While Congress continues to debate the federal budget for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) yesterday released his blueprint for a budget resolution for fiscal year 2012 and beyond. Entitled, “Path to Prosperity, Restoring America’s Promise,” the proposal addresses every aspect of the federal budget from domestic spending to entitlement programs to taxes. For transportation, the blueprint calls for significant reductions in spending with total budget authority decreasing by 31 percent from current levels.
The 2011 AGC Federal Contractors Conference will be held May 2-5, 2011, at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. This meeting is the only national event where contractors and federal agency personnel can meet in a collaborative forum to review federal construction contracting issues and trends from around the United States.
AGC's Brian Deery joined FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez, Maryland state officials and other national groups to launch of National Work Zone Awareness Week. This year’s event took place at the Intercounty Connector construction site in Laurel, Md., along Interstate 95 which is the one of the busiest corridors on the east coast.
Join your industry allies in Washington, D.C. on May 24-25, 2011for the Transportation Construction Coalition’s 2011 Legislative Fly-in as we make the case that “Transportation Moves the Economy.” Your Congressional delegation needs to hear from you about the importance of transportation infrastructure investment to the nation’s economy – creating jobs while building the future.
Vice President Paul Diederich represented AGC at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee which is soliciting ideas to include in the highway and transit authorization legislation.
AGC is working with our construction industry and transportation allies in the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) and the Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM), on a series of media events in Ohio on Thursday, April 14 to highlight the need for Congress to pass a multi-year transportation reauthorization bill.
The House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 223-196, H.R. 658, the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011. Among other things, H.R. 658 keeps the passenger facility charge cap at $4.50 (as the current Senate bill does) and cuts Airport Improvement Program funding to $3 billion per year, which is $500 million less than the current appropriated level and over $1 billion less than the Senate bill.
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-Texas) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) announced a new proposal for the creation of a federal infrastructure Bank on Tuesday. The legislation, which has yet to be introduced, is called the “Building and Upgrading Infrastructure for the Long-Term Development Act” (BUILD Act) and will create a federal government owned but independent financing authority.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the rounds this week in the Senate defending his agency’s fiscal year 2012 budget in front of three Senate Committees. The Secretary appeared before the Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Appropriations Committees to discuss the USDOT budget as part of a six-year, $556 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill.
The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to overhaul the hours of service rules for truck drivers. The comment period was extended to March 4, 2011.