AGC Seeks Increased Funding for Airport Infrastructure Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee officially kicked-off the reauthorization process for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with a markup of the Aviation Innovation Reform and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act. The AIRR Act, which fundamentally transforms air traffic control operations, is expected to pass the committee later this evening. It is important that representatives and senators hear from AGC members about the need for increased funding for airport runway and infrastructure projects The FAA is currently operating under an extension that expires on March 31.

Includes 13 Percent Increase in Federal Construction Accounts On Feb. 9, President Obama released his $4.1 trillion budget for fiscal year 2017, which proposes $1.215 trillion in discretionary defense and non-defense spending in FY 2017 and $2.565 trillion in mandatory spending. The budget, which stays within the discretionary spending limits set last November in the Bipartisan Budget Act, has been declared dead on arrival by Republican Congressional leaders. For the first time in 41 years, the House and Senate budget committees will not hold hearings with the president’s budget director.

Addresses Change Orders, Industry Standards and Standard Designs The House of Representatives this week unanimously passed AGC-supported legislation that would help improve the VA construction program’s interactions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and accountability to taxpayers and Congress. Introduced by the House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the Construction Reform Act of 2016 (H.R. 3106) would:

Bill Addresses One-Step Design-Build and Reverse Auctions The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs this week unanimously passed AGC-supported legislation that would (1) require civilian federal agencies—non-Department of Defense agencies—to utilize the two-step design-build selection process for design-build projects greater than $750,000, thereby limiting one-step design-build procurements; and (2) prohibit reverse auctions for construction services. The bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), the Consensus Procurement Improvement Act of 2015, S. 1526, may now move to the Senate floor for consideration and passage. An AGC co-chaired coalition of 15 national construction organizations sent a letter in support of this measure and has long worked to advance it through the legislative process. AGC is working with members of the House to introduce the same bill there.

AGC Pushes for Redevelopment of Excess Federal Real Property Members of the House and Senate have recently introduced and advanced legislation that could encourage federal agencies to dispose of, consolidate, or redevelop billions of dollars of excess or underutilized civilian federal real property. This could translate into significant private and federal construction work throughout the nation. As such, advancing these bills are a significant legislative priority for AGC.

US DOT this week announced that it is soliciting applications for two discretionary grant programs totaling $1.3 billion. The FAST Act created a new program for "Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects" that US DOT is calling the FASTLANE grants program, an acronym that stands for "Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies."

AGC joined with nine other construction industry groups in a letter to FHWA Administrator Greg Nadeau asking the agency to complete action on a proposed rule clarifying the applicability of Buy America requirements for manufactured products that may contain steel elements and for incidental products such as nuts, bolts washers and others.

AGC is looking to the future of federal transportation funding and what steps can be taken to fix the Highway Trust Fund revenue shortfall and be sure that future revenue is tied to a user fee based system. One approach was discussed in the recent Congressional Budget Office report.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report this week examining different approaches for providing Federal funding to states for highway infrastructure investment. The report was focused on making better investment decisions realizing that the federal government’s main source of funds for highways—gasoline tax revenues dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund—has been insufficient to pay for federal spending on highways. Since 2008, lawmakers have transferred about $143 billion from other sources to maintain a positive balance in the trust fund. It also noted that, adjusted for changes in construction costs, total federal spending on highways buys less now than at any time since the early 1990s.

February 11, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved H.R. 4441, the Aviation Innovation Reform and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act, a bill to reauthorize for six years the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs. A key component of the AIRR Act is the transfer air traffic control services from the FAA to a non-profit, user-fee-supported corporation. Committee approval clears the way for the full House consideration. The FAA is currently operating under an extension that expires on March 31 and the hope is that the legislation can be completed before that deadline, however, the ATC privatization is highly controversial which could slow down immediate action.