Yesterday, the House of Representatives approved by a vote of 266-167, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, a two-year budget deal that will help avert automatic, across-the-board budget cuts in fiscal years 2016 and 2017 through raising government spending levels by about $80 billion annually and suspending the national debt limit until March 2017. Seventy-nine Republicans joined with 167 Democrats in passing the act. The Senate is expected to pass the measure on Friday or over the weekend.
The budget agreement will impact the construction industry in a number of ways. At a macro-level, the agreement clears the path for Congress to pass individual, annual agency spending bills or a larger spending bill encompassing all or most federal agency spending for fiscal year 2016. Passage of either individual appropriations bills or an omnibus bill will allow federal agencies to start new construction projects in the current fiscal year and provide Congress an opportunity to include important policy instructions for agencies that could help address regulatory overreach. The federal government is currently operating under a fiscal year 2016 spending bill—called a continuing resolution (CR)—through Dec. 11. The CR prohibits new construction project starts and is devoid of important policy riders addressing burdensome regulations. The budget agreement will also lessen the chances of a government shutdown at the end of this year and in 2016. Additionally, by suspending the nation’s limit on borrowing the act eliminates the threat of a national credit default until 2017. Such a default would lead to skyrocketing interest rates that would be devastating to not only the construction industry but the entire American economy.
At a micro-level, the budget agreement includes provisions that would (1) repeal the mandatory auto-enrollment of employees in employer provided health care coverage; and (2) increase Occupational Safety and Health Act fines based, in part, on inflation. For more on these provisions, please see the stories below. The budget agreement also provides a more definitive path for passage of the annual defense bill—the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2016 (NDAA bill)—which includes a number of AGC-supported federal construction procurement reforms. President Obama vetoed the Defense Bill last week.
For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at christiansonj@agc.org or (703) 837-5325.