TAKE ACTION: Urge Your Congressman to Cosponsor H.R. 2750 With AGC support, there is hope for movement of the Design-Build Efficiency and Jobs Act of 2013, H.R. 2750, through Congress this year. H.R. 2750 would reasonably limit single-step design-build procurements and reasonably limit the number of second-step design-build finalists. Please, take action and urge your representative to cosponsor and support H.R. 2750.

AGC recently submitted testimony on the need for continued federal agency participation at construction stakeholder conferences for a Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee hearing on the topic. Given a time when the national debt and deficit remain high, the federal government should consider sensible and reasonable cost-savings measures. That being said, Congress should also reconsider the slash-and-burn take on federal travel spending for non-government conferences. While such a policy has proven penny wise, AGC contends it is pound foolish and more reasonable approaches must be taken.

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in reaction to President Obama's State of the Union address: "It is encouraging that the president identified getting swift passage of both new long-term surface transportation and Water Resources Development bills as among his top priorities for the year.  We expect Congress will heed his call for action on these two critical pieces of legislation and will work aggressively to help ensure their swift passage.  We also expect that the administration's FY 2015 budget proposal will reflect the president's priorities and provide additional details about how to address chronic revenue shortfalls that once again threaten the viability of the Highway Trust Fund.

Congress Willing to Spend Money on Construction to Save Money in Long-Run The appropriations law Congress passed last week sets the General Services Administration’s (GSA) FY 2014 construction funding at $1.5 billion—about $500 million for new construction and $1 billion for repairs and alterations. That’s more money for GSA construction than the last three fiscal years’ funding combined.

Green Globes May Also be Considered by DOD Agencies The Department of Defense (DOD) may now consider and award projects that include LEED Platinum and Gold certifications. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2012 included a ban on FY 2012 funds for LEED gold or platinum construction for DOD. That ban was extended and expanded in the NDAA for FY 2013, not only to FY 2012 and FY 2013 funds, but all DOD funds whether appropriated or not.  On Dec. 26, 2013, President Obama signed the NDAA for FY 2014, which did not extend that ban in any form.

On Jan. 21, AGC sent a letter opposing the possible use of a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate posted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District for two projects at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3547, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, by a vote of 359 - 67.  This evening the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 72-26.  The bill comes after Congress failed to pass any of the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2014.  AGC advocated for the passage of the bill to ensure predictability for FY 2014 federal construction programs. The legislation – which ends four years of Congress funding government agencies through a series of stopgap spending bills and funding extensions – sets  overall discretionary spending levels of $1.1 trillion as agreed to in the budget conference agreement.  These levels are $45 billion over levels that had been scheduled under automatic sequester spending cuts.

As of Dec. 26, 2013, a new clause will be added to all new direct-federal solicitations requiring prime contractors to make accelerated payments to small business subcontractors upon receiving an accelerated payment from the federal government. Prime contractors are required to flow down flow down the clause in subcontracts with other small businesses.

Only Dredging and Land Subdivision NAICS Codes Change As part of its ongoing comprehensive size standards review, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) published a final rule on construction industry size standards for small businesses on Dec. 23 of last year. The final rule increases only two of the 32 size standards for Construction North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes:

Prohibiting Reverse Auctions, Reforming Design-Build and Implementing Lower Tier Small Business Subcontractor Counting AGC will press for action on a host of direct-federal construction procurement initiatives in 2014, including: (1) prohibiting reverse auctions for construction services; (2) reasonably limiting single-step design-build procurements; (3) reasonably limiting second-step design-build finalists to three to five teams; and (4) reasonably implementing the allowance of prime contractors to count lower tier small business subcontractors towards their small business subcontracting goals. The first three initiatives are legislative and well-under way in Congress as a result of AGC advocacy efforts in 2013. The last initiative is regulatory and faces implementation through the U.S. Small Business Administration, after AGC successfully pressed for the small business reform before Congress in 2013.