The Republican presidential nomination rollercoaster ride continues to have its ups, downs, and upside downs. With Senator Rick Santorum recently riding high with victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, political pundits feared that Governor Mitt Romney’s campaign was again in trouble. But, hold onto your safety rail. Romney even more recently won the caucuses in Maine and an important conservative convention—CPAC—straw poll. As for the next loops on this ride, AGC PAC is closely eyeing the primaries in Arizona and Michigan scheduled on Tuesday, Feb. 28.

After more than a four-year delay by Congress and 22 short-term extensions, this week President Obama signed a four-year compromise Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization bill. The legislation includes $13.4 billion for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and extends the airline ticket tax. AIP finances airport infrastructure projects. The AIP authorization level was set at $3.35 billion a year, which is the same amount provided to the program in FY 2012 through the appropriations bill but 5 percent less than was provided in FY 2011.

Despite the importance of this legislation to the highway and transit construction industry AGC has been told that Senators and Representatives are not hearing from construction contractors about the importance of passing the highway bill now.

The House and Senate have begun deliberation on their respective versions of the transportation reauthorization legislation, but long lists of amendments in both chambers have slowed down progress. As a result, final action on both bills has been postponed until after the Present’s Day congressional recess.

President Obama’s FY 2013 budget request for the Department of Transportation rehashes last year’s request. The president renewed his request for $50 billion in the current fiscal year to provide a targeted economic boost and to jump start job creation. In addition, the administration used the budget request to again propose ideas for a long-term legislation to reauthorize the surface transportation programs. The timing of the proposal took away much of its relevance because both the House and Senate are already considering their own versions of transportation reauthorization. 

The president has continued the time-honored tradition of cutting funding for our nation's water infrastructure programs.  Since the Clinton Administration, nearly every presidential budget has included cuts to the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, with the expectation that funding for these popular programs would be reinstated by Congress.

Military Construction Overall funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) Military Construction account is $9 billion, which is $4 billion less than the budget for FY 2012, or down about 31 percent.  This large reduction in funding is mostly due to the end of the DOD’s six-year Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 program. Below is a breakdown of the funding for each branch of the military:

The president’s budget also included some significant tax provisions including:

The Department of Labor’s budget would receive slightly less funding than it did a year prior, $12 billion in discretionary funding. However, the proposed budget signals the administration’s acknowledgement that employers are facing expanded enforcement and regulatory activity by federal agencies. Changes to policy and funding within the DOL included:

On Feb. 13, 2012, President Obama released his $3.8 trillion proposed budget for fiscal year 2013.  The budget is not expected to be adopted, but it does set the stage for debates over taxes and spending during what is expected to be a volatile presidential season. Construction spending accounts total about $120 billion. That is up only slightly over 2012’s spending level.