On December 23 President Bush signed into law H.R. 7327, the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, a bill to provide immediate, short-term relief for single- and multi-employer pension plans whose assets have lost value as a result of the recent market contraction. The bill provides an optional one-year freeze on changes in zone status (i.e., “green,” “yellow,” “red”) and the addition of three years to the funding improvement and rehabilitation periods for plans in the “yellow” or “red” zone in 2008 and 2009.  Further, the bill addresses many technical corrections to the 2006 Pension Protection Act sought by multi-employer plan stakeholders. AGC worked with a broad coalition of single- and multi-pension plan stakeholders to enact emergency relief prior to the end of the year.  AGC will continue to work with its partners to enact further relief in 2009 if economic conditions warrant.

This week, the House of Representatives is planning on bringing two pieces of legislation to the House floor that would change how pay disparity in the workplace is handled as well as allow for a new influx of frivolous lawsuits against employers.  The first bill, the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, would restart the filing period for a discriminatory act each time a paycheck is issued and would expand the class of people able to bring claims against employers. The second bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, would provide for unlimited punitive and compensatory damages while limiting employer defenses, as well as make it easier for class action lawsuits to be filed.  As was the case last year, both bills are expected to easily pass the House. The Senate held hearings on these issues in the 110th Congress but did not hold any votes.  AGC will track these bills as the debate moves to the Senate. Normally, the first week of a new Congress is dedicated to procedural actions such as determining the makeup of committee membership.  The choice to bring two labor bills immediately to the floor as well as bypassing any Committee action on the legislation is a strong indication of the approach the House of Representatives is going to take on labor issues the next two years.

While the Presidential election became official after House and Senate ratification of the Electoral College votes on Thursday, the Senate is still far from final.  Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) confirmed Tuesday that he will challenge the result of the Minnesota Senate recount against Democrat Al Franken, who is 225 votes ahead of the incumbent. Franken's campaign team, as well as Democratic leaders, have called for Coleman to step aside, though they did not attempt to provisionally seat Franken during Tuesday’s swearing in ceremony.Additionally, Roland Burris (D-Ill.) was not seated on Tuesday after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Reid. Burris was appointed last week by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.), however Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has refused to sign the certificate of Burris' appointment. Though some Democratic Senators have spoken out against his seating, the leadership seems more ready to seat Burris as Illinois' next senator if he overcomes legal hurdles in his home state as expected.Several open seats have already been identified thanks to appointments as well as early announcements.  Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will vacate his seat in 2010 and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), a longtime advocate for infrastructure and the construction industry, announced he would not seek reelection in 2010.  In New York, the Governor has sent financial disclosure worksheets to 10 possible candidates to replace Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).  Additional openings exist in Colorado and Delaware.  Given the legal battles and the open seats, the full 111th Senate may not be determined for several weeks.

AGC launched a new national effort to ensure that Congress and the President-elect understand the vital need for investing in all components of infrastructure as part of the pending stimulus package. The centerpiece of this effort is, frankly, you. As you will see from the advertisement below, AGC is encouraging people to sign up to indicate their support for badly needed new investments in water and wastewater infrastructure, transportation and schools and public buildings. AGC will share this list with members of Congress when they return to work on January 6th, and also will provide it to the President-elect’s transition team.

AGC is continuing its efforts to inform Congress and the Obama transition team about the significant downturn in the non-residential construction market, the resulting unemployment and the industry’s  capacity to carry out the projects that would result from a boost in federal infrastructure funding. AGC also sent a letter to Members of Congress with specific details about the state of the economy and how infrastructure investment will provide an immediate and lasting impact on our economy. AGC has highlighted the needed investment for public buildings, roads, bridges, transit, schools, flood protection, ports and harbors, and waste water and drinking water infrastructure projects.President-elect Obama on December 6 called for a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient, called for the largest investment in roads and bridges since President Dwight D. Eisenhower built the Interstate system in the late 1950s. He added that he will launch a sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings. He also called for investment in expanding broadband capacity to connect libraries, schools and hospitals to the internet.AGC has been successful in coordinating information from various groups about projects that are ready to go.  These projects will spur economic development and help cultivate support among key Congressional decision-makers. Several public groups have released survey results over the past week indicating that there are many infrastructure projects that are ready to go out for construction immediately if necessary funding were provided. The American Association of State and Highway Officials (AASHTO) said last Friday that its survey of state transportation departments shows states could put more than 5,000 transportation projects worth $64 billion under contract within 180 days of receiving funding. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reported earlier this year there are 559 transit projects totaling $8 billion ready to begin if funding is made available. In addition, the National Governors Association said states have identified $136 billion worth of road, bridge, water and other projects and the U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report saying it has identified 11,391 infrastructure projects in 427 cities, including school modernization, airports and energy conservation, requiring a $73 billion investment.House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) has met with Speaker Pelosi to indicate his intention to push for $45 billion of infrastructure funding in the stimulus package as follows: $18.2 billion for highways and bridges; $6.5 billion for transit; $9 billion for environmental infrastructure such as water projects; $5 billion for Corps of Engineers; $2.5 billion for federal building efficiency; $2 billion for rail; $1 billion for aviation; $420 million for Coast Guard; and $275 million for brownfield cleanup.  AGC is working with Committee leaders to increase this funding and identified funding for GSA's building program.

