Earmark Hide And Seek

New House rules require every member to post appropriation earmarks he or she has requested on the representative's website so the information is available to the public. A few Congressional leaders proudly display the link to these details in a prominent position on their home pages, but many Representatives have buried the earmark link two or three pages deep on their sites, and called them things like "other issues" or "local appropriations" to keep the word "earmark" out of the conversation altogether.

However, the earmark list is the best early warning about federally funded construction projects which will be released for bid in the near future in your locality. I recommend that you make the effort to carefully scrutinize the web pages of Congressmen in your locality, and once you locate the links, save them in your browser's "favorites" for future reference. Then you can easily scan the current listings from your area of the country or the localities where you do business whenever you need information about what will be coming out for bid in the next half year or so. This kind of advance planning will give you a competitive edge over the contracting businesses less diligent in seeking out advance notice of bidding opportunities before they come out in the Dodge Reports.

OMB Issues Recovery Contracting Guidance

Wednesday, February 18, Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued a 60 page memorandum of guidance to all federal agencies responsible for awarding contracts, loans and grants under the stimulus legislation signed earlier this week. The memo contains many details about various government accounting processes and procedures, and how they will have to be augmented to provide the public with information regarding where all of the billions of dollars get spent.

Nevertheless, buried in the morass of detail is some key information important to construction businesses regarding where to look for projects to bid on, grants to apply for and loans which will be made available under the dozens of new and ongoing programs which will get the $149.8 billion appropriated specifically for construction by federal government agencies.

Before contracts are let for bid by federal agencies, the information about the bids will be posted here:

http://FedBizOpps.gov

Grants available under the federal programs will be listed here:

http://grants.gov/

Finally, available federal loan programs for construction projects will be listed here:

http://govloans.gov/

Your state government, and many large city government agencies will have comparable web sites up and running soon, if they do not have them already, listing the same sort of information about contracts, loans and grants in your local area. Good luck, and good hunting!