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
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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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