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.
AGC has done an analysis of the FY 2014 federal construction accounts in the bill. According to AGC estimates, the federal construction accounts will receive nearly $108 billion in funding, which amounts to an overall decrease of slightly over $1 billion from FY 2013. It should be noted that the 2013 numbers do not take into account sequestration cuts. As a result, contractors should expect to a slight increase in certain areas like military construction spending. On the U.S. Army Corps Civil Works side, contractors should expect a small spike—$723 million—in funding, a positive development. Also, and perhaps most notably, the General Services Administration will receive over $1.5 billion for construction, which is more than the last three fiscal years combined.
The following is a summary of the appropriation bill and the federal construction programs that AGC closely monitors:
Transportation
The bill provides MAP-21 funding levels for federal-aid highways ($40.256 billion) and transit ($8.595 billion). The bill also provides $1.943 billion for transit Capital Investment Grants and $600 million for U.S. DOT’s TIGER grant program. Other transportation accounts of importance to AGC members include the Airport Improvement Program - $3.350 billion - and AMTRAK - $1.390 billion. The final transportation funding bill did not include the Senate’s proposed $500 million discretionary bridge program or the Senate’s $100 million for high-speed and intercity passenger rail.
EPA State Revolving Loan Funds
Funding for state revolving loans for clean and drinking water saw their smallest cuts in nearly 10 years. The Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund received an appropriation of $1.45 billion , which is only $2.9 million less than 2013 and 32 percent higher than the president’s 2014 budget request. The Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund received an appropriation of $907 million, a decrease of $1.8 million and 11 percent higher than the president’s request.
Military Construction
Despite the small decrease in total military construction accounts in FY 2014, contractors should expect slightly more—roughly 3 percent—overall dollars flowing to military construction projects, as the FY 2013 figures do not include sequestration cuts. The Department of Defense will add significantly more construction dollars into the Air Force construction accounts in FY 2014, after a significant draw-back in FY 2013.
The final FY 2014 appropriations bill’s explanatory text (after page 13) lists all of the projects included in the final bill by state and country. In addition, it should be noted that:
- None of the funds from the Air Force Military Construction Account earmarked for military construction projects in Saipan or for Pacific Air-power Resiliency in Guam, Joint Region Marianas may be obligated or expended until the Department of Defense completes a Pacific Air Resiliency Study;
- Funds in the BRAC 1990 and BRAC 2005 accounts have been merged into one account, under BRAC 1990; and
- The bill includes $150 million for DOD’s Energy Conservation Investment Program, which promotes green building initiatives, among other things.