Before the Congress left for their August recess, House lawmakers passed its first appropriations bill of twelve total that funds the federal government. The House passed (219 – 211) the Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, H.R. 4366. The bill provides $17.47 billion for military construction and $1.6 billion for major and minor VA construction. Meanwhile, the Senate has finished voting the bills out of committee but has yet to pass any appropriations bills on the floor. The Senate is considered more bipartisan in spending levels and policies. Lawmakers will need to pass all twelve appropriations bills by September 30th, or else pass a continuing resolution, a stopgap measure that buys time. Given the short amount of time left, Congress will end up needing to pass one or more continuing resolutions.
On July 13, the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held a hearing to discuss the recent government report that found high vacancy rates in 23 federal agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. Representatives from the General Services Administration and General Accountability Office, the agency responsible for the report, testified at the hearing. The GAO report found that 17 of 24 agencies surveyed, using keycard entrance among other metrics, averaged 25% or less occupancy in their headquarters building capacity. The hearing discussed the challenges and future needs of federal agencies as telework becomes increasingly permanent. Some solutions presented at the hearing were real property disposal and consolidation where multiple agencies are headquartered out of a single building.
Apply by Wednesday, October 25, 2023!
Partnering Agreements No Longer Required for the Now-Named Marvin M. Black Excellence in Partnering & Collaboration Awards
All of the photos from the 2023 AGC of America Annual Convention are now available via our online photo portal. The photos are organized in albums based on each session and can be downloaded the photos right from the site. Thanks to everyone who attended the 2023 Annual Convention in Las Vegas, their support and engagement helped make the event a big success. We hope to see all you next year at our 2024 Annual Convention in San Diego from March 20-22, 2024!
Digital, Video and Printable Versions of the Annual Report are now available at report.agc.org
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) waiver on “construction materials” under the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA) quickly approaches the November 10, 2022 expiration date and, as a result, DOT has recently published two proposed waivers with far smaller scopes. The newly published waivers clarify that the general “construction materials” waiver expiring this Thursday will not be extended and instead propose to waive the domestic preference requirements for specific situations.