Assumes a HTF Fix in Fiscal Year 2015 This week, by a vote of 28-21, the House Appropriations Committee passed the FY 2015 Transportation and Housing & Urban Development (THUD) spending bill. The bill, which is the fourth of 12 spending bills to be approved by the committee, would provide $52 billion in funding for highways, transit aviation, rail and housing programs. No date has been set for consideration of the bill by the full House.

Moves to President’s Desk for Signature This week, both the House – by a vote of 412-4 – and the Senate – by a vote of 91-7 – approved the final Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA).

The biggest night of the primary election season to date unfolded on Tuesday. Talk of possible upsets had been swirling around for weeks, but incumbents and front-runners in open seat races were the clear winners.

Action Moves to Senate This week, the House approved several AGC-supported procurement reform measures included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2015, H.R. 4435. The measures would help:

On May 21, AGC signed onto a letter along with a diverse group of 238 businesses, associations, and community groups, urging Congress to reauthorize and improve the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins Act). Reauthorizing and improving the Perkins Act will more effectively spend federal dollars, and ensure our nation’s students acquire the skills today’s employers are demanding.

This week, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers announced they have reached a deal on advancing legislation that would reform the workforce development system. The bill, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIO),represents a compromise between the SKILLS Act (H.R. 803), which passed the House in March 2013 on largely Republican support, and the Workforce Investment Act of 2013 (S. 1356), which passed through the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee with bipartisan support.

This morning, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) unanimously approved S. 2322, the MAP-21 Reauthorization Act.  The AGC-supported bipartisan bill is the first step towards reauthorizing current transportation funding legislation and identifying the revenue needed to provide for a robust long-term transportation bill.

Your Legislators Need to Hear from You! With a transportation bill beginning to move through the Senate, it is critical that you contact your legislators to educate them on the importance of supporting a highway bill and the affect it will have on your company and job if they don’t.

House and Senate Votes Soon On May 15, the House Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committees released a final Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA). The House is likely to vote on the final WRRDA bill next week, while the Senate will reportedly take it up shortly after the House. The bill incorporates a number of AGC priorities that the association has consistently advocated for throughout this process, including:

AGC and its coalition partners in the Water Infrastructure Network have been engaged in an 18-month campaign to include significant clean water provisions in the final conference package of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. Those efforts successfully secured several provisions that improve the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF).