Mollifying some congressional critics of the prospect of unsupervised spending of $800 billion in taxpayer money, president elect Obama named Nancy Killefer, a former Clinton administration Treasury department official, to the newly created White House position of Chief Performance Officer, responsible for detailed oversight of all federal spending under his administration, including the enormous infrastructure spending and tax reduction stimulus package expected in February.
Congressional leaders are now discussing $800 billion as the price tag of the stimulus legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office expects will create a federal deficit of more than $1.2 trillion next fiscal year. The construction industry can expect to get at least $105 billion of the anticipated appropriations, with $30.25 billion for roads and bridges, $20 billion for military construction, $14.3 billion for environmental projects, $12.4 billion for public transit, $10 billion for federal office building construction and renovation, and $4.9 billion for Amtrak. Renewable energy advocates are pushing for a much larger allocation than $500 million for demonstration projects included in HR 7110. Representatives from rural areas of the nation are already looking for specific provisions guaranteeing cities don't gobble up all the infrastructure money. Some provisions likely to be similar to HR 7110 will end up in the new legislation, including "use it or lose it" claw back clauses to force the money out into the hands of contractors, suppliers and tradespeople within 180 days of passage. However, unlike HR 7110, look for language giving cities, counties and other local government units a crack at the cash before it is redistributed from one state to another. This stems from statements by the governors of Texas and South Carolina that their states "don't need the money."
Because of a precipitous drop in domestic steel production during the fourth quarter, look for the "buy American steel" requirement to expand from school construction to all of the infrastructure and transit projects, and also for "buy American" provisions across the board, possibly with limited exceptions for products and materials not available domestically. After all, the idea of this legislation is to put Americans back to work.
Congress has been in session for only two days, and the feeding frenzy is already underway. Every Representative and Senator is looking for ways to bring money to his or her state or district without having any project labeled as an "earmark" subject to elimination by Obama administration watchdogs. No matter what ultimately happens with this legislative package, there will be a big benefit for those construction managers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers who position themselves to take best advantage of these projects as soon as they are put out to bid.
Congressional leaders are now discussing $800 billion as the price tag of the stimulus legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office expects will create a federal deficit of more than $1.2 trillion next fiscal year. The construction industry can expect to get at least $105 billion of the anticipated appropriations, with $30.25 billion for roads and bridges, $20 billion for military construction, $14.3 billion for environmental projects, $12.4 billion for public transit, $10 billion for federal office building construction and renovation, and $4.9 billion for Amtrak. Renewable energy advocates are pushing for a much larger allocation than $500 million for demonstration projects included in HR 7110. Representatives from rural areas of the nation are already looking for specific provisions guaranteeing cities don't gobble up all the infrastructure money. Some provisions likely to be similar to HR 7110 will end up in the new legislation, including "use it or lose it" claw back clauses to force the money out into the hands of contractors, suppliers and tradespeople within 180 days of passage. However, unlike HR 7110, look for language giving cities, counties and other local government units a crack at the cash before it is redistributed from one state to another. This stems from statements by the governors of Texas and South Carolina that their states "don't need the money."
Because of a precipitous drop in domestic steel production during the fourth quarter, look for the "buy American steel" requirement to expand from school construction to all of the infrastructure and transit projects, and also for "buy American" provisions across the board, possibly with limited exceptions for products and materials not available domestically. After all, the idea of this legislation is to put Americans back to work.
Congress has been in session for only two days, and the feeding frenzy is already underway. Every Representative and Senator is looking for ways to bring money to his or her state or district without having any project labeled as an "earmark" subject to elimination by Obama administration watchdogs. No matter what ultimately happens with this legislative package, there will be a big benefit for those construction managers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers who position themselves to take best advantage of these projects as soon as they are put out to bid.
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