Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus introduced his bill to deal with the Bush era tax cuts, and it included the provision to remove the private activity bond volume cap for water and wastewater projects.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off its “Invest in Water” series of regional events last week at the New Jersey American Water Company. The summit on Aging Water Infrastructure was held with the Somerset County Business Partnership on November 23.

Two documents have recently come out of the Environmental Protection Agency that help shed some light on the future direction of EPA and its State Revolving Loan Fund program. The first document is EPA's fiscal year (FY) 2011 to 2015 strategic plan, which provides a blueprint for advancing EPA's mission and Administrator Lisa Jackson's priorities. Congress requires all federal agencies to develop a strategic plan covering a five-year period, which is updated every three years.This plan presents five strategic goals for advancing the agency's mission, and five strategies that seek to adapt the EPA's work inside and outside of the agency to meet growing environmental protection needs. The plan will guide the agency over the next five years to foster a renewed commitment to new possibilities for achieving the vision of a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable environment.The five strategic goals for advancing the agency's mission are:Taking action on climate change and improving air quality;Protecting America's waters;Cleaning up communities and advancing sustainable development;Ensuring the safety of chemicals and preventing pollution; andEnforcing environmental laws.The Protecting America's Waters goal calls for greater attention paid to storm water runoff and drinking water quality. Within the Protecting America's Waters Goal, there are two specific objectives - protecting human health, and protecting and restoring watersheds and aquatic ecosystems. To achieve the goal of protecting human health, EPA specifically outlines its desire to continue financing public water system infrastructure to protect and maintain drinking water quality. EPA is also actively working Agency-wide and with external partners and stakeholders to implement a new, multi-faceted drinking water strategy. It is designed to streamline decision making and expand protection to meet the needs of rural, urban, and other communities. To meet the watershed objective, EPA specifically highlights their desire to protect, restore, maintain, and improve water quality by financing wastewater treatment infrastructure. EPA intends to improve the way existing tools are used, explore how innovative tools can be applied, and enhance efforts and cross-media collaboration to protect and prevent water quality impairment in healthy watersheds.A second document released is EPA's Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Sustainability Policy. This policy certainly reflects many of the goals expressed in the Strategic Plan as part of its efforts to promote sustainable infrastructure within the water sector. Through this policy, EPA intends to ensure that federal investments, policies, and actions support water infrastructure in efficient and sustainable locations to best aid existing communities, enhance economic competitiveness, and promote affordable neighborhoods. The policy was released in response to a request in the FY 2010 President's budget.The policy emphasizes the need to build on existing efforts to promote sustainable water infrastructure, working with states and water systems to employ robust, comprehensive planning processes to deliver projects that are cost effective over their life cycle, resource efficient, and consistent with community sustainability goals. The policy encourages communities to develop sustainable systems that employ effective utility management practices to build and maintain the level of technical, financial, and managerial capacity necessary to ensure long-term sustainability.AGC will closely monitor the Agency's implementation of these policies for any impact they may have on the construction process.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org.

The Water Issues Working Group is an effort led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with AGC to raise awareness of the concept that water is an investment, not a cost. The group is launching an initiative to demonstrate the value of water to our economy through targeted regional events across the country that address the full range of water cycle issues.Through wide-ranging dialogues in local communities there will be an opportunity for audiences and stakeholders to discuss regional needs and for participants to explore a full spectrum of governmental and private sector policy and funding solutions.The official roll out for this series of regional water events series is Tuesday, November 23, 2010 in Somerset, New Jersey. We are partnering with the Somerset Business Partnership and American Water for the first program to discuss Aging Water Infrastructure challenges and solutions. Tentative dates, locations and topics for upcoming events can be found below:November 2010, Somerset, N.J. -- Aging Water InfrastructureJanuary 2011, Austin, Texas -- Water Supply/Sustainability/ConservationFebruary 2011, Miami, Fla. -- Desalination/Innovative Water TechnologiesApril 2011, Lincoln, Neb. -- Agricultural Water UseJune 2011, Los Angeles, Calif. -- Energy-Water NexusAugust 2011, New York City, N.Y. -- Water ReuseAGC will continue to play a key role in this group and contribute to this valuable discussion about the importance that water and the infrastructure associated with it plays in the economy and our lives.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org.

Don't miss the excellent array of speakers and sessions planned for the 2010 Highway and Utility Contractors Issues Meeting scheduled for November 11-13, 2010, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. This popular resort facility is tightly booked in November and AGC's room block may not be available after the October 19, 2010 deadline. Make your hotel reservations today by calling 1-800-950-0086 or 602-955-6600 and request the Associated General Contractors of America room rate of $189/night, plus taxes (NO RESORT FEE). Register for the meeting and view a tentative schedule of events by following this link.Speakers will address the following:Election 2010: How Will the Midterm Election Results Impact Your Market, Taxes And Business OperationsUsing Social Media to Sell Your Company or ProjectCM at Risk- Panel Discussion on Owner and Contractor PerspectivesOutreach and Mentoring with DBE SubcontractorsOvercoming Impediments to Sharing Electronic Data for Automated Machine GuidanceImplementing FHWA's Every Day Counts InitiativeUpdate on CARB RuleState of the Water/Wastewater IndustryFederal Regulation of State Damage Prevention Programs - Proposed Rule from PHMSACase Studies Using BIM on Transportation and Utility ProjectsNew OSHA Regulations on Cranes and DerricksFor more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org

