The House has passed a spending bill that would cut the Dept. of Labor’s fiscal 2010 budget by 6% from the 2009 level, to $13.3 billion. But the measure does provide DOL with funds for a new green-jobs program and for more enforcement staff at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The DOL spending is part of a $733-billion 2010 appropriations package, approved on July 24, which also funds the Health and Human Services and Education Departments. DOL’s portion of the bill includes $50 million for green jobs training, a new initiative for the department. The measure also provides $1.5
David Michaels, former assistant energy secretary for environment, safety and health, is President Obama’s choice to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the White House announced on July 28. Michaels is an epidemiologist and professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. He held the Dept. of Energy environment safety and health post from 1998 to 2001.
The number of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act highway and transit projects out to bid, under contract and under way, as well as their dollar value, is climbing, but actual outlays still are low. As of June 30, 5,079 ARRA road and transit projects, worth $16.7 billion, were out to bid, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said on July 27. Project total rose 24% from the May 31 level. ARRA highway outlays were $414 million as of July 21, the Transportation Dept. reported. Of projects out to bid, 3,553 contracts were signed, totaling $10.6 billion on June 30, up
With the congressional August recess around the corner, House and Senate lawmakers were moving along separate tracks with competing plans to avert an imminent crisis in the Highway Trust Fund. The House was aiming for a $5-billion “fix,” designed to prop up the fund’s struggling highway account until Sept. 30. The Senate was working on a $26.8-billion infusion designed to keep the fund healthy through March 2011. Observers expected a deal to be struck before the recess, but at ENR press time the exact outcome was by no means clear. The differences between the House and Senate trust-fund remedies are
Federal highway, transit and airport grant programs notched small gains and high-speed rail won a surprisingly large $4 billion in a fiscal 2010 transportation and housing spending bill that the House passed on July 23. The $123.1-billion measure includes $75.8 billion for the Dept. of Transportation, a 13% gain over DOT’s 2009 funding. The bill also has $47 billion for the Housing and Urban Development Dept. The Senate Appropriations Committee is slated to take up its version of the DOT-HUD bill on July 30. The House bill would set the 2010 highway obligation ceiling at $41.1 billion, up 1% from
After defeating GOP budget-cutting proposals, the House has approved a fiscal 2010 transportation and housing spending measure that includes $75.8 billion for the Dept. of Transportation, a 13% gain over 2009. The measure, approved on July 23, by a 256-168 vote, would provide modest increases for highway, transit and airport grant programs, plus $4 billion for high-speed rail. Only 16 Republicans voted for the bill, and only 10 Democrats voted against it. For the largest DOT construction program, federal-aid highways, the bill contains a $41.8-billion obligation ceiling, up 1% from 2009. But appropriators noted the unresolved problems facing the Highway
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) has recommended a $3-billion infusion for the struggling Highway Trust Fund, a sum that Oberstar says will be enough to carry the trust fund through Sept. 30. Oberstar, who made his proposal July 23 during a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, said that the boost for the trust fund should come through a transfer from the general fund. The trust fund's highway account is projected to start running a shortfall in August. Oberstar's proposal for fixing that immediate problem is at odds with the plan now shaping up in the
The House has approved a fiscal 2010 spending bill that would give a modest boost to the Corps of Engineers' construction account, but would trim funding for the Dept. of Energy defense environmental cleanup program. The 2010 energy and water programs appropriations measure, which the House passed on July 17, includes $2.1 billion for Corps construction, up $2 million from 2009, excluding emergency spending. It also recommends $5.4 billion for DOE’s cleanup account, which is a 5% cut from this year’s level. In the Senate, the energy-water bill that the Appropriations Committee approved on July 9 cuts the Corps construction
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) has blocked floor action on the nomination of Robert Perciasepe to be the Environmental Protection Agency's deputy administrator. The Environment and Public Works Committee on July 15 cleared Perciasepe, a former top EPA water and air official, for the No. 2 post. But Voinovich put a hold on the nomination, citing concerns over EPA’s analysis of a climate bill the House passed in June.
The Senate commerce committee has approved a two-year Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, with a boost in Airport Improvement Program (AIP) construction aid but no broad hike in passenger facility charges (PFCs). The $34.5-billion bill, cleared by the panel on July 21, includes $8.1 billion for AIP. If the full Senate passes the bill, it would go to conference with a three year, $53.5-billion bill the House passed in May. Like the Senate panel’s bill, the House’s has $4 billion for AIP in 2010 and $4.1 billion in 2011. AIP’s 2009 appropriation is $3.5 billion. The House bill also raises the
