On March 20, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee unanimously approved a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). This bill represents a bipartisan effort to address our nation’s aging navigational system of inland waterways, coastal harbors and ports, locks and dams, and flood control protections and a commitment to restore critical environmental areas.

On Thursday, the House completed action on Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) version of a FY 2014 budget resolution mostly by a party-line vote of 221 to 207. While the budget resolution is nonbinding, it nevertheless establishes the overall framework for funding government programs for next year. The Ryan budget provides an ambitious plan to balance the federal budget and have a $7 billion surplus in 10 years.  To get there, the budget forecasts cuts of $5.7 trillion – compared to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline –calls for the repeal of ObamaCare, and calls for lowering the  top tax rate to 25 percent.   

A bi-partisan group of Senators – Schumer (D-N.Y.), McCain (R-Ariz.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Graham (R-S.C.), Menendez (D-N.J.), Rubio (R-Fla.), Bennet (D-Colo.), and Flake (R-Ariz.) – are working on an important piece of immigration reform – the future temporary worker visa program. These Senators are currently considering restricting the construction industry from any future temporary worker visa program. That would make construction the only industry not eligible to legally bring in temporary workers if they are needed.  Very few details have been agreed upon, but this is the first contentious issue being fought over.

Sequester Remains But Agencies Gain Some Flexibility & Includes Increased Transportation Funding Following a strong personal push by AGC lobbyists and a grassroots effort by AGC members, the Senate included increased funding levels for federal highway and transit programs for the remainder of fiscal year 2013.  The bill, H.R. 933, the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, survived a cloture vote of 63-36 (less than 60 yes votes would have killed the bill) and ultimately passed the Senate by a vote of 73-26.  The funding measure then easily passed by the House of Representatives today by a vote of 318-109.   It now goes to the president for his signature. 

This week, the Obama administration stated it would petition the Supreme Court to review the recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision, Noel Canning v. NLRB, a key case (of several separate cases) challenging the validity of three “recess appointments” President Obama made to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012.   The D.C. court ruled that the appointments were “constitutionally invalid” because the Senate was actually not in recess when the appointments were made.  Accordingly, the five-member Board lacked a quorum when it decided the underlying legal issues affecting employer Noel Canning.   

The groups are led by one Republican Member serving as chair and one Democratic Member serving as vice chair. Each of the 11 groups will review current law in its designated issue area and then identify, research and compile feedback related to the topic of the working group. Each working group will be responsible for compiling feedback on its designated topic from: (1) stakeholders, (2) academics and think tanks, (3) practitioners, (4) the general public and (5) colleagues in the House of Representatives. Once the work of those groups has been completed, the Joint Committee on Taxation will prepare a report for the full Committee that describes current law in each issue area and summarizes the other information gathered by the Committee Members.

This week, House Republicans and Senate Democrats began the process of moving their respective fiscal year (FY) 2014 budgets.  In the House, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan passed his budget out of committee late Wednesday night on a party-line 22 to 17 vote. All committee Republicans voted for the FY 2014 plan, which now heads to the full House for floor consideration next week.

Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee held a hearing on the implementation of the transportation reauthorization bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21).  At the hearing, Chairman Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and members of the subcommittee heard from Department of Transportation (DOT) modal administrators as to the progress being made in implementing programmatic reform and meeting deadlines mandated in MAP-21.  The subcommittee heard from Victor Mendez of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Anne Ferro of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and David Strickland of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Today, the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing on "Examining the Role of Lower-Skilled Guest Worker Programs in Today's Economy". The hearing is the latest in a series by the House to review different components of immigration reform. Today’s hearing highlighted the current visa programs and the necessary components for a new, more successful program in future legislation. Due to the unique nature of the construction industry, AGC has been working with other construction groups to ensure the discussion regarding a future lower-skilled visa program would work for the industry.

This week, Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) unveiled their FY 2013 appropriations bill, H.R. 933 – the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013.  The bill includes five individual appropriations bills for spending in the following agencies: Defense, Military Construction/Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Commerce/Justice/State. The bill is currently being debated on the Senate floor.   Both the House and Senate versions of H.R. 933 leave the $85 billion March 1 budget sequester in place, but by changing the account-level priorities within each agency in those two (House) or five (Senate) bills, they can lessen some of the more disruptive effects of the sequester.