On June 19, House Republicans took aim at the pace of the Obama administration’s effort to sell underutilized federal government properties. Holding a field hearing at a General Services Administration (GSA) owned heating plant in Washington, D.C.’s historic Georgetown, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) said the agency was not moving quickly enough to dispose of unused properties in its portfolio.

Today, the U.S. Senate delayed consideration of a farm bill that would authorize $150 million for the nation’s only dam rehabilitation program. The stalemate came as a result of lawmakers’ inability to reach agreement on the number of amendments to be offered on the legislation.

Yesterday, the House approved the FY 2013 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations bill totaling $32.1 billion – a cut of $965 million below the President’s budget request. The legislation provides the annual funding for the various agencies and programs under the Department of Energy (DOE) and other agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and its civil works program.

On May 31, the House passed the FY 2013 Military Constriction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, providing $71.7 billion in discretionary funding for military construction and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This funding level matches the FY 2012 enacted level, but falls $694 million below President Obama’s FY 2013 request.

Later this evening, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) is expected to offer an amendment to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs (MilCon/VA) Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2013 (H.R. 5854) that would remove a provision that eliminates government-mandated project labor agreements on federal construction contracts. AGC sent this letter to the House today urging  opposition to the amendment.

Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick officially assumed command as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 53rd commanding general on May 22. Previously, Bostick served as Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, U.S. Army. In April 2011, the U.S. Defense Department announced his nomination to the rank of Lieutenant General as well as his assignment as Commanding General, Corps of Engineers, and Chief Engineer of the U.S. Army.

America transports $180 billion worth of freight across 38 states on inland waterways. However, as AGC has long advocated, the nation’s inland waterway infrastructure system needs adequate investment to keep up with freight demand.  USA Today underscored that point in an article this week . As the article notes, “inadequate investment led to nearly 80,000 hours of lock outages in fiscal 2010, four times more than in fiscal 2000.” To view the article, click here.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2013 with a host of small business contracting reforms attached to the measure. The reforms AGC supported and advocated for include:

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved President Obama’s choice to be administrator of the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday approved legislation with bipartisan support to prohibit the collection of political contribution information from bidders for government contracts. The bill, S. 1100, Keeping Politics out of Federal Contracting, is cosponsored by 22 senators.