AGC’s 97th Annual Convention will be held March 9-11, 2016 in San Antonio, Texas. Please visit meetings.agc.org/convention for registration information. Below is a preview of some of the Convention sessions.

AGC Seeks Increased Funding for Airport Infrastructure Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee officially kicked-off the reauthorization process for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with a markup of the Aviation Innovation Reform and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act. The AIRR Act, which fundamentally transforms air traffic control operations, is expected to pass the committee later this evening. It is important that representatives and senators hear from AGC members about the need for increased funding for airport runway and infrastructure projects The FAA is currently operating under an extension that expires on March 31.

Includes 13 Percent Increase in Federal Construction Accounts On Feb. 9, President Obama released his $4.1 trillion budget for fiscal year 2017, which proposes $1.215 trillion in discretionary defense and non-defense spending in FY 2017 and $2.565 trillion in mandatory spending. The budget, which stays within the discretionary spending limits set last November in the Bipartisan Budget Act, has been declared dead on arrival by Republican Congressional leaders. For the first time in 41 years, the House and Senate budget committees will not hold hearings with the president’s budget director.

US DOT this week announced that it is soliciting applications for two discretionary grant programs totaling $1.3 billion. The FAST Act created a new program for "Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects" that US DOT is calling the FASTLANE grants program, an acronym that stands for "Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies."

AGC joined with nine other construction industry groups in a letter to FHWA Administrator Greg Nadeau asking the agency to complete action on a proposed rule clarifying the applicability of Buy America requirements for manufactured products that may contain steel elements and for incidental products such as nuts, bolts washers and others.

AGC is looking to the future of federal transportation funding and what steps can be taken to fix the Highway Trust Fund revenue shortfall and be sure that future revenue is tied to a user fee based system. One approach was discussed in the recent Congressional Budget Office report.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report this week examining different approaches for providing Federal funding to states for highway infrastructure investment. The report was focused on making better investment decisions realizing that the federal government’s main source of funds for highways—gasoline tax revenues dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund—has been insufficient to pay for federal spending on highways. Since 2008, lawmakers have transferred about $143 billion from other sources to maintain a positive balance in the trust fund. It also noted that, adjusted for changes in construction costs, total federal spending on highways buys less now than at any time since the early 1990s.

February 11, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved H.R. 4441, the Aviation Innovation Reform and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act, a bill to reauthorize for six years the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs. A key component of the AIRR Act is the transfer air traffic control services from the FAA to a non-profit, user-fee-supported corporation. Committee approval clears the way for the full House consideration. The FAA is currently operating under an extension that expires on March 31 and the hope is that the legislation can be completed before that deadline, however, the ATC privatization is highly controversial which could slow down immediate action.

President Obama’s FY 2017 budget request for the US Department of Transportation supports FAST Act funding levels of $43.27 billion for the federal-aid highway and $9.535 transit programs. The proposal also revives an idea the Administration has suggested several times previously to replace the existing Highway Trust Fund with a new Transportation Trust Fund.

AGC submitted comments to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on its fourth solicitation for the Every Day Counts (EDC) initiative. AGC supported the Administration’s proposal to include construction partnering in the initiative, demonstrating past success through partnering and emphasizing the need for renewed focus as partnering with certain state DOTs has become too routine and has lost its effectiveness.