As Congress returns from its August recess, many important construction-related bills remain incomplete. They include all of the fiscal 2007 spending measures, a big water resources bill and immigration and tax legislation. With only a few weeks to go before lawmakers leave to campaign full-time for the Nov. 7 elections, final action by then isn't likely on most of the unfinished bills. That makes a post-election session virtually inevitable.
As of Sept. 5, none of the 2007 appropriations bills had cleared Congress. Steve Hall, American Council of Engineering Companies' vice president for government affairs, says that before the pre-election recess, "I think they can make some small progress on the appropriations front." Furthest along are homeland security and defense spending bills. Hall says most of the other measures "will get done post election."