UPDATE: Congress has approved, and President Joe Biden has signed, an estimated $1.2-trillion spending package that includes funding for several construction and infrastructure programs, such as federal buildings and embassy construction.
Biden signed the measure on March 23. Final congressional approval came in the early hours that same day, when the Senate passed it on a strong, 74-24 vote. The House had passed it on March 22, on a 286-134 vote.
The measure is the second, and larger, of two appropriations packages Congress has taken up in the past several weeks, to carry federal agencies through Sept. 30, the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
Each of the two packages funds a group of federal departments and agencies.
Most major construction and infrastructure programs were covered by the first package, including programs overseen by the Depts. of Transportation and Energy as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' civil works, the Environmental Protection Agency and nearly all military construction accounts.
That bill, estimated at $432.9 billion, won final congressional approval on March 6; President Joe Biden signed it into law three days later.
The more recent package does fund several construction programs, including General Services Administration federal buildings, State Dept. embassies and Dept. of Defense environmental restoration.
Funds for New FBI Headquarters
The measure slashes GSA’s buildings construction and acquisition account by 68% from the 2023 enacted level, to $260 million. Of that total, $200 million will go to a new Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters.
An FBI official, testifying before a Senate committee hearing in 2017, said the building was "obsolete, inefficient and faces a number of security vulnerabilities."
GSA announced in November that the FBI facility would be located in suburban Greenbelt, Md., but GSA’s Inspector General has launched an evaluation of the agency's selection process for choosing the Maryland site over one in Springfield, Va. Members of Virginia's congressional delegation have criticized the GSA process.
The spending package also included $212 million for GSA's major repairs and alterations account, down 14% from the enacted fiscal 2023 total.
Major renovation projects funded in the bill include the Tacoma, Wash., Union Station, which receives $79 million, and the William J. Holloway, Jr., federal courthouse and post office in Oklahoma City, which will get $66 million.
The State Dept.'s embassy repair, construction and operations account was flat, at $903 million.
DOD's environmental restoration program was cut 21%, to $1.3 billion. The rest of DOD's construction programs are included in the first spending package.
Also in the new measure is the Dept. of Labor, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—another important agency for construction companies. OSHA's 2024 budget was frozen, at $632 million.
Story updated on 3/23/2024 with Senate approval of the bill and Biden's signing.
