The House Republican Conference will meet today at 4:00 p.m. to consider a rules package that will govern how issues can be addressed in the 112th Congress. Among the proposed rules is a repeal of the guaranteed funding requirement for annual federal highway investment and the House point of order that enforces the guarantee. These guaranteed investment levels are based on user fee revenue flowing into the Highway Trust Fund.
The House Republican Conference has approved Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for the 112th Congress. Mica was ranking Republican for the past four years when Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) chaired the committee. From 2000 to 2006, he was chairman of the aviation subcommittee. He has been a member of the committee since his election in 1992.
The Senate is expected to complete action tomorrow on a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund government programs through March 4, 2011, and the House is expected to follow suit and give its approval soon after. Included in the CR is an extension of highway and transit program authorization to March 4t with funding continuing at FY 2010 levels.
AGC of America co-hosted a forum Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., to call for renewed federal infrastructure investment. The forum featured U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, Jr.
AGC member Randy Snow, senior vice president of Charleston, S.C.-based United Infrastructure Group, participated in an AGC co-sponsored media event with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley to discuss the importance of renewed federal infrastructure investment.
AGC has joined with the Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), academia and other industry groups in sponsoring the 2nd International Conference on Transportation Construction Management The conference.
On Wednesday, the House passed (212-206) a nearly $1.1 trillion continuing resolution (CR) funding the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year (until Sept. 30, 2011). The measure would also extend for nine months -- from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 -- authorization for federal highway, mass transit, and aviation programs.
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (otherwise known as the deficit reduction commission) failed to garner the necessary 14 votes today to approve its proposed recommendations and forward them on for Congressional consideration.
The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (otherwise known as the deficit reduction commission) today released the commission’s proposed report. While December 1, 2010 was the deadline for a final report as spelled out in President Obama’s Executive Order that established the Commission, the panel's 18 members decided Tuesday that they would give themselves until Friday to review the document and decide whether to support it.
One week after AGC's Steve Sandherr sat down with him, Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard made a compelling case for why conservatives should support highway construction and a $.10 to $.15 increase in the gas tax.