This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report highly critical of DOT’s administration of its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. OIG found that the department does not provide effective program management for the DBE program. Specifically, DOT has not issued comprehensive, standardized DBE guidance; provided sufficient training to the recipients responsible for implementing the program; or have a single line of accountability for the program.

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in response to the nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to Serve as U.S. Secretary of Transportation: "It is encouraging that President Obama has decided to nominate someone who has first-hand experience with the significant challenges posed by our chronic under-investment in infrastructure and years-long and broken regulatory review process. Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has a unique opportunity to promote new sources of revenue to address chronic shortfalls in federal funding for our aging network of highways, bridges, airports and transit systems. In addition, he will be well suited to ensure that the Department of Transportation takes the steps required in the most recent surface transportation legislation to significantly reduce the time it takes for federal officials to approve new transportation projects. We will never be able to compete globally if it takes over a decade to approve new ways of moving goods and services from one point to another in this country."

Thirty-eight percent of highway contractors had motor vehicles crash into their construction work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America.  Association officials added that the study found work zone crashes are more likely to kill vehicle operators and passengers than construction workers. 

President Obama’s budget proposal for transportation includes many of the same ideas that the administration has proposed over the past several years, but none of which have been met with much support in Congress. Included in the transportation request for FY 2014 are more details on the $50 billion “Fix It First” initiative most recently proposed by the president in his State of the Union address. 

June 4-5 | Washington, DC AGC and the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) scored a major victory last year when the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP- 21) became law. The legislation provided a two-year authorization through the end of FY 2014 and sufficient revenue to support current funding levels. With this major victory behind us, now is the time to address the long term viability of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) by providing the revenue necessary to fix the nation’s current and growing transportation investment deficit. As Congress continues to debate the budget, deficit spending and revenue, it is important that transportation investment be central to the discussions.

AGC has learned that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has determined that the September 6, 2012 proposed changes to its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program regulations are “significant” and therefore will be given closer scrutiny.

  On Thursday, the House completed action on Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) version of a FY 2014 budget resolution mostly by a party-line vote of 221 to 207. While the budget resolution is nonbinding, it nevertheless establishes the overall framework for funding government programs for next year. The Ryan budget provides an ambitious plan to balance the federal budget and have a $7 billion surplus in 10 years.  To get there, the budget forecasts cuts of $5.7 trillion – compared to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline –calls for the repeal of ObamaCare, and calls for lowering the top tax rate to 25 percent. The House budget projects a significant drop in highway and transit spending in FY 2015 because of insufficient Highway Trust Fund revenue and would restrict the ability of Congress to transfer general fund revenue to help bail it out.

The House and Senate this week finalized action on a continuing resolution (H.R 933) to fund federal government programs through the remainder of the fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2013). Following a strong push by AGC lobbyists and a grassroots effort by AGC members, the Senate amended the House version of the CR to include full MAP-21 funding levels for federal highway and transit programs. The House then approved the amended bill and sent it to the president for his signature. The House bill would have reduced highway funding in FY 2013 by nearly $600 million and transit funding by $125 million.

Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee held a hearing on the implementation of the transportation reauthorization bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21).  At the hearing, Chairman Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and members of the subcommittee heard from Department of Transportation (DOT) modal administrators as to the progress being made in implementing programmatic reform and meeting deadlines mandated in MAP-21.  The subcommittee heard from Victor Mendez of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Anne Ferro of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and David Strickland of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

This week, Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) unveiled their FY 2013 appropriations bill, H.R. 933 – the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013.  The bill includes five individual appropriations bills for spending in the following agencies: Defense, Military Construction/Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Commerce/Justice/State. The bill is currently being debated on the Senate floor.   Both the House and Senate versions of H.R. 933 leave the $85 billion March 1 budget sequester in place, but by changing the account-level priorities within each agency in those two (House) or five (Senate) bills, they can lessen some of the more disruptive effects of the sequester.