The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has held 14 hearings to date on the progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the latest hearing Tuesday dealt with the first full year of the program. According to the Committee, the ARRA has resulted in 10,348 highway, transit and wastewater projects breaking ground, creating or sustaining nearly 300,000 direct jobs and 938,000 indirect jobs, while 5,700 more projects are in the works. Additionally, the Recovery Act is helping improve to 24,000 miles of roads and 1,100 bridges. Finally, 77 percent of the stimulus' formula-based road and transit spending, or $26.4 billion, has been put out to bid by state officials.

The Committee's analysis of the job creation from the ARRA validated that infrastructure investment is a significant job creator. AGC was also encouraged by the Committee's call for further investment in infrastructure as a means for job creation. Other issues from the hearing included the recent TIGER grant awards, small business and minority/women contractor participation in Recovery Act contracts, and implementation of Buy American provisions.

President Obama marked the one year anniversary of the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Wednesday with AGC member Chuck Niederriter (Golden Triangle Construction, Imperial, Pa.) by his side. Thanks to the stimulus, Golden Triangle is hiring more than 100 employees this spring and will order new equipment, creating more jobs.

The administration came to AGC for a construction contractor who has benefited from the stimulus to be a part of today's White House event. During his remarks, President Obama announced, "If you don't think the stimulus is working, talk to Chuck."

Watch part of the event here, or read Bloomberg's coverage. Obama and Biden's remarks are available here.

Niederriter, president of Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania, participated in AGC's media conference call to announce anew analysis of stimulus data that shows the program is delivering more jobs than initially estimated.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary grants to 51 projects across the country. The TIGER grants program was created in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was signed into law one year ago yesterday.

When DOT solicited applications for TIGER grants, more than 1,400 applications seeking in excess of $57 billion in funding were submitted. While ARRA did not specify the criteria to be used in selecting individual projects, it did set out some broad parameters. ARRA specified that these discretionary grants were to be awarded to state and local governments or transit agencies on a competitive basis for a variety of transportation projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area or a region. Rail-related projects are the biggest winner, with $789 million of the available funds awarded to these projects. The funds remain available until September 30, 2011. The DOT 2010 appropriations bill included an additional $600 million in funds for the TIGER grant program, which have not yet been awarded.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, most states were on target to meet Wednesdays' Recovery Act deadline for projects receiving federal assistance through the State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs.  Considering the significant lag time due to new "Buy American" requirements and other administrative issues, this is a significant accomplishment. In fact, many states have leveraged EPA dollars with additional SRF funds by a factor of 57 percent.

AGC estimates that EPA Recovery Act dollars ultimately will be leveraged nationally almost 2 to 1, yielding at least $12 billion in projects from the $6 billion allocated to the SRF's under the Recovery Act. States that have not met the February 17 deadline will ultimately lose funds not under contract.

The U.S. Senate defeated an amendment by a vote of 53-45 to legislation that would have increased the federal debt ceiling and prevented any new financial commitments for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).  The amendment was particularly troublesome because it would have invalidated the key provision used to pay for the $75 billion of new appropriations in the House-passed Main Street for Jobs Act and would have likely prevented the Senate from moving forward on their jobs bill because they too are likely to use TARP funds to offset the cost of their bill.

AGC, as co-chair of the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC), sent a letter to the Senate opposing any effort to redirect the TARP funds to deficit reduction.

President Obama convened a White House Summit  on Thursday to discuss actions that can be taken to create jobs. Leaders from business, labor and state and local government were invited to participate, including former AGC president Doug Pitcock, who served as AGC's representative.

Following opening session comments by President Obama and Vice President Biden, the participants separated into breakout groups to discuss specific recommendations. At the breakout session titled "Creating Jobs through the Rebuilding of America's Infrastructure," Pitcock made the point that construction projects have the dual benefit of creating jobs in the short term and providing long-term economic benefits by producing assets that will be here for future generations.

Pitcock also said the project approval process needs to be streamlined so that projects can go to construction quicker. President Obama responded that he is an advocate for investing in infrastructure and understood the approval process needs improvement. He said he is pushing legislation to create a National Infrastructure Bank because he believes that major infrastructure investment needs financial support beyond the annual appropriations process. He also views the bank as a way to leverage private sector funds in support of infrastructure.

The White House intends to use the recommendations from the Summit to craft a legislative proposal to address unemployment.

For more information, contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.

AGC CEO Steve Sandherr met with Governor Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) and members of the House and Senate to discuss the drafting of legislation to address the dire unemployment situation and the importance of a significant infrastructure component in any jobs bill.

Sandherr promoted investing in all types of infrastructure as well as the need to fully fund a multi-year highway reauthorization bill. During the meeting, the need to address and find long-term financing options, such as a National Infrastructure Bank, was discussed. AGC believes an infrastructure bank would best be included in the long-term bill rather than a short-term jobs bill.  Sandherr discussed the meeting with D.C.'s Streetsblog.

Rendell has been a national leader on infrastructure and is the co-chairman of Building America's Future, a bipartisan coalition of elected officials dedicated to bringing about a new era of U.S. investment in infrastructure that enhances the nation's prosperity and quality of life.  Rendell is expected to hold a press conference on Monday in Washington. 

For more information, contact Jeff Shoaf at (202) 547-3350 or shoafj@agc.org.

