As predicted, Massachusetts State Sen. Katherine Clark (D) easily won the special election on Tuesday for the right to succeed Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA-5) in his vacated House seat. The senator held the congressional seat for 36+ years prior to his winning the Senate seat earlier this year.  

AGC sent two letters opposing the possible use of a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate: (1) one posted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District for Fort Hood VOLAR Barracks and Central Energy Plant Renovation project at Fort Hood, Texas; and (2) one posted by the Naval Engineering Facilities Command Washington for the construction of mechanical and electrical improvements for naval support activity in Bethesda, Maryland.

In mid November, Rep. Earl Blumenauer introduced a bipartisan, AGC-supported piece of legislation that would create a water infrastructure trust fund designed to supplement the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) with additional capitalization. Please take action now and urge your Representatives to cosponsor and support H.R. 3582, The Water Trust Fund Act of 2013.

AGC Continues to Advocate for the Construction Industry’s Priorities On Nov. 20, select members of the House and Senate—called conferees—gathered to begin work on resolving the discrepancies between the two chambers respective Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bills in a conference committee. AGC has been active throughout the WRDA legislative process and advocated for the construction industry’s WRDA priorities in a letter to all conferees, detailing which provisions and policies in both bills should be included in a final WRDA bill.

TAKE ACTION: Urge Your Senators to Support Counting Lower-Tier Small Businesses Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) recently introduced an AGC-supported small business reform amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2014, S. 1197.  The Senate could vote on the amendment as early as next week, so please take action now and urge your U.S. Senators to support the Coons/Wicker Amendment #2286 to S. 1197.

On Dec. 3, AGC Naval Engineering Facility Command Committee Chair Randall Gibson—president of a federal small business, Whitesell-Green, Inc., in Pensacola, Fla.—testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the federal government’s use of design-build contracting. In his testimony for the association, Mr. Gibson addressed the need for federal agencies to: (1) reasonably limit one-step design-build procurements; and (2) reasonably limit the second step of the two-step design-build process to three to five finalists.

On Wednesday, AGC and other transportation stakeholders joined in support of Oregon Democrat Congressman Earl Blumenauer as he introduced his bill H.R. 3636, the Update, Promote, and Develop America’s Transportation Essentials Act (UPDATE Act) at a press conference at the Capitol.  The bill would phase-in a 15 cent gas tax increase starting in 2014, indexes the gas tax to inflation, and then confirms Congress’s intention to replace the gas tax with a more equitable, stable source of funding by 2024.

AGC recently sent a letter opposing the possible use of a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate posted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District for large scale construction projects (greater than $25 million) within the Baltimore-Washington corridor.

On Dec. 4, the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing on the new affirmative action regulations for veterans and individuals with disabilities.  The new regulations were recently promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The hearing included testimony from OFCCP’s director, Pat Shiu, and directly focused on the new rules which go into effect on March 24, 2014.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) released its semi-annual regulatory agenda last week, which gives a status report on a number of pending rules and regulations the agency is working on. During fiscal year 2014, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will continue to focus on creating national performance measures and standards to meet the national transportation goals identified in MAP-21.  Specifically, FHWA will initiate rulemaking on national goals and performance measures for safety; bridges and pavement; congestion reduction, CMAQ; freight; and interstates and the national highway system.