News

T and I Committee Reviews Recovery Act Progress

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Water and Environment held a hearing on Recovery Act progress, including updates from representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Civil Works Program. Additional witnesses included representatives from state and local governments administering Recovery Act dollars. AGC has expressed concern about the speed at which contracts have been solicited and awarded; according to witnesses administering these Recovery Act dollars; however, steady progress has been made in getting projects underway. According to USACE Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo Ellen Darcy, "731 Civil Works projects are underway across 49 states and also in both Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Eight projects have been completed to date. Fifty Project Partnership Agreements have been executed around the country under the reimbursable environmental infrastructure program for a total cost of $66.3 million. During this same period, 2,753 contract actions were awarded, of which 2,058 or 75 percent were awarded to small businesses. Of the $2 billion in contracts awarded, 48 percent of the total dollar value was awarded to small businesses. In addition, larger companies receiving Civil Works contracts are encouraged to hire local small business as their sub-contractors." Testifying on behalf of the U.S. EPA was Deputy Director for the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Nanci Gelb.  According to Gelb's testimony, "nearly 20 percent, or $800 million of the funds appropriated for the Clean Water SRF are under contract, an increase of approximately 20 percent in the last four weeks." This represents slightly less than twenty five percent of the $4 billion allocated for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) but is significant progress considering reports in July indicated that only one half percent of EPA's $6 billion SRF funds had been awarded to contract.   Gelb also noted in her testimony that requirements for "Buy American" green infrastructure and implementing Davis-Bacon prevailing wages have been challenging, but EPA has been successfully navigating the requirements through weekly internal meetings of its Stimulus Steering Committee. AGC has closely monitored "Buy American" waivers granted for stimulus-funded SRF projects, and submitted a letter to the Committee detailing continued concerns about the vastly expanded "Buy American" provisions in the Recovery Act and the lack of final guidance from OMB.  AGC's position was noted by Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.); however Chairman Oberstar raised doubts that this issue presented a significant problem for industry and noted that the requirement was encouraging U.S. innovation. He cited a single company that now manufactures advanced Ultra Violet Treatment systems for water.  Oberstar asked that EPA respond to AGC's concerns and report back its findings to the T&I Committee. On a positive note, according to AGC analysis of recent figures released by EPA detailing contract actions, EPA funds for Recovery Act projects have been significantly leveraged. Clean Water SRF funded projects totaling $1.6 billion in Recovery Act Funds have been combined with state and local dollars being leveraged into nearly $3 billion in projects.  For the Drinking Water SRF, $726 million in Recovery Act Funds have been leveraged into nearly $1.3 billion.  Additional discussion took place toward the end of the hearing regarding additional water infrastructure needs in communities, including the viability of a "Trust Fund," which has been introduced by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), as one of the potential solutions to meet the nation's clean and drinking water infrastructure funding needs.  These needs are conservatively projected to have an investment gap of almost $600 billion over the next twenty years. AGC supports H.R. 3202 and AGC members are encouraged to visit the AGC Legislative Action Center to learn more about this legislation. More information: