The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to overhaul the hours of service rules for truck drivers. The comment period was extended to March 4, 2011.

Following AGC and our transportation and construction industry allies spending the last several weeks educating Members of Congress on the impact that failure to pass an extension would have on state DOTs and the construction industry, the House and the Senate each passed H.R. 662, extending federal surface transportation program funding through September 30, 2011.

Facing a government shutdown on March 4, President Obama signed a continuing resolution that will fund the government through March 18.  The continuing resolution, which originated in the House of Representatives and was reluctantly accepted by Senate Democrats, continues to fund all discretionary programs at FY 2010 levels, but goes a step further in making nearly $4 billion in cuts on an account-by-account basis. 

On February 19, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to fund the U.S. government for the rest of the federal fiscal year through the passage of a continuing resolution that cuts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget by $3 billion from its current level of $10.3 billion and that limits the agency’s authority in other ways. The bill passed by a vote of 235-189; only three Republicans voted against the bill.

Amendment to restrict imposition of PLAs on FY 2011 work narrowly defeated

Federal transportation programs face challenges like never before. SAFETEA-LU expired on September 30, 2009 and funding for the highway and transit programs have been continued through a series of short term extensions.

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) used this week’s Congressional recess to hold more than a dozen listening sessions around the country to gather information he can use in writing the highway and transit reauthorization legislation. AGC members participated in many of the hearings and listening sessions addressing the need for a focused, streamlined program that delivers improvements that are core to advancing national transportation interests.

The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to overhaul the hours of service rules for truck drivers. The comment period has been extended to March 4, 2011.

In addition to meeting frequently with FASB over the past ten years on critical issues and focusing significant member and staff time recently to issues such as multi-employer disclosure and revenue recognition, AGC joined a construction industry group established to advise the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on its proposed accounting standards update on multi-employer plan disclosure.

President Obama began last week by unveiling a $3.7 trillion FY 2012 budget and the House of Representatives finished the week by debating and passing a continuing resolution to fund the remainder of FY 2011. If Congress fails to pass the funding bill by March 4, the government will be forced to “shut down” for the first time since 1995.