Includes 13 Percent Increase in Federal Construction Accounts
On Feb. 9, President Obama released his $4.1 trillion budget for fiscal year 2017, which proposes $1.215 trillion in discretionary defense and non-defense spending in FY 2017 and $2.565 trillion in mandatory spending. The budget, which stays within the discretionary spending limits set last November in the Bipartisan Budget Act, has been declared dead on arrival by Republican Congressional leaders. For the first time in 41 years, the House and Senate budget committees will not hold hearings with the president’s budget director.
Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), John Duncan (R-Tenn.), and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) introduced the Water Investment Trust Fund Act. This legislation will provide a small, deficit-neutral, protected source of revenue to help states replace, repair, and rehabilitate critical clean and drinking water facilities by creating a voluntary system that would allow businesses that rely on a clean water source to contribute to the fund.
ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ’s 97th Annual Convention will be held March 9-11, 2016 in San Antonio, Texas. Please visit meetings.agc.org/convention for registration information. Below is a preview of the Utility Infrastructure, Federal & Heavy Construction, and Highway & Transportation Division meetings.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its Clean Watersheds Needs Survey, a collaboration between EPA, states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories to compile the monetary needs of treatment, transportation, and management of the nation’s wastewater and stormwater. The survey identifies $271 billion over the next five years needed to maintain and improve this critical segment of infrastructure and is likely to be a conservative estimate.
Passage Expected Before Christmas
On Wednesday, Congressional leaders released a $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that will fund federal agencies and programs for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2016. Overall, the bill includes mostly good news for construction accounts, as many see increases compared to FY 2015 levels and others receive significantly smaller cuts than Congress initially wanted. The omnibus bill provides nearly $121 billion for federal construction accounts as tracked by ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ. This is an increase of approximately $8 billion from fiscal year 2015 and $15 billion less than the administration’s fiscal year 2016 budget request. To give time for passage of this final spending package, Congress passed another short-term funding bill—called a continuing resolution—that will fund the government through Dec. 22. The House is expected to pass the omnibus bill on Friday, with a vote in the Senate to follow shortly thereafter.
Co-Located with the International Construction & Utility Equipment Expo
ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ will host its first ever Utility Infrastructure Conference, Sept. 29–Oct. 1 in Louisville, Kentucky. Join other contractors, owners and key industry constituents involved in every aspect of utility infrastructure construction for high-quality education sessions, the premier utility construction equipment expo, and networking opportunities.
Deadline to Reserve Your Hotel Room is Fast Approaching
ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ will host its first ever Utility Infrastructure Conference, Sept. 29–Oct. 1 in Louisville, Kentucky. Join other contractors, owners and key industry constituents involved in every aspect of utility infrastructure construction for high-quality education sessions, the premier utility construction equipment expo, and networking opportunities.
ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ will be hosting its first ever Utility Infrastructure Conference, Sept. 29–Oct. 1 in Louisville, Kentucky. Join other contractors, owners and key industry constituents involved in every aspect of utility infrastructure construction for high-quality education sessions, the premier utility construction equipment expo, and networking opportunities.
Today, from the site of the D.C. Water large-scale Anacostia River Tunnel Project, the Obama Administration announced new steps that federal agencies are taking to bring private sector capital and expertise to bear on improving our nation’s infrastructure, focusing on utility infrastructure. President Obama launched the Build America Investment Initiative in July 2014, calling on federal agencies to find new ways to increase investment in ports, roads, bridges, broadband networks, drinking water and sewer systems and other projects by facilitating partnerships between federal, state and local governments and private sector investors. Today’s announcements are part of the evolution of that initiative.The administration is launching a new Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center at the Environmental Protection Agency designed to stimulate private investment and make federal dollars go further. Around the country, towns, cities and states are exploring ways bring innovative financial tools such as public-private partnerships to the water sector in an effort to get more projects off the ground. The new center will help interested local and state governments bring private sector investment and expertise into water system construction and management. Among other roles, the center will bring together investors and project sponsors; highlight promising deals; provide peer-to-peer learning and workshops; and develop case studies and toolkits. The center will work with states to maximize the benefits to annual federal water investments.The center is also designed to help attract investment to small communities. Many rural communities are served by small water utilities that lack the resources to explore financing alternatives and engage the private sector. The new water center will work with on-the-ground partners to provide financial training and technical assistance to small communities and rural water systems.The administration also announced the Rural Opportunity Investment (ROI) Initiative at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to help water, energy, and broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas attract more investment, thereby in creating jobs and accelerating economic growth. In close collaboration with both public and private partners, the ROI Initiative will connect projects to investors catalyzing rural investment opportunities for the public and private sectors. The initiative will also focus on opportunities to leverage private sector financing against the $30 billion in existing USDA programs and resources to provide funding to vital rural infrastructure projects; including water and wastewater systems, energy efficiency improvements, broadband networks, and other rural infrastructure needs.Perhaps most interesting, the administration is proposing to create an innovative new municipal bond, the Qualified Public Infrastructure Bond (QPIB). Today, public-private partnerships that combine public ownership with private sector operation and management (O&M) expertise cannot take advantage of the benefits of municipal bonds. QPIBs will extend the benefits of municipal bonds to public private partnerships, like partnerships that involve long-term leasing and management contracts, lowering the cost of borrowing and attracting new capital. A similar existing program, Private Activity Bond (PABs), has already been used to support financing of over $10 billion of roads, tunnels, and bridges. Unlike PABs, the QPIB bond program will have no expiration date, no issuance caps, and interest on these bonds will not be subject to the alternative minimum tax. These modifications will increase QPIB’s impact as a permanent lower-cost financing tool to increase private participation in building our nation’s public infrastructure. QPIBs would not be available for privately-owned facilities or privatizations of public facilities.It is unclear at this stage exactly how these new programs fit in with existing programs like the State Revolving Funds and Water Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Authority (WIFIA) at EPA, the Rural Water and Waste Disposal Loan Program at USDA, and Treasury’s Private Activity Bonds. ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ will continue to find out more on how the various agencies intend to use these new programs and what they mean for the infrastructure funding and finance programs that ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ members and their state & local government partners already use to build the nation’s water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure.For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org
meetings.agc.org/highwayutilities
Get up to date information on a variety of Issues that will impact the highway, transportation and utility construction markets over the next year. The 2014 ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ Highway and Utilities Contractors Conference will be held Nov. 13-15, 2014, at the Omni LaCosta in San Diego, Calif. Industry professionals from companies involved in building highway, bridge, utility and underground construction, transit, airport runway and rail projects will benefit from this conference. Presentation and discussions on major trends in highway and utility construction will be featured, including: