawlyk and Tanya Snyder 

— The House and Senate are back but there’s not much time for legislating before election season kicks in.

— Pete Buttigieg racks up the flight miles as he sells the infrastructure law and ramps up campaigning.

— The summer travel season comes to a close and flights are still a mess.

IT’S TUESDAY: Welcome back from the Labor Day weekend and the dog days of summer. You’re reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. As always, send tips, pitches, feedback and song lyrics to [email protected]. You can find all of us on Twitter: @alextdaugherty,@TSnyderDC and@Oriana0214.

“Washington, D.C. / it fits me to a T / it's not the people doing something real / it's not the way the springtime makes you feel / no, no, no / it ain't no famous name on a golden plaque / that makes me ride that railroad track / it's my baby's kiss that keeps me coming back.”

WELCOME BACK, CONGRESS: After a month in their districts, members of Congress come back to D.C. for their last shot at legislating before the midterms. This week is a committee work week in the House, so votes are not scheduled as of now, though that could change. There are only 11 legislative days left in the House before the midterms and then 17 more before the end of the year. (Senators will be in D.C. more than House members.)

What to look for later this fall: 

Appropriations: The House has already passed its fiscal 2023 appropriations bills but the Senate hasn’t even scheduled committee votes on theirs yet. No surprise: A continuing resolution will likely be needed.

Legislation: The House Transportation Committee will likely vote on its Surface Transportation Board reauthorization bill, H.R. 8649, and send it to the House floor. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has yet to formally introduce a bill to overhaul the permitting process, principally for energy and mining projects, but Democratic leadership is planning to skip the committee process and bring it to the floor attached to the CR.

Nominations: Shailen Bhatt’s nomination to be FHWA administrator is expected to get a hearing before the Environment and Public Works Committee later this month. FAA Administrator nominee Phil Washington could also get a confirmation hearing in Commerce.

First up: On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the nominations of five candidates to join the Amtrak Board of Directors, including current Board Chair Anthony Coscia, and one current Surface Transportation Board member, Robert Primus.

In the agencies: Awards will be announced in the coming weeks for several major discretionary grant programs, including INFRA, MEGA and the Rural Surface Transportation grant program. Application deadlines are fast approaching on a slew of other programs, including the Bridge Investment Program, the Railroad Crossing Elimination Program, the Ferry Program, the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, the All Stations Accessibility Program and the Safe Streets and Roads for All Discretionary Grant Program.

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BIG CHECK ENERGY: Buttigieg had a busy August, visiting nine states to break ground on projects like the Portal North Bridge, hand out oversized checks and tout the infrastructure investment that only 24 percent of Americans know is already flowing out to states and cities.

HIGH, HIGH HOPES FOR FREQUENT FLYER MILES: Not all of his travel is in service to the infrastructure law. Adam Wren’s profile of Buttigieg last week showed how Buttigieg huddled for hours with Indiana Democrats before jetting to California’s Napa Valley to join Nancy Pelosi for her annual donor confab. And Buttigieg is traveling to Manchester, New Hampshire later this month to headline the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner.

DRESS CODE VIOLATION: Buttigieg is careful not to mix campaigning with governing, with his staff even asking supporters to cover up their Pete campaign T-shirts at infrastructure events. But it hasn’t escaped notice that in the last state on his infrastructure whirlwind tour, New Hampshire, a recent poll found that Democrats would rather nominate Buttigieg than Biden.

GROUND ZERO OF FLYING’S SUMMER OF HELL: Oriana went to Newark airport to get a snapshot of aviation’s Summer of Hell, where on any given day passengers are fretting about how they’re going to get to their destinations amid record flight cancellations and delays. Oriana witnessed 66 cancellations and 29 delays by midday but this was no epic travel meltdown — just a normal late-August Friday for an airport that’s consistently ranked as one of the most-delayed in the country, in a year when travelers across the U.S. are complaining about airlines’ performance in the post-lockdown era.

What DOT is doing: Just before the Labor Day weekend, DOT published a dashboard showing each airline’s cancellation and refund policies, a move which prompted many airlines to make those policies more consumer-friendly, such as offering more generous hotel and meal vouchers when flights get canceled or significantly delayed and more flexibility to reschedule flights.

But the delays and cancellations continue, thanks largely to short staffing, unrealistic crew scheduling and weather, which are often to blame for travel meltdown episodes. Some airlines have responded to the increasing pressure on their business practices, including proactively canceling overscheduled flights, building in more buffer room or just to try making it easier for passengers to change their plans.

Step aside, DOT: If DOT can’t get the airlines back to normal operations, perhaps the Federal Trade Commission can: A bill introduced last month, H.R. 8698 (117), would let the FTC police the airline industry.

CHECK LABOR DAY FLIGHT STATS

THE BRITISH ARE COMING: Danielle Muoio Dunn reports on the ongoing pushback to New York City’s proposed congestion pricing plan (opponents include lawmakers from Staten Island, the Bronx and basically everyone from New Jersey) that would aim to raise money and reduce traffic by tolling drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. But congestion pricing works, and if New York wants to lead the way on this side of the Atlantic, it will need to deal with the pushback, according to an expert with London’s public transit authority, which implemented a similar program in 2003.

“You weren't just trying to use the price mechanism. What you're trying to do was change people's travel behavior to make them more sustainable,” Christina Calderato, director of transport strategy and policy at Transport for London, said in an interview.

— ICYMI: “Electric cars rekindle trans-Atlantic trade war.” POLITICO.

— “Why one-word tweets from brands briefly took over social media.” NBC News.

— “Man stole plane, threatened to crash into Mississippi Walmart before safely landing, governor says.” USA Today.

— “Qantas staff fear the airline's stellar safety reputation is at risk as pressure from management mounts.” Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

— “World’s deadliest roads in focus after billionaire’s fatal crash.” Bloomberg.

— “In street takeovers, young stunt drivers outmaneuver the police.” New York Times.

— “Scrubbed launch ratchets up pressure on NASA’s moon mission.” POLITICO.

— “Biden nominates NYU's Revesz for regulatory czar post.” POLITICO.