On December 11, 2008, AGC launched a new national effort to ensure that Congress and the President-elect understand the vital need for investing in infrastructure as part of the pending stimulus package. The centerpiece of this effort is, frankly, you. As you will see from the advertisement below, AGC is encouraging people to sign up and indicate their support for badly needed new infrastructure investments. AGC will share this list with members of Congress when they return to work on January 6th, and also will provide it to the President-elect’s transition team.AGC's "We Are Ready" Ad

Former national treasurer of AGC of America, and Common Ground Alliance (CGA) board member Vic Weston (Tri-State Road Boring Inc., Baton Rouge, La.) and Bob Kipp, director of CGA, gave a presentation today at the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) Joint Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee meeting to discuss the agency’s regulatory agenda for 2009.In their presentation on federal civil enforcement authority for damage prevention, Kipp and Weston stressed the contributions of AGC and other CGA stakeholders to promote damage prevention efforts. Weston stressed that states with negligent or poor underground infrastructure damage prevention laws should be held responsible by the federal government to ensure the safety of the public, including construction and utility workers. Weston also highlighted AGC member contributions to damage prevention efforts and noted that if an economic stimulus package is achieved with significant infrastructure investment, there would be an increased need for damage prevention efforts in excavation and construction. Given this potential increase, he stressed that the need was greater than ever for contractors to use and promote the '811 - Call Before You Dig’ campaign to locate utilities before excavating and to prevent damages to underground utilities.Weston emphasized the contributions and importance of construction as an engine of economic stimulus, and vowed that PHMSA, AGC and CGA would continue their work to raise awareness of the 811 program to reduce damages to underground infrastructure.

AGC’s Legislative Action Committee convened December 10 to evaluate the association’s legislative and regulatory priorities for the 111th Congress (2009-2010). The committee made recommendations based on priorities that impact the industry, are achievable, and will be considered in the next Congress. The committee also used information provided by a survey of thousands of contractors earlier this fall.A majority of the discussion focused on the need for Congress to increase the Federal government’s investment in infrastructure to create and sustain jobs. While infrastructure investment will be a major priority, committee members also stressed the need for AGC to advocate for tax, regulatory and legislative policies that promote economic opportunity and not restrict business growth and development.The next step is approval by AGC’s Executive Board at which time AGC will deliver the priorities to Congress and the new Obama Administration.

The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday passed by unanimous consent H.R. 7327 and the Senate followed today, the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, to provide immediate, short-term relief for single- and multi-employer pension plans whose assets have lost value as a result of the recent market contraction.  The President is expect to sign the bill which would provide an optional one-year freeze on changes in zone status (i.e., “green,” “yellow,” “red”) and the addition of three years to the funding improvement and rehabilitation periods for plans in the “yellow” or “red” zone in 2008 and 2009.  Further, the bill addresses many technical corrections to the 2006 Pension Protection Act sought by multi-employer plan stakeholders.  Supporters of the bill in the Senate are working to clear the bill for Senate consideration today. AGC has been working with a broad coalition of single- and multi-pension plan stakeholders to enact emergency relief prior to the end of the year and its members and chapters have sent hundreds of letter to elected officials through AGC’s Legislative Action Center.

On December 9-10, ten members of AGC’s Environmental Network Steering Committee and national AGC environmental staff met with officials and staff from several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program offices.  Those offices include Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Policy, Economics and Innovation, Water, Air and Radiation, and the EPA Green Building Workgroup.The group discussed ways to quantify the amount of construction and demolition (C&D) debris that is generated and to encourage the reduction, reuse and recycling of such materials.  They also discussed progress in completing a joint AGC-EPA draft white paper and online toolkit on recycling and reuse of C&D materials. Other topics of discussion included AGC and EPA’s joint partnership work under the “Sector Strategies” Program to reduce the construction industry’s environmental burden and the new 2008 Sector Performance Report and EPA’s newly proposed Effluent Limitation Guidelines for the construction and development industries. AGC and EPA representatives also discussed EPA clean air rules and initiatives that impact construction, including an update on off-road retrofit technologies, federal funding for diesel engine retrofit, requirements being placed on contractors to retrofit/replace their existing in-use equipment and the status of California’s off-road retrofit/replacement rule and the implications for other states.EPA’s newly released Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was discussed.  EPA received over 200,000 comments in response to the ANPR, and  AGC, its Chapters and more than 300 members submitted comments stating that the Clean Air Act is not the right tool to regulate GHG.