The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee voted yesterday to approve the nomination of Paul Trombino, President Trump’s pick to serve as the next Federal Highway Administrator. The full Senate must now approve the nomination. A vote is not yet scheduled but could happen at any time. Mr. Trombino served as the Director of the Iowa Department of Transportation for six years beginning in April 2011, building on 17 years of service with the Wisconsin DOT. He served as the 2015 AASHTO President and was active on the AASHTO-AGC-ARTBA Joint Committee.
During his service in Iowa, Mr. Trombino played a key role in pushing the Iowa Legislature to approve a 10-cent-per-gallon increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes to generate about $200 million annually in additional money for state and local road and bridge construction projects. AGC supported the nomination in a letter to the EPW committee, calling for approval of Mr. Trombino’s nomination based on his demonstrated leadership at the state and national levels. AGC of America and AGC of Iowa have worked closely with Mr. Trombino in the past.
For more information, please contact Brian Deery at [email protected] or (703) 837-5319.

This week, the House Judiciary Committee advanced immigration legislation that included a guest worker bill for agricultural workers and mandatory E-Verify for all employers with regard to new hires. The E-Verify bill, the Legal Workforce Act (LWA), has long been tied to immigration reform efforts, and the Republican controlled Congress considers its passage to be a prerequisite for the enactment of additional reforms.
AGC supports the LWA and delivered a letter to the committee prior to its consideration, because the bill creates a reliable method of verifying work authorization for new hires, generates protections from employment discrimination, and features federal preemption from the patchwork of conflicting and confusing state and local laws.
The legislation will likely be considered by the House later this year and will be joined to additional immigration reforms. While the legislation has passed the committee several times, it has never been considered by the full Congress; its outcome remains uncertain.
For more information, please contact Jim Young at [email protected] or (202) 547-0133.

This afternoon, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 71) by a vote of 216-212.  Importantly, the budget resolution sets forth the process for expedited consideration of tax reform legislation in the Senate, requiring only 50 votes for passage.  Following the vote, Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady announced that the committee will release its tax reform legislation on Wednesday, November 1 and will formally begin a markup of the legislation the following week on November 6.
The budget resolution allows tax reform legislation to increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.  Over the next week, Republicans will continue to negotiate on some of the more controversial offsets laid out in the initial tax reform framework, such as reducing the state and local Tax deduction.  Notably, many of the Republicans who voted against the budget resolution hail from New York and New Jersey, where the impact of repealing this deduction could be pronounced.
AGC supported passage of the budget resolution as a means to consider tax reform legislation, and signed a letter calling on Congress to do so.  AGC continues to push for the priorities of the construction industry in the package, such as lowering tax rates for both corporations and pass-through businesses, simplifying tax preparation, and promoting infrastructure investment.  We will evaluate the proposal after it is introduced next week to see if it reflects AGC priorities.
For more information, please contact Matt Turkstra at [email protected] or (202) 547-4733.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt signed an agency-wide directive (and accompanying memo) on Oct. 16 that imposes steps to end the practice known as “sue and settle” – which is a quick resolution of citizen suits by environmental groups against the EPA, involving the agency’s failure to comply with statutory deadlines for issuance of regulations. Such agreements are oftentimes reached with little to no public input or transparency, EPA said, calling such a practice “regulation through litigation.”  AGC has long expressed concern that special interest groups are using these lawsuits to force the EPA to issue regulations that advance their interests and priorities.  The chief executive officer of AGC praised EPA for “putting an end to back room agreements ... [and] making sure that all affected parties have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion about measures needed to protect our environment.”
The Oct. 16 directive also sets a deadline of 15 days for EPA to publish public notice of legal complaints against EPA.  In addition, the directive calls for improved outreach to those affected by consent decrees or settlements and aims to block attorney fees and litigation costs from being included in any deals.
For more information, please contact AGC’s Leah Pilconis at [email protected] or (703) 837-5332.

November 9, 2017 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm EST
Register today. Federal agencies now mandate minimum cybersecurity requirements for companies that do business with the federal government. Federal agencies now require federal contractors to implement new security control requirements and ensure sensitive federal information remains confidential when stored in any nonfederal electronic system. It began in 2016 with FAR 52.204-21 (Basic Safeguarding of Covered Contractor Information Systems). It continues with DFARS 252.204-7012 (Safeguarding Covered Defense Information & Cyber Incident Reporting), which becomes mandatory for all Department of Defense contracts beginning December 31, 2017.
This presentation will give an overview of the new cybersecurity requirements for contractors who contract with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, highlight the FAR and DFARS provisions that give this new rule teeth, and explore the potential impacts of compliance failure for federal contractors. Click here to register.
For more information, contact Jordan Howard at [email protected] or (703) 837-5368.

AGC Procurement Priorities Close to Finish Line, Blacklisting on the Radar
 The House of Representatives and Senate have announced conferees for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (NDAA). The House and Senate conferees must now agree to a final version of the defense bill. The NDAA contains a host of AGC-backed federal construction procurement provisions important to construction contractors. Among the procurement items for AGC and its members in the legislation are:

• Repeal temporary suspension of public-private competitions for conversion of Department of Defense functions to performance by contractors;


• Enhanced post-award debriefing rights to require that all post-award debriefings must provide detailed and comprehensive statements of the agency’s rating for each evaluation criteria and of the agency’s overall award decision;


• Limit contracting officers’ ability to unilaterally definitize action with a value greater than $1,000,000,000, if an agreement is not reached between the contracting officer and federal contractor


• A provision allowing construction contractors to protest non-Department of Defense (DOD) agency task order contracts above $25 million before the General Accountability Office.

