Includes 13 Percent Increase in Federal Construction Accounts On Feb. 9, President Obama released his $4.1 trillion budget for fiscal year 2017, which proposes $1.215 trillion in discretionary defense and non-defense spending in FY 2017 and $2.565 trillion in mandatory spending. The budget, which stays within the discretionary spending limits set last November in the Bipartisan Budget Act, has been declared dead on arrival by Republican Congressional leaders. For the first time in 41 years, the House and Senate budget committees will not hold hearings with the president’s budget director.

The New Hampshire polling proved correct. Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders were the easy victors in their respective Republican and Democratic primaries last night, but what does that tell us?

Addresses Change Orders, Industry Standards and Standard Designs The House of Representatives this week unanimously passed AGC-supported legislation that would help improve the VA construction program’s interactions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and accountability to taxpayers and Congress. Introduced by the House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the Construction Reform Act of 2016 (H.R. 3106) would:

Bill Addresses One-Step Design-Build and Reverse Auctions The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs this week unanimously passed AGC-supported legislation that would (1) require civilian federal agencies—non-Department of Defense agencies—to utilize the two-step design-build selection process for design-build projects greater than $750,000, thereby limiting one-step design-build procurements; and (2) prohibit reverse auctions for construction services. The bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), the Consensus Procurement Improvement Act of 2015, S. 1526, may now move to the Senate floor for consideration and passage. An AGC co-chaired coalition of 15 national construction organizations sent a letter in support of this measure and has long worked to advance it through the legislative process. AGC is working with members of the House to introduce the same bill there.

AGC Pushes for Redevelopment of Excess Federal Real Property Members of the House and Senate have recently introduced and advanced legislation that could encourage federal agencies to dispose of, consolidate, or redevelop billions of dollars of excess or underutilized civilian federal real property. This could translate into significant private and federal construction work throughout the nation. As such, advancing these bills are a significant legislative priority for AGC.

The AGC Financial Issues Committee Summer Meeting is scheduled for June 13-14, 2016 in Washington, DC. Meeting and hotel information is available on the meeting’s site and Early-Bird registration opened this afternoon. CEOs, Owners, CFOs, Tax Directors and other accounting professionals will have an opportunity to hear from influential Members of Congress, FASB representatives, peers on CFO topics and senior CPA consultants regarding current and future tax and accounting issues as well as, AGCs Chief Economist about the outlook for Q4 & 2017 as well government affairs staff readout of the political party candidates and conventions.

The Iowa Caucuses ended in a bit of a surprise. Despite the last ten public Republican contest polls all finding Donald Trump leading the Iowa vote anywhere from one to eight points, it was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who claimed first place Monday night with 28 percent preference. Mr. Trump finished a close second with 24 percent, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) stronger-than-expected 23 percent.

Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday morning following a disappointing finish in the Iowa Caucuses. Paul placed fifth garnering just 4.5% of the vote behind US Sen. Ted Cruz (27.7%), Donald Trump (24.3%), US Sen. Marco Rubio (23.1%), and Dr. Ben Carson (9.3%). Despite a continued effort to not only preserve, but to expand his father’s coalition, Paul received less caucus votes than former US Rep. Ron Paul did in 2008 (10%) and 2012 (21%).

Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), John Duncan (R-Tenn.), and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) introduced the Water Investment Trust Fund Act. This legislation will provide a small, deficit-neutral, protected source of revenue to help states replace, repair, and rehabilitate critical clean and drinking water facilities by creating a voluntary system that would allow businesses that rely on a clean water source to contribute to the fund.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a proposal that would revise the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). The new report would require all employers with 100 or more employees to submit compensation data and hours worked in addition to the racial, ethnic and gender status data currently required by the federal government. The new form would also apply to federal contractors with more than 100 employees, and, if implemented, will replace the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s (OFCCP) proposed Equal Pay Report for federal contractors.