The House Republican Conference will meet today at 4:00 p.m. to consider a rules package that will govern how issues can be addressed in the 112th Congress. Among the proposed rules is a repeal of the guaranteed funding requirement for annual federal highway investment and the House point of order that enforces the guarantee. These guaranteed investment levels are based on user fee revenue flowing into the Highway Trust Fund.

One of the first actions of the incoming House Republican majority will be to adopt revised rules for operating the chamber in 2011 and 2012. In releasing the proposed rules the House Republican leadership indicated that the changes are intended to increase transparency and make it easier to cut federal spending.

In an effort to move quickly on what Republicans felt helped fuel their rise to the majority in the 112th Congress, the House will have a vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA also known by some as Obamacare) before the president delivers his State of the Union address on January 25.  

The House and Senate adjourned today after a surprisingly productive lame duck legislative session.  With expectations low and a history of playing below even low expectations, President Obama and Democrats in the Senate ignored the fringe of their party and actually sought common ground with Republicans on critical taxes legislation.

The Senate, in one of the last items they deal with this year, approved the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. This bill would provide health benefits for 9/11 workers and also includes language that would limit the liability of the contractors that worked at the site of the terrorist attack in New York City. 

Congress this week passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government until March 4 and President Obama promptly signed the bill. The CR was necessary because Congress failed to pass any of the 12 appropriation bills this year, and the government has been running on a series of short-term funding resolutions since Oct. 1.

In other lame duck action, Congress gave final approval to legislation reauthorizing the Diesel Emission Reduction Act of 2010 (DERA), which established a voluntary national and state-level grant and loan program for retrofitting diesel equipment.AGC has been working through a broad coalition effort in support of the bill. The five-year authorization provides $100 million in grant funding for diesel retrofits, which is a 50 percent reduction from the funding provided over the past five years. The bill makes two significant changes advocated by AGC that will make the grants more available to construction contractors. First the bill eliminates a requirement that 50 percent of the funds be made eligible only for public sector vehicles. The second change allows individual companies to apply directly for the grants rather than through a third party non-profit organization. Other changes in the program will streamline the application process and provide more transparency. President Obama is expected to sign the measure.For more information, contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.

AGC Wednesday submitted commentsto the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in response to the Board’s proposal to change the financial reporting of lease contracts. 

AGC has been working through a broad coalition effort in support of the reauthorization of the Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA), which provides grants for retrofitting diesel equipment.

AGC of America co-hosted a forum Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., to call for renewed federal infrastructure investment. The forum featured U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, Jr., during which LaHood said it was the administration’s goal to have a six-year transportation bill on President Obama’s desk by August 2011.