Photo by AP Wideworld Obama's signature ends a long wait for a new transportation statute. It also launches the next stage: converting funds into projects. Related Links: Transportation Bill Negotiations Head to the Wire PDF of MAP-21 Bill As a standing-room-only crowd of lawmakers, construction and transportation officials, and others in the White House's East Room looked on, President Obama on July 6 signed into law a long-overdue $104.4-billion, 27-month highway-and-transit authorization bill. Putting down the last of the 12 pens he used to sign his name, Obama said, "All right. It's done," to a round of applause from the
Related Links: Text of House-Senate conference report Ending more than 33 months of transportation funding via stopgap bills, President Obama has signed into law a new $104-billion highway and transit authorization measure.With key lawmakers as well as construction and transportation group leaders in attendance, Obama signed the long-delayed bill on July 6 in a brief ceremony in the East Room of the White House. The measure—titled MAP-21, for Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century—funds surface-transportation programs through September 2014.The new statute's roughly 27-month span gives state agencies and construction-industry companies more of the funding certainty they have sought
Related Links: GSA Plans Unusual Buildings Deal in L.A. Capitol Hill Flap Over Earlier Courthouse Plan The U.S. General Services Administration has proposed an unusual solution to a costly federal facilities problem in downtown Los Angeles.Under the plan, which GSA Acting Administrator Daniel Tangherlini outlined in a June 22 letter to members of California's congressional delegation, GSA will seek a private development firm to which it will transfer the New Deal-era North Spring Street federal courthouse. If GSA were to keep the building for federal use, it would need a $250-million overhaul.To acquire the 74-year-old courthouse, the developer would build
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 ruling that was a blow to business groups and is certain to become part of the election-year debate.
Related Links: EPA fact sheet on proposed rule Text of EPA proposed rule ENR Dec. 2011 story: Appeals Court Delivers Mixed Ruling in Cement-Kiln Emissions Case The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to give operators of cement kilns more time to comply with a 2010 clean-air regulation and also increase the limits for soot particle emissions. An industry organization welcomed the EPA plan but environmental groups criticized it.The proposed regulatory change, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed on June 22 and the agency announced on June 25, would extend the 2010 rule's compliance date for the cement-plant standards by
Courtesy of Senate Photo Studio Senate committee Chairman Boxer (at lectern) said House GOP was "standing in the way of the bill." But House panel Chairman Mica said Senate doesn't seem ready to compromise. Related Links: Boxer, Inhofe Float New Transportation Proposal A Quick Deal on Transport Bill? Don't Bet On It With highway and transit authorizations due to expire on June 30 and no Senate-House agreement yet on a new, longer-term measure, leaders of both chambers have directed their key negotiators to intensify their work to produce a bill.At a June 19 meeting at the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader
The U.S. General Services Administration has come up with a new plan to solve a costly facilities problem in downtown Los Angeles.Under the plan, which GSA Acting Administrator Daniel Tangherlini outlined in a June 22 letter to members of California’s congressional delegation, the agency will begin to seek a private development company to which it will transfer the New Deal-era North Spring Street federal courthouse, which needs an estimated $250-million overhaul.In return for that 78-year-old property, the developer would construct for GSA what Tangherlini called “a new, highly efficient federal building” nearby, into which the agency would shift federal workers
Related Links: Obama Picks an Academic as NRC's New Chair Two nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—Allison Macfarlane, whom President Obama plans to name NRC chair, and Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, whose current term expires on June 30—appear likely to win Senate approval. At a June 13 Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seemed supportive of Macfarlane, a George Mason University professor who served on a blue-ribbon commission that studied nuclear-waste disposal. Some Democrats, including committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (Calif.), had misgivings about Svinicki; they said she had not been fully candid with the
Related Links: Baucus Press Release on Russia Trade Relations Bill Text of Senate Bill S.3285 Heavy-equipment makers are backing a Senate bill that seeks to boost U.S. exports to Russia by granting it permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status before it joins the World Trade Organization later this summer. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who introduced the bill on June 12, pledged to work to add human-rights provisions. His bill would repeal a 1974 statute that was aimed at Russia's and other countries' emigration restrictions and effectively blocked their PNTR. "Russia's going to join the WTO no matter what
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down three key provisions of Arizonas tough immigration law but upheld one of its most controversial sections. Related Links: High Court Issues Split Ruling in Immigration Case Oral Arguments in Arizona Immigration Law Case Construction firms in several states are closely watching how Arizona will implement the provisions of its immigration law left standing after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidated three of the statute's sections.The high court on June 25 struck down three key sections of Arizona S.B. 1070 but left intact one of its most controversial provisions, which requires police to check
RSS
