The AGC Tax and Fiscal Affairs Committee held their winter meeting on Jan. 5 and 6.  The committee discussed numerous topics, including: the legislative and political landscape, an update of Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) activities regarding revenue recognition, leases and the evolving recognition by FASB that private companies have different needs than public companies.  There was a detailed report on the possibility of comprehensive tax reform and how it will impact the construction industry. There was also a detailed discussion on evolving construction tax issues and a comprehensive update on construction audits.

April 16-19, 2012 | The Mayflower Hotel | Washington, DC The 2012 AGC Federal Contractors Conference will be held April 16-19, 2012, at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. This meeting is the only national event where contractors and federal agency personnel can meet in a collaborative forum to review federal construction contracting issues and trends from around the United States. These insightful and highly productive exchanges have solidified the need for both federal construction contractors and the federal construction agencies to share information on a wide variety of issues, foster better communication, and create real solutions.

With only 80 days remaining until the expiration of the latest highway and transit authorization extension, AGC is kicking-off a comprehensive grassroots and communications campaign asking Congress to take action on a reauthorization bill before March 31, 2012.

On the road to the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney narrowly won the first battle on Tuesday: the Iowa Caucuses. Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes. The final count showed Romney winning 30,015 votes to Santorum’s 30,007 — or 24.6 percent to 24.5 percent. Ron Paul finished in third with 21.4 percent. Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann and Jon Huntsman finished in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh slots, respectively.

Two major pieces of legislation, the Defense Authorization and Omnibus Appropriations bill for FY 2012, contain prohibitions on requiring the disclosure of political contributions by contractors bidding on federal work. The efforts, led by Congressional Republicans in the House and Senate, were included in response to continuing threats by Congressional Democrats to put forth an AGC-opposed draft Executive Order (EO) by the Obama administration.

As previously reported, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is back to square one in developing a rule that would set a first-time numeric limit on how much dirt is allowed in stormwater that runs across a construction site.  EPA published a Federal Register notice on Jan. 3 requesting additional data on the performance of technologies in controlling turbidity levels (a measure of water clarity) in construction stormwater discharges.  EPA said it will use the data and information submitted by the public to set a new “corrected” numeric turbidity limit for construction site runoff.

The National Labor Relations Board has again delayed the effective date of a new regulation requiring nearly every private-sector employer to post a particular notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.  Amid legal challenges to the Board’s authority to issue the regulation, the Board first postponed the original effective date of Nov. 14, 2011, to Jan. 31, 2012.  On Dec. 23, the Board further pushed back the date to April 30, 2012, stating that “postponing the effective date of the rule would facilitate the resolution of the legal challenges.”

On Dec. 22, the National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule revising representation-case procedures, also known as the “quickie elections” or “ambush elections.” The effective date of the rule is April 30, 2012.

On Jan. 4, 2012, President Obama bypassed the Senate confirmation process and announced he would make three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The three appointments are: Sharon Block (D), currently deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor; Terence Flynn (R), chief counsel to NLRB Member Hayes; and Richard Griffin (D), general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers.  The appointments would join the two sitting board members and would result in a full board for 2012 with the three recent appointees’ terms expiring at the end of 2013.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finalized its representation-case procedures, also known as the “quickie elections” or “ambush elections” rule, and they will be published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2011 or can be viewed electronically here.