Following Pope Francis’ visit to Washington, D.C., Speaker John Boehner sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill by announcing his retirement from the speakership and Congress. First elected in 1991 to represent the 8th congressional district in Ohio, Mr. Boehner rose through the leadership ranks to serve as House Republican Conference chairman, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, House majority leader, and House minority leader before assuming the top House job. When he retires at the end of this month, he will be the 12th longest-serving speaker.

Contact your Reps – Visit Hardhats for Highways Another week has passed without any progress for the House’s plan for passing a long-term highway & transit bill prior to the expiration of the current extension on Oct. 29. Although there have been reports of negotiations between House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on how to fund a long-term transportation bill, they have not yet reached a compromise. The Senate has already passed a six-year bill with three years of funding.

In addition to passing the continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating, Congress also passed a six-month extension of the Federal Aviation Administration spending authorization and the Airport and Airway Trust Fund taxation authority. The extension provides $1.675 billion in contract authority for the Airport Improvement Program for the first half of fiscal year 2016. This is $65 million higher than half of the FY 2015 enacted level of $3.220 billion. Originally, program funding in FY 2015 was set at $3.350 billion, but that level was cut by a $130 million rescission in the FY 2015 appropriations act. The six-month extension for FY 2016 restores half of that rescission and hopefully that funding level will be continued through the remainder of the year.

On Oct. 1, the House approved the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, which includes several AGC-supported procurement reforms. These reforms would:

EPA released its new stricter National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone pollution, dropping the permissible levels from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 70 ppb. The new rule is drawing criticism from industry. As AGC’s comments on the proposed version of the rule point out, the 75 ppb standard was only recently set, back in 2008, and the implementing guidance was not finalized until February 2015. Under the new 70 ppb standard, 241 counties will be in violation, using 2012-2014 monitoring data. However, EPA notes that they will likely use 2014-2016 data when they designate areas of nonattainment.

October 10 Hotel Deadline Approaches Lean construction practices have had a major impact on productivity in the vertical sector of the construction industry. Highway, bridge and other horizontal construction activities can benefit by using these principles. The Highway Contractors Conference, held Nov. 5-7 in Phoenix, Arizona, will now feature a presentation on how to make your company more profitable by applying lean construction principles to your company’s operations and specific job applications. Jeff Esgar and Andrew Apostolk, both of Sundt Construction Co, will explain what is lean and how it can work for you. Esgar and Apostolk have experience with using lean construction on vertical and horizontal projects and are active in AGC of America’s Lean Construction training.

On September 4, AGC submitted comments to the U. S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) regarding proposed changes to the overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). If implemented, the proposed rule would increase the salary threshold for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $970 per week ($50,440 per year) – an increase of more than 100%. The threshold for highly compensated employees would also increase from $100,000 per year to $122,148 per year. Both thresholds would be adjusted annually based on one of two proposed methods.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on August 6 issued an updated Form 1095-C and instructions following a June 9 letter from AGC of America and the Food Marketing Institute urging the agency to make the revisions. Form 1095-C is one of the forms used by employers to report information regarding the cost and level of health coverage offered to employees under the employer mandate provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The form allows the IRS to verify whether an employer is subject to penalties under the employer mandate provisions of the ACA. A draft version of the updated form and instructions are available on the IRS website.

AGC has opened early-bird registration for the Winter 2016 AGC Financial Issues Committee Meeting, which will be held Jan. 13-14, 2016 at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, AZ. Meeting agenda and activities will be available on the meeting website in the coming weeks.

Recently, AGC sent a letter opposing the possible use of a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate posted by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington (NAVFAC). The letter addresses the possible use of mandatory PLA involving the construction of temporary medical facilities at NSA Bethesda, Bethesda, Maryland.