Related Links: Continuing Resolution Likely Fiscal 2013 Looks Rough For Construction Spending Senate and House leaders announced on July 31 that they had reached a deal with the White House to pass a continuing resolution (CR) in September to keep the government running through March 2013.The funding will adhere to the $1.047-trillion cap mandated by last year’s Budget Control Act, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The House had wanted to pare the cap down to $1.028 trillion, which would have led to deeper cuts in construction and other programs.Congress has been slow in approving the various spending bills
Related Links: July 30 SIGAR audit report A new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, has criticized the U.S. rebuilding effort in Afghanistan, saying most of the infrastructure projects funded for that country in fiscal year 2011 are behind schedule and don't include adequate measures to ensure the projects can continue and stay in place for the long term.The special IG, John F. Sopko, wrote in the July 30 report, “More than 10 years after international intervention in Afghanistan—and nearly nine years since the U.S. government began focusing efforts to build Afghanistan’s infrastructure—the U.S. government,
The Obama administration and California state officials have unveiled a new “preferred alternative” for conveying water from northern California to the central part of the state while protecting the fragile California Bay Delta ecosystem.
CH2M HILL made a twist on the usual placement of a dissolved air flotation (DAF) system, placing it at the beginning of the process train rather than in the solids-treatment train, where it is usually located in wastewater treatment facilities.
A decade ago, Pima County's Regional Wastewater Reclamation Dept., or RWRD, was facing a problem: The Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality had ruled that the levels of nitrogen coming from RWRD's network of 10 wastewater-stripping and treatment plants were too high.
While many construction industry firms and lobbying groups are chagrined the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld President Obama's Affordable Care Act, a number of companies that design and build in the health-care sector are more upbeat.
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.
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. Photo Courtesy Office of the Arizona Governor: Jan Brewer Gov. Jan Brewer addresses the media following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the heart of SB 1070. Related Links: High Court Issues Split Ruling in Immigration Case Oral Arguments in Arizona Immigration Law Case 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,
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
