Monday evening, the U.S. Senate  voted 94 to 1 to proceed to consideration of H.R. 674, a bill to repeal the 3 percent income tax withholding law, with a final vote on passage due by Wednesday. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) was the single vote against proceeding.

On Nov. 2, 2011, the AGC BIM Forum held, for the first time, a major panel discussion of leading federal agency representatives to hear about the utilization of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the federal government. AGC, through its strong partnerships with the federal agencies, organized the session.

AGC leaders held a meeting on Nov. 2, 2011, with key officials from the “Tri-services Group” which includes the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force, Army Corps of Engineers and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (the Tri-Services group) held a joint session to hear about the DOD’s plans to create an evaluation factor for Total Ownership Costs (TOC) of certain types of facility construction.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced today that the House will pass surface transportation reauthorization legislation before the end of 2011. In his statement Speaker Boehner said, “In the coming weeks, House Republicans will formally introduce an energy & infrastructure jobs bill, and hope to move the legislation through the House before the end of the year.  House Republicans oppose wasteful ‘stimulus’ spending, and instead favor an approach that combines an expansion of American-made energy production with initiatives to repair and improve infrastructure and reform the way infrastructure money is spent.”

Environment and Public Works Committee to Markup Transportation Reauthorization Next Week Senate Democrat and Republican transportation infrastructure spending proposals failed to gain the 60 votes necessary to be considered for passage.  AGC urged Senators to set aside both proposals and focus on passing a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill, parts of which will be marked up  on Wednesday, Nov. 9, in the Environment and Public Works Committee.

AGC joined forces with Reps. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) to circulate a letter to Republicans in the House of Representatives calling on Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to take action on a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization bill.

Senate may consider repealing 3 percent tax withholding. AGC is pushing for the repeal and asking members to get involved.

This week, the Senate approved the fiscal year 2012 transportation appropriations legislation that would fund the highway program in FY 2012 at the same level as FY 2011 and boost transit funds. The transportation funding was bundled together with two other appropriations bills, called a minibus, in an attempt to expedite completion of some of the funding measures necessary to keep the federal government operating. A continuing resolution is currently in place until Nov. 18 to keep government programs operating at last year’s funding levels.

The House of Representatives, by a margin of 405 to 16, voted to repeal the 3 percent withholding law. The legislation, H.R. 674, now goes to the Senate where AGC hopes there will be swift consideration.  The Senate came within three votes of passing 3 percent withholding last week and this week, President Obama stated his support for the repeal of 3 percent withholding.

Perfection isn’t easy to achieve. But, in the 2011 AGC PAC Chapter Board Contest, four chapters have shown that it can be done. The AGC of Western Kentucky recently joined the Kansas Contractors Assn., Nebraska Building Chapter AGC, and Associated Contractors of New Mexico with 100 percent board participation in the contest.