The Recovery Act Reaches 160 Day Milestone

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure met on Friday, July 31, to examine progress to date on implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The hearing primarily addressed implementation efforts in non-transportation programs under the Committee's jurisdiction, including environmental, inland waterways and public buildings infrastructure.  T&I Committee members received status  updates from agencies receiving Recovery Act dollars under its jurisdiction, including the EPA , U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the General Services Administration and Coast Guard. With the exception of the highway funds, Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and other members of the committee expressed deep concern with the lack of construction activity underway with Recovery Act dollars and the rate in which Recovery Act funds were translating into contracts. He further expressed consternation over the problems being caused by the 'Buy American' provisions inserted into the Recovery Act and the effect they were having on contracts getting put out to bid. AGC was among the first to identify these problems. Click here for video and additional information about the T&I "160 Day Report Card." This comes on the heels of AGC CEO Steve Sandherr's letter to 27 federal agency heads concerning the pace that Recovery Act dollars are flowing through the agencies and in the form of contracts available for bid. With more than one million construction workers having lost their jobs over the past year, AGC expressed concerns that given the high unemployment rate that remains in the industry, it is ready to put the Recovery Act to work.