This week, the House and Senate both made progress in moving their respective transportation funding bill for fiscal year 2017. Both bills include a key, AGC-backed provision that sets restrictions on the use of a U.S. DOT pilot program that enables state or local grant recipients to utilize local or geographical, economic-based, and veterans hiring preferences on federal-aid highway and federal transit projects.
On the funding side, both bills provide FAST Act investment levels for federal-aid highways ($43.266 billion) and transit ($9.734 billion). A key difference between the House and Senate bills is that the House does not rescind $2.2 billion in unobligated highway funding in fiscal year 2017 as the Senate bill does.
As the appropriations process moves forward AGC will work to ensure that the provision restricting local hiring preferences remain and that FAST Act funding levels are provided without the $2.2 billion cut provided in the Senate bill.
For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at oneills@agc.org or (202) 547-8892.