Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has imposed a hold on the nomination of Lt. Gen. thomas Bostick, President Obama's choice to be the next Army corps of engineers chief. Vitter is withholding approval until the Corps provides satisfactory answers to the senator's questions about several Louisiana issues, including project funding.Senate holds block floor action on nominees. Furthermore, Bostick must gain approval from the Armed Services Committee, which has yet to convene a hearing on his nomination.Maj. Gen. Merdith W.B. “Bo” Temple, the Corps deputy commanding general, became the acting chief of engineers on June 17, following the retirement of Lt. Gen.
There is still no deal on the horizon on a multiyear Federal Aviation Administration bill, so Congress has approved another short extension. It would carry FAA activities, including Airport Improvement Program construction grants, through July 22. The bill, which the Senate passed on June 27 and the House cleared three days earlier, is the 20th stopgap since Sept. 30, 2007, when the last long-term FAA measure expired. The 19th extension was to lapse on June 30.
The Republican-controlled House is getting ready to deliver another punch to the General Services Administration's construction budget, following the Appropriations Committee's June 23 approval of a bill that would zero out fiscal 2012 GSA funds for new federal buildings. The full House is likely to pass the bill after July 4. But the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority, has yet to act on a GSA spending measure. The agency and construction industry officials are hoping for better numbers from that chamber.But if the House committee's figure becomes law, it would be the second heavy blow to GSA construction funds
The National Labor Relations Board has proposed changes that would speed up elections to determine whether workers in construction and other industries will unionize. Reaction to the proposed rule, announced on June 21, was sharply divided. Pro-union Democrats in Congress supported the plan, but business groups and Republicans criticized it. NLRB's three Democrats backed proposing the rule; its sole Republican dissented.The proposal would allow electronic filing of election petitions and shorten the time firms have to produce lists of those eligible to vote in representation elections. It would set general uniform deadlines for pre-election and post-election hearings. Now, the scheduling
A fight over a 4G network and competitor to the Global Positioning System is heating up in Washington, as a coalition that includes major construction industry groups and heavy-equipment manufacturers is trying to block a move by LightSquared, Reston, Va., to launch a wireless broadband network. An industry group called the Coalition to Save Our GPS contends that the LightSquared plan would involve building some 40,000 ground stations and create interference with the existing GPS signals, which would disrupt systems such as high-precision GPS used in dredging operations in U.S. ports, as well as GPS that is used to guide
As mass transit officials, struggling to keep aging systems in usable condition, explored the possibility of private-public partnerships, Republicans unveiled on June 15 a plan to take the Northeast Corridor away from Amtrak and privatize it. Photo by AP Wideworld AMTRAK FACES ATTACK Republican-led proposal would strip Amtrak of Northeast Corridor ownership. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) fleshed out a plan to draw private-sector money to upgrade passenger rail service from Washington, D.C., to Boston to high-speed levels.The plan would remove from Amtrak's control its 363 route miles of the 457-mile-long Northeast Corridor (NEC). The proposal
As the House Appropriations Committee moves on fiscal 2012 spending bills, its Republican leaders are ycarrying out their budget-cutting pledge. They aren't sparing construction programs. The thin silver lining is that some of the House's recommended construction cuts are small. For example, a bill funding military and Veterans Affairs construction, which the House passed on June 14, would trim most accounts. Base realignment and closure spending would plummet, but that was expected, because the closure round that began in 2005 is nearing an end. Andrew Goldberg, American Institute of Architects senior director of federal programs, says, “The problem, and nobody
The National Labor Relations Board has proposed changes that would speed up elections that determine whether workers in construction and other industries will be represented by unions. As with other recent NLRB moves, reaction to the proposal, which the board announced on June 21, was sharply divided, with pro-union congressional Democrats supporting the move and business groups and Republicans criticizing it. The proposal would for the first time allow electronic filing of election petitions and other documents and shorten the time employers have to produce lists of those eligible to vote in representation elections. It also would require companies and
A Fluor Corp. subsidiary will pay $4 million to settle allegations that workers filed false claims and received kickbacks related to the company’s contract at the Dept. of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, the Justice Dept. said. Related Links: Justice Dept. press release In announcing the settlement on June 17, the department said that from 2003 to 2008, three Fluor Hanford Inc. material coordinators “made hundreds of fraudulent purchases using government purchase cards, using their positions and exploiting weaknesses in Fluor’s internal control system to funnel DOE funds to themselves.”Fluor spokesman Keith Stephens says, “Fluor settled with the
The U.S. is gaining ground in its push to prompt China to end subsidies to its domestic wind-energy companies and give U.S. firms greater access to the booming Chinese wind market. APWideworld Workers install wind turbine at wind farm in east China's Anhul province. As China's wind power market expands, the U.S. has challenged China's subsidies to its equipment manufacturers, saying they violate World Trade Organization rules. Related Links: USTR's Release In the latest development in an eight-month trade dispute, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk says China has closed down a wind-energy fund that the U.S. contends violated World