Of note, the Senate version of the bill contains a section, sponsored by Sen. Warren (Mass.), that would essentially resurrect the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces (Blacklisting) Executive Order.  AGC has met with Senate offices and have worked with the Blacklisting Coalition to ensure this provision does not make it into the final bill.
AGC has long advocated for Congress to repeal the Blacklisting Executive Order through the Congressional Review Act (CRA).  Under the CRA, Congress can repeal the executive order’s implementing rules in their entirety and make it very difficult for a future president to undertake a similar regulatory initiative.  Congress listened and back in March Congress passed – and President Trump signed into law – a repeal of the Blacklisting Executive Order.
AGC will continue to monitor the NDAA as it heads to the president’s desk to be signed into law, and will advocate for further reforms in the new Congress.
For more information, contact Jordan Howard at [email protected] or (703) 837-5368.

This week AGC submitted recommendations to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), highlighting the regulatory burden on the construction industry and offered specific program modifications and solutions relating to performing work with USACE. Among AGC recommendations are:

• Merging NEPA/ CWA Section 404 permitting;


• Reforms to Ease “Chokepoints” in 404 Program;


• Reforming the Nationwide General Permits: acreage limits and pre-construction notification thresholds;


• Clarifying and expanding the exemption for work in roadside ditches;


• Improving USACE partnering with the Construction Industry; and


• Reforming Safety Officer Accreditations.

AGC will continue to advocate for practical and real reforms with the federal agencies and congress.  To access AGC’s recommendations referenced above, click here.
For more information, contact Jordan Howard at [email protected] or (703) 837-5368.
 

Earlier this week, the Senate voted to proceed on consideration of the budget resolution. The budget resolution sets forth the spending levels for Congress for the upcoming fiscal year, but also contains a mechanism to fast-track legislation in the Senate called “reconciliation.”  Reconciliation measures are also not subject to the filibuster in the Senate, meaning legislation can pass with a simple majority of 50 votes, rather than 60 votes.  The budget is expected to pass the Senate on a party line vote later this week.  After that, because the House and Senate budget resolutions are different, the two houses will have to resolve their differences in a conference committee, and the House and Senate will then have to pass the compromise budget.
Congressional Republicans plan to reserve the reconciliation process in the year’s budget resolution for tax reform.  It is expected that after the budget passes, the tax writing committees in the House and Senate will begin formally drafting tax reform legislation that follows the framework outlined by House Republican leaders in September.
AGC supports using the budget resolution to begin the process for tax reform, and signed a letter calling on Congress to pass the budget resolution.
For more information, contact Matt Turkstra at [email protected] or (202) 547-4733.

Yesterday Jim Roberts, president & chief executive officer of Granite Construction, testified on behalf of the AGC co-chaired Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) at a hearing, “Building a 21st Century Infrastructure for America: Highways and Transit Stakeholders’ Perspectives,” in front of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. The hearing was an opportunity for the TCC to share the transportation construction industries priorities as Congress and the administration work toward an infrastructure proposal. The TCC testimony stressed the need to include a permanent fix for the Highway Trust Fund as part of any federal infrastructure effort, allocate any new funding for federal highway and transit programs among existing programs, continue providing tools that encourage the use of public-private partnerships.  Mr. Roberts and the TCC also encouraged the committee to fix the Highway Trust Fund as part of comprehensive tax reform.
Additionally, the TCC offered three specific recommendations to improve the environmental review process:

• Require a merger of the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act 404 permitting processes


• Allow the monitoring, mitigation and other environmental planning work performed during the NEPA process, and included the final Environmental Impact Statement / Record of Decision, to satisfy federal environmental permitting requirements, unless there is a material change in the project


• Develop a reasonable and measured approach to citizen suit reform to prevent misuse of environmental laws

AGC and our partners in the Transportation Construction Coalition will continue to push for an infrastructure proposal that among other things provides a long term solution to the Highway Trust Fund and expedites the delivery of infrastructure projects.
For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at [email protected] or (202) 547-8892.

AGC submitted comments to the Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) in support of a request by the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) to exempt asphalt transport and placement operations from two provisions in the truck driver hours of service (HOS) regulations. One exemption would remove the requirement that asphalt drivers take a 30 minute break during an eight hour driving period. The second exemption would expand to 14 (from 12) the number of hours an asphalt driver, that stays within a 100 mile radius of where they report for work, can drive and still be considered a short haul driver (and thereby subject to less strict rules). AGC, however, recommended that these exemptions apply broadly to asphalt industry drivers and not be limited to NAPA members only. While NAPA’s request asks for the broad exemption, FMCSA proposed to limit the exemptions to NAPA members. AGC also suggested that the rule cover a variety of trucks used in asphalt placement not just hauling trucks.
For more information, contact Brian Deery at [email protected] or (703) 837-5319.