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Construction Legislative Week In Review
From the Congressional Relations Staff
February 4, 1999
Volume 4, Issue 5

The Associated
General Contractors
of America
333 John Carlyle Street
Suite 200
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 548-3118
(703) 837-5404 fax


Jeffrey D. Shoaf
Executive Director
Congressional Relations
shoafj@agc.org

202/383-2762

Joan Huntley LaVor
Director
AGC PAC
lavorj@agc.org

202/383-2761

Peter Loughlin
Director
Construction Markets
loughlip@agc.org

202/383-2766

Loren E. Sweatt
Director
Procurement and
Environment
sweattl@agc.org
202/383-2760

Phil Thoden
Director
Tax & Fiscal Affairs
thodenp@agc.org
202/383-2764

Patrick Wilson
Director
Human Resources & Labor
wilsonp@agc.org
202/383-2763
House GOP Death Tax Bill to be Introduced Later this Month

The bipartisan death tax elimination bill favored by the House GOP leadership will be formally introduced in late February. Sponsored by Reps. Jennifer Dunn (R-WA) and John Tanner (D-TN), this bill is on the House leadership’s top ten list of legislation to pass in the 106th Congress. The bill phases down the death tax rate by 5% each year for ten years until the tax is fully eliminated. Approximately 50-60 Representatives have agreed to cosponsor the Dunn/Tanner bill, but many more are needed. Please call or write your Member of Congress today and ask that they cosponsor and support this AGC priority legislation. A draft letter is available on the AGC website at www.agc.org.

Chairman Archer Unveils School Construction Proposal: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-TX) today unveiled his plan to relax the arbitrage rules for bonds issued to finance construction of public schools. Under current law, the issuer of a tax-exempt bond is required to rebate to the Federal government any profit earned from investing the bond proceeds in higher earning securities (i.e. "arbitrage"). Tax-exempt bonds issued for public school construction are subject to a relaxed rule, giving the issuer two years to spend down the bond proceeds before they are subject to a rebate. Archer’s proposal would extend this spend-down period to four years, allowing this money to go for school construction rather than federal taxes.

Paperwork on the Move: The House Government Reform Committee passed the Small Business Paperwork Reduction Act Amendments of 1999, H.R. 391. An amendment offered by Rep. Kucinich (D-OH) that would have weakened the legislation was defeated 22-17. H.R. 391 would suspend fines for small businesses with first-time paperwork violations. This suspension of fines is only for harmless paperwork mistakes and would allow a company time to rectify an innocent error. A violation that caused serious harm, was connected to a crime, violated the tax code, or was not corrected within six months would be subject to full enforcement and penalties found in law. The legislation is expected to be considered by the full house next week.

Aviation update: On February 3, the House passed an extension of the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) through September 30, 1999. AIP is currently scheduled to expire on March 31. On February 4, the Senate Commerce Committee cancelled its mark-up of a two-year reauthorization bill and rescheduled the mark-up for February 11. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to consider its multi-year reauthorization bill at the end of February or early March.

Clinton budget slashes construction funding for FY 2000 and shifts highway dollars to transit and environment programs: President Clinton’s FY 2000 budget, which was released on February 1, slashes funding for most construction programs. Excluding highway spending, which is established in TEA-21, funding for the major construction programs is down $835 million from last year. The President’s budget provides record funding for highway and transit programs, including an additional $1.5 billion in funding because gas tax revenues were higher than estimated in TEA-21. The budget proposal, however, diverts most of the additional $1.5 billion in revenue to federal transit and environmental programs, instead of among all federal-aid highway programs. AGC is working with Congress to ensure that the funding is distributed proportionately as called for by TEA-21, and not as proposed in the President’s budget. For additional information on the President’s budget, please see AGC’s press release on our website at www.agc.org.

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