The difference between AGC’s Federal Contractors Conference (FEDCON) and other federal construction meetings is that at FEDCON construction contractor attendees drive the agenda. For this year’s conference—held May 1-3 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.—AGC is currently seeking your questions for consideration in meetings with headquarters leaders of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Military Construction Program, Civil Works Program, Contracting, Safety and Small Business offices. To see our draft agendas for these USACE sessions, click here. To register for FEDCON, click here.

Take a Five Minute Survey

Are you wondering what sort of issues your colleagues in the construction industry go through for change orders when dealing with federal construction projects? Consider participating in the Change Orders Survey. AGC is working with the National Association of Credit Management and the Construction Industry Procurement Coalition to investigate the causes, effects and control measures of change orders on federal construction projects. With your valuable input, the information gleaned from this anonymous survey will be shared with participants in future AGC articles and will be used by the participating associations to pursue legislative and executive branch solutions to change order challenges.

The Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is planning to start awarding contracts next month for the proposed extension of the southern border wall with Mexico. In CBP’s presolicitation notice, the agency said it intends to issue a solicitation on or about March 6 for the "design and build of several prototype wall structures." The procurement will be conducted in a two-step process.

On March 1, the House passed three AGC-backed regulatory reforms that will help eliminate regulations that are obsolete, ineffective, overly burdensome or duplicative. These reforms bills come on the heels of several others that passed the House in January with AGC support.

In the final year of the Obama administration, federal agencies issued nearly 4,000 new regulations. Many of those regulations negatively impact the construction industry. Congress—through the Congressional Review Act (CRA)—has an opportunity to repeal just a handful of Obama-era regulations issued after approximately May 30, 2016.

On March 1, an AGC-supported resolution passed in the U.S. House disapproving an Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) rule designed to allow OSHA to issue citations for recordkeeping violations beyond the current six-month limit, up to five and a half years. This expansion of the statute of limitations exposes employers to liability for honest and inadvertent paperwork mistakes related to recordkeeping. The U.S. Senate introduced a similar bill (Sponsored by Senator Cassidy (R-La.) and cosponsored by Senators Hatch (R-Utah), Isakson (R-Ga.) and Daines (R-Mont.)) recently with a vote scheduled by April 7. AGC urges the Senate to support the House-passed bill. Please contact your Senators and urge them to support repeal of this burdensome rule.

 

Thursday, March 9, 2017
AGC To Host Roundtable Discussions for In-House Environmental Managers
Bellagio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 to Saturday, March 11, 2017
CONEXPO-CON/AGG
Las Vegas, Nevada

Tuesday, March 14, 2017
WebEd: What's Happening with Drones in 2017
2 to 3 p.m.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017
WebEd:Lean and the Specialty Contractor: Successfully Implementing Lean as the Primary Advocate on a Project
2 to 3 p.m.

Sunday, March 26, 2017 to Friday, March 31, 2017
Construction Project Manager Course
Atlanta, Georgia

Monday, April 3, 2017 to Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Safety Management Training Course
Arlington, Virginia

Monday, May 1, 2017 to Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Federal Contrators Conference
Washington, District Of Columbia

Designed specifically for AGC member companies and their employees, the new website will make it extremely easy to communicate with federal and state officials, as well as take action on urgent legislative and regulatory alerts.

Construction spending slipped from December to January but increased modestly from a year ago, as private construction grew solidly but public infrastructure outlays tumbled, according to an analysis by the AGC of America. Association officials said the January data indicates the need for new public investments in infrastructure along the lines of the trillion dollar proposal President Trump outlined during his Congressional address recently. "These numbers suggest that demand for residential and private nonresidential structures remain strong but all levels of government are struggling to fund needed projects," said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. "It appears that homebuilding, office and power construction will continue to grow through 2017, while manufacturing, highway and other transportation construction are likely to hold down overall growth."

Business and industry groups are pushing for increased infrastructure spending and are lobbying Congress and the public to support the idea. AGC of America has increased its advocacy budget from $800,000 to $1 million this year.

There is no crystal ball that will accurately predict how a new administration in Washington D.C. will affect rulemaking in 2017, but there are some general impressions about how the regulatory environment might change.