Construction industry officials were encouraged to see long-delayed highway-transit bills move to the House and Senate floors in early February, but their mood shifted when both measures stalled just before the Presidents Day break. Although votes on difficult amendments lie ahead, congressional leaders still view the bills as priorities and are seeking to regain the momentum.In the House, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to split up into separate parts the transportation-energy package he had constructed, apparently because there were not enough votes to approve the combined bill. On Feb. 16, the House did pass the energy portion on a vote
In a victory for architectural firms, the Small Business Administration has backed away from a proposed major boost in the revenue a firm can have and still be rated "small." That ceiling governs eligibility for small-business programs, such as contracts set aside for such firms.Last year SBA proposed hiking the "size standard" for both architectural and landscape architectural firms to $19 million in average annual receipts, from $4.5 million for architects and $7 million for landscape architects. Under the higher caps, small firms would compete against much bigger ones for small-business set-asides. After architects flooded SBA with criticisms about the
Related Links: Ex-KBR Exec Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charge Ex-KBR CEO pleads guilty Halliburton Terminates Relations with Former Exec A. Jack Stanley Closing another chapter in a long federal probe, a former chairman and CEO of the then-Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. has been sentenced to a prison term for his part in what a Justice Dept official termed “a massive bribery scheme” involving $6 billion in contracts for a natural-gas project in Nigeria.The Justice Dept. said that Albert Jackson “Jack” Stanley was sentenced on Feb. 23 to 30 months in prison. U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison also told
President Barack Obama's proposed $3.8-trillion budget for fiscal year 2013 would continue to squeeze discretionary spending and make further cuts in many construction programs that were trimmed this year. The proposal includes some construction hikes and repeats Obama's 2011 call for a sharp, immediate boost for highways and transit. But the transportation proposal's outlook is dim, because Congress turned it down twice before.Obama's budget request, sent to Congress on Feb. 13, is just the beginning of a long, tough partisan fight over 2013 spending. The outcome will have a direct impact on design and construction firms that focus on government
Courtesy Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority The multi-year authorization bill provides $13.4 billion over four years for airport grants. Its expected to prompt airports to move on delayed projects. After being stuck on Capitol Hill for more than four years, a long-term aviation bill at last has been cleared for takeoff. The measure authorizes a total of $63.6 billion over four years for Federal Aviation Administration programs. That figure includes $13.4 billion for the agency's Airport Improvement Program. AIP helps to finance runway, taxiway, apron and other infrastructure projects.Final congressional approval came on Feb. 6, when the Senate passed the bill
Photo Courtesy of Utah Transit Authority House Ways and Means approves severing mass transit from the Highway Trust Fund, which has financed rail and bus projects for 30 years. As action picks up in the House and Senate on differing versions of a multiyear surface transportation bill, House Republicans have sparked a major fight by proposing to cut mass transit's 30-year-long link to Highway Trust Fund financing.After months of false starts, delays and small advances, congressional committees have stepped up the pace on the highway-transit bill. With more than $50 billion a year in construction aid at stake, the bill
President Obama’s proposed $3.8-trillion budget for fiscal year 2013 recommends cuts for most major federal construction programs, reflecting continued heavy pressure to hold down overall discretionary spending. But the budget proposal also calls for a sharp boost for surface transportation and a reduction in airport grants for big airports.Obama’s budget request, sent to Congress on Feb. 13, is just the beginning of what surely will be a long, tough, partisan fight over next year’s spending. The final numbers won’t become clear until the fall, or perhaps later.One key construction item in the president’s budget is a proposed six-year, $476-billion surface
Related Links: Bureau of Labor Statistics release, including data tables AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson's analysis ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu's analysis The Construction industry's unemployment rate increased in January to 17.7%, from December’s 16%, but it was much lower than January 2011’s mark of 22.5%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.BLS's latest monthly employment update, released on Feb. 3, also showed that construction gained a further 21,000 jobs in January, after adding 31,000 in December. That brings the industry's total employment to its highest level in two years, according to Ken Simonson, Associated General Contractors of America chief
Related Links: Link to House-Senate conference report on FAA bill Labor Provision Deal Unblocks FAA Bill No FAA Bill Yet, Another Extension Likely House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a four-year measure authorizing $63.6 billion for Federal Aviation Administration programs, including FAA's Airport Improvement Program (AIP) construction grants. Once the measure is enacted, it would bring an end to more than four years of short-term authorizations for AIP and other FAA programs.News of the House-Senate deal came at a meeting of conferees late in the afternoon of Jan. 31. The final conference report was filed about mid-day on
White House photo by Chuck Kennedy Obama's infrastructure spending proposal would require approval from Congress, which didn't adopt similar plans he proposed last year. Related Links: Blog: Construction reax to SOTU White House transcript of State of the Union speech White House background document on SOTU proposals President Obama's State of the Union address included a further pitch for increased federal infrastructure spending, which he proposed to finance through savings gained from the military’s pullout from Iraq and pulling back from the Afghanistan war.Obama can take action on some of the many items he discussed in his Jan. 24 speech
