This afternoon the House passed the $787.2 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by a vote of 246-183-1. The Senate is expected to vote later today.
There are numerous tax provisions to encourage development, encourage capital investment, and increase certain bonding opportunities on public buildings, schools, and other public works. This chart provides an overview of the specific tax provisions that AGC has been pushing for in this legislation. AGC did not get the full repeal of the 3% withholding, but we did get a one year delay in its imposition. AGC will continue to push for full repeal this year.
This chart details about $140 billion in construction spending in the legislation. Much of the money will be distributed to state governments to be spent. The legislation did not include the level of school construction funding that AGC had advocated for, however school renovation, modernization and repairs will be eligible to compete for a portion of an $8.8 billion pot of money that will be distributed to the Governors and designated for education, safety, and other critical services.
Funding highlights include a total of $8.8 billion that is available for public school and higher education facility modernization, renovation, and repair; $3.1 billion for repair, restoration and improvement of public facilities; $4.2 billion for facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization; $1.2 billion for VA hospital and medical facility construction and improvements; $2.33 billion for Department of Defense Facilities; $4.5 billion for increased energy efficiency in federal buildings; $14.5 billion for environmental clean-up and clean water programs; $4.6 billion for the Corps of Engineers; $1 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation; and $48 billion for transportation infrastructure.
Key policy provisions in the legislation include:
- The bill applies Davis Bacon to all funds in the bill and it applies a new Buy American provision to all funds in the bill.
- The bill does not apply the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) beyond the federal projects to all of the funding in the bill even though earlier versions of the bill did apply the FAR to even state and local projects. AGC was successful in clarifying that the FAR should only apply to direct federal contracts.
- There is no requirement that contractors use E-verify. The House version of the bill did include a requirement that only companies that use E-verify would be eligible to compete for projects funded under the bill.