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
Related Links: Text of court's opinion in Arizona v. U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down three key provisions of Arizona’s tough immigration law but upheld one of its most controversial sections, which requires police to check the legal status of anyone they detain whom they suspect is in the United States unlawfully.In the court's opinion, handed down on June 25, the three provisions were invalidated on a 5-3 vote and the fourth provision was upheld unanimously.Arizona companies in construction and other industries now will be watching how the state begins to implement the parts of the law left
Related Links: List of all TIGER round-four awards The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has awarded $485.4 million to 47 highway, bridge, rail. port and other projects in the latest round of its highly popular TIGER grant program.The new awards, which DOT announced on June 22, went to projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia. The grants constitute the fourth round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. Since the program was launched in 2009, DOT has distributed a total of $3.1 billion for 218 projects.DOT Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters in a conference call, “Through TIGER we
Related Links: Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future final report (January 2012) Nuke Waste Panel Says New Sites Needed (ENR 7/29/11) No solution appears in sight to the nation’s growing problem of how to dispose of nuclear waste. A bipartisan group in the Senate is drafting a bill to address a blue ribbon panel’s recommendations for nuclear waste disposal, but with little time left in the current congressional session, no major nuclear waste bill is expected to go anywhere this year.Moreover, with the Obama administration sticking to its 2009 decision to nix the repository site beneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain,
Image courtesy Fla. Dept. of Transportation Odebrecht Construction states that the new law would prevent the firm from further pursuing the $2.1-billion Interstate 4 reconstruction project planned for Orlando. Photo courtesy Odebrecht USA Odebrecht says the final completion for its $1.1-billion North Terminal contract at Miami International Airport is set for February 2013. Related Links: Florida's Anti-Cuba Law Could Be Trouble for Odebrecht Gov. Scott's Signing of Anti-Cuba Legislation Ends With Curious Twists Odebrecht Construction on June 5 filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Florida over its new law that bars the awarding of public contracts to firms
Photo Courtesy of American Road & Transportation Builders Association Industry representatives are briefed on highway-transit bill negotiations before heading to Capitol Hill to lobby for a deal by June 30. Related Links: A Quick Deal on Transport Bill? Don't Bet On It House, Senate Nearly Set for Talks on Highway-Transit Bill Seeking to jump-start slow-moving House-Senate negotiations on a new surface transportation bill, Senate leaders have delivered a compromise proposal to their House counterparts. The plan—which Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and that committee's top Republican, James Inhofe (Okla.), personally took to the House on
Related Links: Civilian BRAC Bill Faces Challenges in Senate Office of Management and Budget Memo The Obama administration has put a freeze on the acquisition of new federal, non-defense real estate. Under the policy, spelled out in a May 11 Office of Management and Budget memo, federal agencies must offset any planned new space by consolidating or disposing of old space. The American Institute of Architects says the policy could create opportunities for building renovations and is less worrisome than current federal budgetary concerns.
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