House and Senate staff continue to meet to negotiate various provisions in the transportation reauthorization legislation. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who is serving as the chair of the conference committee, set June 7, 2012 as the target date for having a compromise measure completed.

On May 23, 2012, AGC joined 10 other national business associations in a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Labor urging her to reconsider a series of new affirmative action mandates it plans to impose on contractors working on federal projects.  A press release from AGC today highlighted the lack of data from the government justifying the costly and burdensome rules.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved President Obama’s choice to be administrator of the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday approved legislation with bipartisan support to prohibit the collection of political contribution information from bidders for government contracts. The bill, S. 1100, Keeping Politics out of Federal Contracting, is cosponsored by 22 senators.

The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a provision expanding opportunities for U.S. contractors bidding on international military construction projects within the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility.

AGC and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) met this week with House Leadership staff to discuss legislation that would severely restrict federal agency participation in conferences hosted by private organizations.  Aside from ASAE, AGC was the only other organization there to fight for continued open discussion with federal agency representatives at private industry conferences and meetings.

The House Appropriations Committee yesterday passed a funding bill that would cut military construction and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) construction accounts. Military construction received $2.6 billion less than in the current fiscal year, largely due to already-planned reductions and pauses in construction. Meanwhile, the VA’s major projects construction account sees a $57 million decrease in FY2013 when compared to FY2012. However, on a more positive note, the bill increases the VA’s minor projects construction account by $125 million next fiscal year.

Today, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) offered an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2013 (H.R.4310) that would prohibit the federal government from mandating the use of a project labor agreement (PLA) or favoring a contractor because of the signing of a project labor agreement (PLA).  AGC sent a letter to the House today in support of the amendment. The vote passed (211-209) mostly along party lines with most republicans supporting it and all but one democrat opposing.

The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB or Board) new rule revising election procedures in union representation cases is invalid, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled May 14.  The rule, often called the “quickie election” or “ambush election” rule because it expedites the election process to unions’ advantage, took effect on April 30.  The Board has suspended implementation of the rule and is expected to revert back to procedures in effect before April 30.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, (R-Mich.) joined the tax reform/extenders debate today, pledging to link the pending expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush-era tax cuts as leverage to force action on comprehensive tax reform in 2013. He followed an announcement Tuesday by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who laid out the need for spending cuts to accompany any increase in the debt limit.