February 3,
2000 Volume 5, Issue 5
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Court Rejects Sierra Club Attempt to Stop
Highway Funding
On January 28, 2000 the US District Court
for the District of Columbia ruled that the Sierra Club
cannot use the Clean Air Act to cut off all federal
funding for highway construction in the state of
Missouri (Sierra Club v. Browner, No. 98-2733). The
Court ruled that the Sierra Club had provided inadequate
notice to the federal government. In November 1998, the
Sierra Cub filed a lawsuit claiming EPA Administrator
Carol Browner did not have the authority to allow
Missouri to go forward with significant road projects
since St. Louis was not in attainment with the ozone
standard. The Sierra Club asked the court to instruct
the federal government to withhold Missouri's federal
highway funding until the city reaches conformity -
compliance with the ozone standard. The AGC of Missouri,
the Heavy Constructors Association of the Greater Kansas
City Area, and AGC of St. Louis sought to intervene in
the case with additional support of the Kansas City
Chapter. AGC of America also provided support for this
important litigation. Only two of the original issues of
the lawsuit remain. The court will consider moving the
St. Louis Air Quality Control Region from "moderate"
nonattainment of ozone to "serious." The court will also
consider whether or not the area has met the
requirements of the Clean Air Act's conformity
regulations. Should the court change St. Louis' air
quality designation, the region would be required to
present a new plan to meet air quality
standards.
Business Community Expresses
Widespread Support for Death Tax Elimination at Tax
"Listening Session": House leaders respond that
repeal of the death tax remains a top priority. As
Republicans begin their annual retreat this weekend,
Rep. Jennifer Dunn, chief sponsor of a death tax repeal
bill with 231 cosponsors, has presented House Speaker
Dennis Hastert with a letter signed by 60 Members asking
that death tax be at the top of the GOP's legislative
agenda. Legislative strategy for tax cuts, however, has
yet to gel. One strategy of passing individual tax bills
on specific topics (death tax, marriage tax, etc..) hit
a roadblock this week when Senate Democrats announced
their opposition to all stand-alone tax bills. Another
blow for tax cuts came from the defeat of George Bush in
the New Hampshire primary. Bush has called for a tax cut
that would be more than twice as much as the tax cut
advocated by McCain. Yet, McCain won -- by a landslide
-- the support of New Hampshire's traditionally anti-tax
Republicans.
Overfiling Ruling Confirmed by
Appeals Court: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
refused to rehear Harmon Industries v. Browner. This
case rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) practice of overfiling. Overfiling is an EPA
practice of penalizing a company that has already
settled with the state environmental agency with higher
fines or other legal charges. The court found that EPA
actions were essentially an attempt at double jeopardy,
a concept not allowed in the American law. EPA's only
remaining recourse is an appeal to the Supreme
Court.
Clinton Budget Expected to
Redirect Additional Gas Tax Revenue: Next Monday,
February 7, President Clinton will send his FY 2001
budget proposal to Congress. It is expected that Clinton
will propose redirecting a significant portion of the
approximately $3 billion in additional gas tax revenues
to non-highway programs, such as transit, rail, and
environmental programs, instead of distributing the
money under the TEA-21 formulas. The nearly $3 billion
in additional revenue is above what was estimated in
TEA-21. The President's budget proposal will be the
first of several attempts in this year's budget battle
to use the additional gas tax revenue for non-highway
purposes. We will fax out a summary of the President's
budget next week
Ergonomics Comment Period
Extended: Comments now Due March 2nd! Last Thursday
(January 27, 2000), the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) announced that they would accede
to AGC's request and extend the comment period for the
proposed rule for preventing ergonomics injuries in the
workplace. OSHA added an additional 30 days, which makes
comments on the proposed rule due on Thursday, March
2nd. All AGC Members, Chapters and Safety and Health
professionals are urged to use the model comments
(available by clicking here)
to comment on the proposed rule. If you have questions
about the model comments or the proposed standard,
please do not hesitate to contact Carolyn Guglielmo in
AGC's Safety and Health Department at 703-837-5331 or by
email at guglielc@agc.org.
Utilize Congress at Your
Fingertips Located in the Member’s Only Section at
http://www.agc.org/ to
contact your Congressional
Representatives. |