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Construction Legislative Week In Review
From the Congressional Relations Staff
October 21, 1999
Volume 4, Issue 40

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 Small Business Committee Blasts Blacklisting Regulations

Administration witnesses failed in their attempt to defend the Administration’s changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) before the House Small Business Committee. Under questioning from both Republicans and Democrats the Administration admitted that there were no statistics justifying the changes and no clear evidence that the changes were needed.  Administration witnesses committed to reviewing the proposed regulation in light of concerns raised by the Small Business Committee such as the failure to perform a regulatory flexibility analysis, the failure to analyze the impact on small business, and general concerns regarding the subjectivity of the changes. AGC’s statement to the committee emphasized that the regulations would change the review standard from one that is based on performance to one that is based on favoritism. Other witnesses testified that this regulation would place a disproportionate burden on small business because the government could not afford to cut off large businesses in some specialized industries. In short, this proposal politicizes the federal procurement process. At this time, nine hundred comments have been filed regarding the regulation. The deadline for comments is November 8, comments can be sent from the AGC website (http://www.agc.org/legislative_info/action_items/blacklistingaction.asp). 

Appropriations Meeting Between Congressional leaders and President Clinton:  On October 19, Congressional leaders traveled to the White House to begin discussions on how to resolve the final fiscal year 2000 Appropriations bills.  The meeting simply began the final round of negotiations.  Meanwhile, Congress passed another continuing resolution through October 29 to continue current funding for any department or agency not covered by a FY 2000 appropriations bill already signed into law.  This week, President Clinton signed the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies FY 2000 Appropriations bill.  Of the 13 annual spending bills, 6 have been signed into law, two have been vetoed, three are ready for the President’s signature, and two have not yet cleared by Congress.  Included in the VA-HUD bill:  $1.35 billion for wastewater treatment (same as last year); $820 million drinking water ($45 million more), $4.8 billion HUD community block grants ($200 million less); $65 million Veterans’ Affairs major construction ($77 million less); $160 million Veterans’ Affairs minor construction ($15 million less).  President Clinton has vowed not to sign anymore appropriations bills until a comprehensive deal is reached on the remaining bills that include his spending priorities. 

FAA Conference Underway:  The House and Senate conferees met twice this week to begin work on the reauthorization of the FAA and Airport Improvement Program (AIP) conference agreement.  Although the discussions have been positive about spending more on aviation programs, a final agreement on changing the budgetary treatment for aviation programs will be difficult to achieve.  The next meeting of the conferees will be next week. 

Death Tax Relief Included in Minimum Wage Hike Bill: Five House Republicans joined with five Democrats to introduce a bipartisan bill (H.R. 3081) increasing the minimum wage by $1 over three years while providing roughly $34 billion in tax cuts, including death tax relief.  The death tax provision drops the top rate to 53% in 2001 and changes the unified credit to a true exemption (this allows for a lower tax rate on the first taxable dollars of an estate).  In 2002, the top rate drops to 50% and in the years 2003 through 2006 all rates would drop by 1 percentage point per year.  While AGC would like to see full elimination of the death tax, this proposal is a welcome first step.  A rocky road is expected for this bill.  A Ways and Means Committee markup scheduled today was cancelled because of GOP squabbling about the bill’s contents. Meanwhile, the Administration criticized the wage bill for providing “huge tax breaks.” 

Fair Act Vote Schedule for Wednesday: The Fair Act Access to Indemnity  and Reimbursement Act (“FAIR” Act) would provide reimbursement for attorney’s fees when OSHA or NLRA brought a case against a small business that was unfounded.  Please contact your member of congress and urge them to support H.R. 1987, the Fair Act.




© Copyright 2001 The Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America. All Rights Reserved. AGC can be contacted at info@agc.org - 333 John Carlyle Street, Suite 200, Alexandria, Va. 22314 - 703.548.3118 (phone) - 703.548.3119 (fax) - Site designed and maintained by e-Builder, Inc.