As the White House holds their jobs summit, House and Senate Democrats have begun the process of drafting legislation to address the dire unemployment situation facing the country.  The timing on when such a bill would pass is not clear.  The Senate will likely take up a "jobs" bill in January, while the House's intent is to pass a jobs package by the end of the year, though Democratic leaders have acknowledged the short congressional schedule may mean waiting until early next year.

AGC has been working closely with leadership in the House and Senate to ensure that any "jobs" bill includes a significant increase in infrastructure spending and that the spending must be targeted to existing programs that can have an immediate impact in providing the construction industry with a much needed shot in the arm.  At various high level meetings, AGC has encouraged House and Senate leaders to build on the successes of the stimulus and include a significant increase in funding for transportation and water infrastructure programs.

In addition to infrastructure spending, Congress is considering extending unemployment insurance, renewing a program that offers the unemployed a 65 percent subsidy for health insurance premiums under COBRA, providing tax credits to employers who hire new employees, and increasing the amount of loans offered through the Small Business Administration.

As this process evolves, how these investments and policies are paid for will need to be addressed.  House and Senate Democrats have advocated for the use of the uncommitted or repaid money (about $210 billion) from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).  Republicans oppose using TARP funds to pay for a "jobs' bill, and instead favor using unspent stimulus funds.

For more information, contact Sean O'Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.

AGC met with officials from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on November 18 to discuss AGC's position on the implementation of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).  The GAO was asked by Senate leaders to review whether any new federal requirements affected the selection or start of some ARRA projects.

The agency also was interested in determining the effects of the reporting requirements and the new Buy American provisions and how those requirements may affect the selection or start of certain projects. AGC shared some concerns over the reporting requirements and how the additional oversight had caused some confusion for both new and experienced federal contractors. AGC explained its experiences with the new Buy American requirements and how those rules have challenged the EPA-funded State Revolving Fund programs, and expressed concern over the rising construction unemployment in the U.S. and its effect on the industry.

The meeting gave AGC an opportunity to inform GAO about the practical, and negative, effect of government-mandated project labor agreements, particularly on ARRA projects.  For example, the GAO now understands the problems of having contracting officers with little construction expertise negotiate GMLA's and the impact a mandated agreement may have on the cost of an ARRA project.

The GAO is expected to deliver a final report  to Congress in late February, 2010.

 For more information, contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5325 or giamberm@agc.org.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Water and Environment held a hearing on Recovery Act progress, including updates from representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Civil Works Program.

Additional witnesses included representatives from state and local governments administering Recovery Act dollars. AGC has expressed concern about the speed at which contracts have been solicited and awarded; according to witnesses administering these Recovery Act dollars; however, steady progress has been made in getting projects underway.

According to USACE Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo Ellen Darcy, "731 Civil Works projects are underway across 49 states and also in both Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Eight projects have been completed to date. Fifty Project Partnership Agreements have been executed around the country under the reimbursable environmental infrastructure program for a total cost of $66.3 million. During this same period, 2,753 contract actions were awarded, of which 2,058 or 75 percent were awarded to small businesses. Of the $2 billion in contracts awarded, 48 percent of the total dollar value was awarded to small businesses. In addition, larger companies receiving Civil Works contracts are encouraged to hire local small business as their sub-contractors."

Testifying on behalf of the U.S. EPA was Deputy Director for the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Nanci Gelb.  According to Gelb's testimony, "nearly 20 percent, or $800 million of the funds appropriated for the Clean Water SRF are under contract, an increase of approximately 20 percent in the last four weeks." This represents slightly less than twenty five percent of the $4 billion allocated for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) but is significant progress considering reports in July indicated that only one half percent of EPA's $6 billion SRF funds had been awarded to contract.   Gelb also noted in her testimony that requirements for "Buy American" green infrastructure and implementing Davis-Bacon prevailing wages have been challenging, but EPA has been successfully navigating the requirements through weekly internal meetings of its Stimulus Steering Committee.

AGC has closely monitored "Buy American" waivers granted for stimulus-funded SRF projects, and submitted a letter to the Committee detailing continued concerns about the vastly expanded "Buy American" provisions in the Recovery Act and the lack of final guidance from OMB.  AGC's position was noted by Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.); however Chairman Oberstar raised doubts that this issue presented a significant problem for industry and noted that the requirement was encouraging U.S. innovation. He cited a single company that now manufactures advanced Ultra Violet Treatment systems for water.  Oberstar asked that EPA respond to AGC's concerns and report back its findings to the T&I Committee.

On a positive note, according to AGC analysis of recent figures released by EPA detailing contract actions, EPA funds for Recovery Act projects have been significantly leveraged. Clean Water SRF funded projects totaling $1.6 billion in Recovery Act Funds have been combined with state and local dollars being leveraged into nearly $3 billion in projects.  For the Drinking Water SRF, $726 million in Recovery Act Funds have been leveraged into nearly $1.3 billion. 

Additional discussion took place toward the end of the hearing regarding additional water infrastructure needs in communities, including the viability of a "Trust Fund," which has been introduced by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), as one of the potential solutions to meet the nation's clean and drinking water infrastructure funding needs.  These needs are conservatively projected to have an investment gap of almost $600 billion over the next twenty years. AGC supports H.R. 3202 and AGC members are encouraged to visit the AGC Legislative Action Center to learn more about this legislation.

More information:

• T&I Hearing Video and Witness Statements
• AGC Letter to T&I Committee on "Buy American"
• Clean Water SRF: ARRA Reporting Summary Project List (PDF)
• Drinking Water SRF: ARRA Reporting Summary Project List (PDF)
• SRF Progress Toward ARRA Goals (PDF)