When Congress returns in September they will only have a few short weeks to deal the with reauthorization of the Highway and Transit programs.  Failure to act by September 30 could lead to a shutdown similar to the recent FAA shut down. Both the programs and the gas taxes funding the program will expire on September 30. 

A key component of the recently passed Budget Control Act of 2011, is the creation of a Joint Select Committee in Deficit Reduction that will be tasked with cutting spending between $1.2 and $1.5 trillion from federal programs to increase the debt ceiling beyond the initial increase of $900 billion.  The committee will be made up of 12 Members of Congress – three Republicans and three Democrats from both the House and Senate.

As the prolonged budget battle wrapped up last week, the construction industry still faces legislative hurdles and must remain active to protect its interests. Now is the perfect time for contractors to reach out to their legislators while they spend time in their district offices meeting with constituents.

As elected officials in Washington return to their districts for the August recess, AGC urges its members and chapters to contact their Senators and Representatives to ask that they co-sponsor legislation to repeal the 3 percent withholding mandate.

AGC members of the Nevada Chapter met, on July 28, with Mark Amodei, Republican nominee for Nevada’s second congressional district special election. Amodei is no stranger to the construction industry. During his 16-year tenure in the state legislature, he remained an industry ally with a receptive ear for construction policy issues.  As a strong show of support for his congressional bid, Chapter President Dave Backman, K. G. Walters Construction Co., Inc., presented Candidate Amodei with a $2,500 AGC PAC check.

Upon completion of the debt ceiling legislation, Congress adjourned for its summer recess without taking up long-term highway and transit reauthorization legislation. While both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) have released outlines of what will be included in their bills, neither has actually released legislative proposals. EPW Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had hoped her committee would be able to mark up a bill prior to the recess, however, that did not happen.

On Aug. 5, the Senate approved legislation to extend the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization through Sept. 16, ending a two-week partial shutdown. The Senate, even though it went into a month-long summer recess after Tuesday's vote to clear a debt ceiling bill, held a "pro forma" session last Friday morning to approve the legislation by unanimous consent and President Obama signed it into law.

After a long battle, Congress is heading home for the next four weeks to spend time in their district offices while meeting with constituents. AGC has gotten many questions about the debt deal which Congress passed this week. People ask, what does it mean for the economy? What will it do to taxes? What will it do to spending? Most importantly, what does it mean for construction?  It is still early, and the definitive impact of the legislation on taxes, spending and the economy is not yet fully understood.  Below is AGC’s initial impression on what the deal is, what it will do and what we might see over the next year and a half.

Now that the House is preparing to finalize an FY 2012 spending plan for the General Services Administration that eliminates funding for design and construction services and allocates only $280 million for repairs and alterations, AGC has been working with numerous partners in the construction and real estate industries to call on Congress to ensure sound funding for these programs. 

As Congress heads into the August recess, 221 Cosponsors, more than half of the House supports the repeal of 3 percent withholding.  The Senate has 29 cosponsors, almost one third of Senators sponsoring repeal.  AGC members and the construction industry have been at the forefront of the repeal campaign.