Legislation to extend the federal highway and transit programs and the programs of the Federal Aviation Administration has passed the House and Senate. HR 2887, which would extend the SAFETEA-LU authorization for six months until March 31, 2012, and the FAA authorization for four and a half months until Jan. 31, 2012, was approved Tuesday by the House.  The bill would authorize funding at current levels and allow collection of the federal motor fuels tax and the airline ticket tax to continue.

The bill, H.R.2587, the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act passed the House by a vote of 238 to 186.  The bill directed at the NRLB’s response to Boeing moving a new production facility to South Carolina.   Seven Republicans voted against the bill while eight Democrats voted for it. 

Monday, Sept. 12, 2011, AGC’s CEO, Steve Sandherr, testified at a public hearing at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on proposed regulations to change the effective date of the 3 percent withholding mandate to Jan. 1, 2013 for new and materially modified contracts, and to Jan. 1, 2014 for all contracts (new and existing).  AGC expressed support for the implementation delay and opposition to imposing the 3 percent government withholding mandate on existing contracts on Jan. 1, 2014. 

This week President Obama sent Congress his jobs plan, the American Jobs Act, which he outlined in a speech last week before a joint session of Congress.  The American Jobs Act is a $447 billion jobs creation proposal consisting of a combination of tax cuts ($253b), extension of unemployment benefits ($35b) and investments in transportation infrastructure and school-renovation projects ($105b).

With control of the White House and Congress at stake in 2012 election, AGC PAC co-chairs Doug Pruitt and Ted Aadland presented their AGC PAC and grassroots plan for the construction industry’s impacting the election to state chairmen, regional coordinators, and chapter executives on Thursday, Sept.8. During the conference call with the PAC’s governing body—the AGC PAC Contributions Subcommittee—the co-chairs challenged the state chairmen to meet clear goals for 2012 in their respective states.

On Sept. 2, 2011, the president announced that the administration will delay promulgation of new National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone.  In his statement, the president said that economic concerns and efforts to reduce regulatory burdens and uncertainty led to his decision to delay the new standard until at least 2013.  AGC welcomed the decision having asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to wait on moving forward with new standards until 2013 when the agency is scheduled to finish its next review of the most current science on ozone. 

On Sept. 7, Representative Bill Shuster (R-Penn.) introduced the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011. This bill would reauthorize the previous pipelines law, the 2006 Pipeline Integrity, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety Act, which expired on Sept. 30, 2010. The bill would strengthen pipeline safety programs, improve the nation’s pipeline network, and ensure the regulatory certainty in pipelines transportation necessary to create jobs.

This afternoon, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) voted out their fiscal year 2012 funding bill which significantly slashes funding for Federal-aid highway and Federal Transit programs. AGC urged the subcommittee to refrain from making more cuts to construction accounts when considering the THUD bill.

This morning, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) unanimously passed out of their committee the Surface Transportation Act of 2012, a four-month extension of the surface transportation authorization.  The current extension is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2011.

The Select Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, the 12-member bipartisan committee tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from our nation’s federal deficit held their first meeting yesterday on Capitol Hill. The meeting - which was organizational in nature - laid the foundation for the next several weeks, as the committee adopted a rules package aimed at creating transparency for the committee.  Under the package, the two co-chairs, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) will provide an agenda no less than 48 hours before any meeting and bill text of any issues they are considering at a meeting will be available no less than 24 hours before any meeting.  In addition, the committee hearing must be publicized at least a week in advance.