Legislation that includes the removal of the volume cap on private activity bonds for water and wastewater infrastructure projects was again up for consideration in the Senate. When the Small Business Jobs Bill was moving through the Senate, Chairman Baucus made a motion to advance a fully funded H.R. 4849, the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010 (which was the Tax Extenders bill), as a substitute amendment to the Small Business jobs bill, H.R. 5297.The substitute amendment provided for the extension of "all" expiring tax provisions and the PAB cap exemption for water and wastewater.  Unfortunately, Senator Hatch objected to the unanimous consent request because he wants a permanent extension to the R&D tax credit rather than a short-term extension of the expiring provision. Chairman Baucus stated that he will try again to advance the expiring provisions before the end of the year. While the failure of the amendment is a defeat for the AGC-supported provisions, there is good news in the strong indication of support this provision has in that it continues to be brought up by key members of the Senate.AGC will continue to push for this legislation, as it could lead to freeing up billions in private investment for water and wastewater infrastructure projects. AGC is also also hearing that the tax extenders bill will likely be taken up again as part of a larger tax debate, perhaps as part of a bigger bill that deals with the Bush tax cuts, capital gains and dividends.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org

More than $445 million in funding was announced by the Department of Agriculture for 89 water and wastewater infrastructure projects in local communities. The funding is part of the $1.4 billion that USDA received as part of the Recovery Act and is designed to protect public health and the environment by improving water quality and public sanitation services in 32 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. To date, USDA has announced $3.26 billion in Recovery Act funds for 884 water and environmental projects across the nation.Click here for the list of projects by state.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org

As AGC previously reported, OMB issued new guidance for recipients and sub-recipients of federal grants, loans and financial assistance. AGC is now learning that new interpretations of this guidance may be forthcoming. AGC reported last week that DOT has determined, in conjunction with OMB, that the reporting requirements do not apply, as contractors are interpreted to be vendors rather than sub-recipients.AGC has also learned that EPA interprets the rule similarly to DOT. As EPA interprets the OMB regulation, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) reporting requirements apply to subawards, as opposed to procurement contracts, made by prime grant recipients (state and local governments). For purposes of EPA's State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs, this means that FFATA reporting would not extend to procurement contracts for construction, engineering and other commercial services executed by either the state SRF capitalization grant recipient or municipalities that receive SRF loans.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org

In yet another example of direct-federal contracts rules being applied to federally-assisted work, two new rules came out of the Office of Management that affect contractors who perform work on projects that are federally-assisted (i.e. projects funded in whole or in part through grants, loans, or financial assistance from the federal government such as the EPA's State Revolving Loan Fund, or the DOT's Highway Trust Fund). Under the first new rule, recipients of these grants, loans, or financial assistance (such as State and local governments) must now report every first-tier subaward (such as a prime contract) over $25,000 to usaspending.gov. As part of this reporting, subaward recipients (i.e. contractors) who meet certain triggers will have to report the total compensation of their top five executives. These triggers are: The contractor must have received 80 percent or more of its annual gross revenue in the preceding fiscal year from federal money (grants, loans, financial assistance, or direct-federal contracts) The contractor must have received $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues in the preceding fiscal year from federal money (grants, loans, financial assistance, or direct-federal contracts) The contractor does not already have to report compensation information through period reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act or the Internal Revenue CodeAll three conditions must be met to trigger the total compensation reporting requirement. If your company does trigger the requirement, it will have to report to the State or local entity recipient the total compensation of its top five officers, managing partners, or any other employees in management positions.A second rule requires contractors to obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. This nine-digit number can be obtained from Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. at no cost either by telephone (866-705-5711) or online (by clicking here). While earlier versions of this guidance would have required a contractor to also maintain a current registration in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database, OMB has decided not to enact that requirement at this time. If a contractor fails to provide a valid DUNS number, the contractor could be determined to be not qualified to receive a contract award.Read the rule requiring reporting of executive compensation here.Read the rule requiring use of a DUNS Number here.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org

AGC has received reports that its members have received a letter from the U.S. EPA directing them to complete a mandatory survey on construction stormwater management practices within 60 days - or face significant fines and penalties of up to $37,500 per day per violation.While EPA claims to have not directed this survey to general contractors, several have received it. If you have received a survey, it is imperative that it be completed and returned before the 60-day deadline to avoid steep penalties. However, most contractors need not continue beyond A5, or the first page of the survey. Unless a contractor has an ownership interest in the properties it builds on, it is unnecessary to complete the detailed financial and technical portions of the survey. For details, visit the definitions page and scroll down to owner/developer questionnaires.EPA has initiated a national rulemaking to reduce stormwater discharges from new development and redevelopment and to strengthen its stormwater program (a.k.a., "post-construction" stormwater rule).  To collect information from entities believed to be owners/developers of residential, non-residential, industrial and commercial sites, EPA mailed out letters (click here for an example) last week to approximately 3,000 companies directing them to complete a lengthy, mandatory questionnaire within 60 days.For more information on AGC's efforts and the new "post-construction" stormwater runoff rule that EPA is working on, click here.For more information, contact Leah Pilconis at (703) 837-5332 or pilconisl@agc.org.