The Window On Your Federal Government Is Still Fogged Up

The federal government's RAT Board unveiled its new website yesterday, featuring an interactive national map showing the location of stimulus funded contracts, grants and loans by geographical location. It's a nice toy if you want to see who the original grantees are in your state or zip code, but it is utterly useless to citizens interested in finding out who is really profiting from expenditure of all the billions the folks in Washington are bragging about "obligating" to date. Why? Without clicking on each of the 36,000 dots on the map, it's impossible to find out which contractors are getting the most money from all sources across the country.

Nationwide construction contractors like AECOM, Bovis Lend Lease, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Morse Diesel, Turner Construction and others could be reaping immense profits from all this stimulus spending at innumerable different locations around America, but without endless hours of clicking, reading, and adding up, it is impossible to tell how much revenue any such nationwide contracting firm is going to get. Of course, correlating those figures with campaign contributions to Senators and Congressmen from the localities where the projects have been awarded would add even more time and effort to the endeavor. So, for all the taxpayer money invested into development of this website, the touted "transparency" of the Obama administration has succeeded in making the truth about government operations just as opaque as under any earlier administration.

Two Disputed Construction Projects Holding Up Homeland Security FY 2010 Appropriations

Disputes between House and Senate versions of the FY 2010 appropriations measure for the Department of Homeland Security remain unresolved as the end of the fiscal year approaches, and are not likely to get solved in the next two days. The Senate version of the funding measure requires Homeland Security to build 700 miles of reinforced double layered fencing along the Mexican border, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of about $4.55 billion, to be completed by December 31, 2010. The House version of the bill does not provide funds for the fence construction.

The second dispute is over a much smaller appropriation of $36.3 million to build a Kansas State University laboratory for biological weapons defense and defense against attacks on American agriculture. The House version of the appropriation measure prohibits funding of the facility until completion of a risk assessment from outside the Homeland Security Department, while the Senate version is satisfied with the Department's internal analysis of project risks.

In an exchange of remarks on the House floor, Congressman Harold Rogers of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee blamed Obama administration politics for the delay. "Instead of actually doing our work and fulfilling the security needs of our nation, we are placing a priority on Congress' own budget, putting Homeland Security spending on ice, taking the next few Mondays and Fridays off and basically waiting around until October until we get further direction from on high." House Appropriations Chairman David Obey responded that "We can't bring a conference bill back to this House until we've reached agreement on all of those differences."

Even The Chinese Plan To Rapidly Expand Nuclear Power Generation

While authorities in the United States endlessly debate whether to promote, allow, or prohibit construction of more nuclear power generating reactors here, as climate change legislation wends its painful way through innumerable Congressional committee hearings and mark ups, China, the world's biggest consumer of electric power generated by burniung coal, is accelerating plans to exponentially expand its national nuclear electric generating capacity. Previous Chinese plans called for 440% growth in the proportion of electricity that country generates from nuclear power by 2020, but China's newest plan calls for 770% expansion in nuclear generating capaicty by 2020.

All the while, our Congress continues to debate whether or not to define electric power produced by nuclear reactors as "renewable energy" for the purposes of computing carbon emission credit allowances. Last time I checked, nuclear power doesn't give off a single gram of greenhouse gas emissions. What gives?

Senate Version Of Climate Change Bill Due Out Tomorrow

Senate Envorinmental and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer is set to release that committee's version of climate change legislation tomorrow. Boxer's bill is expected to seek to increase the Waxman/Markey goal of 17% greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to a 20% reduction. Still secret, however, are the industry by industry allocations of initially free emissions credits Boxer and her committee propose. Apparently Boxer wants to bring industry lobbyists to the table and garner maximum support for the Senate version of this legislative measure by passing out free emissions credits to those lobbyists first to the bargaining table.

Industrial Construction Spending Declines Again

According to the North American Industrial Spending Index, construction projects for industry declined again in August, for the ninth consecutive month. The only sector with positive growth is the manufacturing sector, with a $3 billion increase in projects over last year. Leaders in the declining sectors are oil and gas transmission, down 79%; oil refining, down 75%; pulp and paper plants, down 69%; alternative fuels, down 65%; oil and gas terminal construction, down 55%, and chemical processing construction, down 47%. Ouch!

Vanishing Highway Construction Funds

The last long term federal Highway Trust Fund reauthorization included an often overlooked provision designed to promote budget flexibility, requiring states to set aside a small portion of highway funds each year. Ignored by most states when the time came to pay for road construction projects, the chickens are now coming home to roost to the tune of $9 billion, or about a third of the amount added to state road construction budgets in the stimulus legislation. Unless Congress acts by Wednesday, to remedy the situation, state highway departments will lose the $9 billion, and in some states the disappearing cash will lead to construction project cancellations or curtailments of jobs already underway.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer is working on legislation to restore the $9 billion to the budget, in order to avoid an $800 million loss to the California highway department, $114 million to Colorado's road construction budget, $60 million to Nevada, and similar losses in other states. The jobs which would have to be cut from ongoing projects in Oklahoma alone could be up to 1,300 trades workers, according to Senator James Inhofe. It seems odd that such difficulties in an ongoing federal program which is as big a staple in America's construction industry economy as the federal Highway Trust Fund could be left to the last three days of the fiscal year for Congressional action.

Obama Administration To Commit $35 Billion For Mortgage Lending By Local Housing Agencies

Under the authority of the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act, the Treasury Department, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are polishing the details of a new Obama administration program to purchase up to $35 billion in municipal debt to be issued by local government Housing Finance Agencies, which provide lower interest mortgage loans to first time and low income home buyers, usually at rates 0.5% to 1.0% lower than commercial lenders in the private sector. The new program is expected to buy $20 million in newly issues municipal housing bonds, plus another $15 million in variable rate demand obligations issued by the HFAs.

HFAs have financed home purchases for about 2.6 million families. Rising interest rates in the municipal bond market have choked off new lending by many HFAs, and as a result, affordable mortgage loans for low income and first time home buyers have dried up, delaying recovery of the housing construction market. While some in Congress object to the reentry of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into this segment of the home purchase financing market, the Obama administration seems to have a laser focus on continuing to promote home ownership among the less fortunate as one way of attacking the nation's economic woes. If your business is involved in housing construction, you should be watching eagerly for this program to be launched.