The last major primary of the 2014 election cycle went as expected on Tuesday in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Early Bird Extended Until Tomorrow – Last Chance to Save Jointly sponsored by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and the Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA), the AGC/CFMA Construction Financial Management Conference, held Nov. 5-7, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nev., was developed in response to a need for programs and workshops designed specifically for financial professionals in the construction industry.

The AGC Financial Issues Forum (FIF) Winter Meeting will be held Jan. 8-9, 2015, at the Longboat Key Club.

The congressional appropriations process for fiscal year 2015 started with a fair share of optimism that Congress could return to a more traditional process as opposed to having to rely on continuing resolutions in the absence of passing annual appropriations bills.  The optimism was as a result of the bipartisan budget deal reached last December by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Chairperson Patty Murray (D-Wash.).  That deal set discretionary spending caps for 2015 at $1.014 trillion.  Even with the spending caps in place, Congress failed to send any of their annual appropriations bills for 2015 to the president’s desk for his signature. 

The House Science Committee has obtained and released maps developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that depict water resources on both a national and state scale. The Science Committee learned that EPA had prepared these maps prior to their July 2014 hearing on the rule proposed by EPA and the U.S. Corps of Engineers (Corps) defining ‘waters of the United States’ (WOTUS). It has become clear that EPA had no plans to release the maps to Congress or the public. This is part of a disturbing trend of EPA tightening its grip on the information released to the public, press, and Congress about the Clean Water Act rulemaking.

Comment on Massive Expansion of Federal Jurisdiction in “Waters of the U.S.” Proposed Rule Next week, the House is expected to vote on H.R. 5078, the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act.  This bill would halt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) proposed rulemaking that redefines “waters of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act (CWA) by preventing the agencies from developing guidance or interpretative rules based on it. The bill also requires the agencies to engage in a federalism consultation with state and local governments to form recommendations for a consensus regulatory proposal. Tell your Representative to vote in support of this important legislation.

Alaska Alaskan Democrats and Independents just approved a gubernatorial campaign deal that will change the 2014 general election turnout dynamic, and at least indirectly affect the toss-up U.S. Senate campaign between Sen. Mark Begich (D) and former Attorney General and Natural Resources Department director Dan Sullivan (R).

House Republicans today outlined their intended priorities for the pre-election session of Congress. As detailed above, the primary goal of the session is to prevent another government shutdown and keep the government funded until after the election.

Participate in Hardhats for Highways – Your Company’s Future Depends on It This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their semi-annual Economic and Budget Outlook, in which they have updated their ten-year solvency projections for the Highway Trust Fund.

Preparing the Next Generation of Managers  What do the future leaders of the highway, transportation and utility markets look like? How to those future leaders communicate? What will their management style be? Learn what the current generation of construction industry managers are looking for in future company leaders at every level at the 2014 Highway & Utilities Contractors Conference on Nov. 13-15 in San Diego, Calif.