Construction Faces a Fight for Fiscal Year 2014 Dollars

By -
Now that Congress has approved a budget bill that includes a sizable spending hike for the rest of fiscal year 2014, construction industry officials will gear up to battle with advocates for a wide range of other interests for a share of those dollars.
 
The budget bill—the result of a deal between House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.)—won final congressional approval on Dec. 18, when the Senate passed it on a 64-36 vote. The House cleared the measure six days earlier by a wide margin.
 
The immediate next focus is the measure's $44.5-billion hike in overall 2014 discretionary spending. The bill split that sum between the broad defense and nondefense sectors, but provided no line-item details. It will be up to the appropriations committees to allocate those funds among the many federal construction and nonconstruction programs. The appropriations panels' chairpersons, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), want to produce a final 2014 spending bill by Jan. 15, when a current stopgap measure expires.
 
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The VA’s billion dollar boondoggle

By -
Image
A long-planned Veterans Affairs hospital being built in Denver, already hundreds of millions of dollars over its $604 million budget, has turned into a billion-dollar boondoggle for the agency. The contractor, Kiewit-Turner, blames the VA for ignoring agreements to submit plans that can be built within budget and has asked a federal board overseeing civilian contract disputes to let the company walk away from the job. Problems with the building emerged in January, when letters between the builder and the VA revealed the project to be running some $200 million over budget, with Kiewit-Turner blaming a pricey design that was only partially completed by the time it entered into the contract. The two sides subsequently agreed — via a handwritten agreement — to build the hospital within the original budget, with the VA in charge of submitting a new, pared-down design reflecting a number of cost-saving measures. But in a July 8 complaint to the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, ...
Read more

Fringe Benefits in the Prevailing Wage World

By -
The purpose of this article is to increase the awareness of the requirements related to federally funded Davis Bacon construction projects. Established in 1974, Interstate Mechanical Corp. is a mechanical contractor located in Phoenix, Arizona that specializes in HVAC within commercial construction. In the past year, we were contracted to perform specialty welding on large piping at a power plant located west of Phoenix. This project was federally financed and therefore required us to pay the prevailing wage and fringe benefits to all laborers and mechanics as specified under the Davis Bacon Act. The Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division (DOL) is a federal agency that enforces compliance with all provisions of the Davis Bacon Act. The DOL notified us that we were the subject of an investigation aimed to review compliance on this specific project. We were required to provide various records and allow for our current and former employees to be interviewed by federal invest...
Read more

Gary Williams, founder and past President of Irontree Construction

By -
Image
It is with great sadness that we let you know that the founder of Irontree Construction, Gary Williams passed away on Friday November 1, 2013, as a result of complications from the stroke he suffered in July 2011.  The entire family and Irontree group is sad but they are comforted by the fact that Gary is now at peace and no longer suffering.  A memorial service is being planned for the week after Thanksgiving.    
Read more