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
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.
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