January 15 – 17, 2020 | Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol, Austin, TX
Cutting Off Vital Infrastructure Funding Will Hurt Efforts to Improve California’s Infrastructure and Air Quality; Construction Association Urges Federal Officials to Give State a Grace Period
Encourages Senate to Continue Work on WRDA reauthorization
On Sept. 9, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the AGC-supported Diesel Emission Reductions Act (DERA), which provides incentive to owners to make a smart investment in their purchase of cleaner and often more fuel-efficient vehicles and equipment.
On Sept. 12, AGC attended the unveiling of a final rule to repeal the 2015 definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rulemaking. AGC has criticized the federal overreach in the 2015 WOTUS rule, which treated many traditionally state waters as federal -- triggering federal approvals and permits for construction projects.
The Trump administration has finalized the first steps in AGC supported changes to streamline and modernize the implementation of the Endangered Species Act, which can be unpredictable and add delay and cost to the permitting and construction of infrastructure projects.
In mid-August, AGC prepared written recommendations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the agency works to review and revise the decade-old Compensatory Mitigation Rule, which addresses mitigation requirements for Clean Water Act (CWA) permits. AGC’s recommendations focus on how the Corps could reduce mitigation uncertainty and inconsistency in the process, increase mitigation banking capacity, and help alleviate some of the delays on projects related to the CWA permit approvals. AGC also encourages the Corps to provide for alternative, programmatic, and multipurpose options for mitigation.
On August 23, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a notice seeking public comment on two “interim” policies: one to limit environmental impact statements to a maximum of 150 pages – with a recommendation that they “not exceed” 75 pages – and the other to coordinate those federal reviews under the “One Federal Decision” executive order with a goal of completing them within two years. Both directives are intended to speed up the environmental review process for transportation projects.
On AGC’s latest podcast episode, we speak with two industry experts on how construction firms can best prepare for and handle the aftermath of a crisis. We discuss the logistical implications of crisis preparedness as well the imperative to address the psychological and emotional repercussions of job site accidents. Additional resources and customizable tools – developed by our guest speakers Tyler Henson with J.E. Dunn Construction and Patricia Kagerer with Gallagher – are available on AGC’s website here.
Please provide feedback by the end of July 26, 2019