With a split Congress set to take office in the wake of the Nov. 2 elections, labor unions are setting their legislative agenda firmly on an issue they believe members of all parties can rally behind: jobs. Passing the overdue highway-transit bill will be a major focus for organized labor. With Republicans' taking control of the House and increasing their number of seats in the Senate in 2011, another top labor-related bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, faces even longer odds than it did this year. That bill has been a top priority of organized labor, but has drawn strong
While environmental groups acknowledge that they lost many supporters in the 2010 mid-term elections, they add that the election was not a referendum on environmental issues, but on the economy and jobs. “This was an election about unhappiness over the economy, first and last, and the majority paid the price,” says Rodger Schlickeisen, president, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. “We lost a lot of champions and a lot of long-timer supporters,” says Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. But he adds that voters still overwhelmingly support clean energy and curbing pollution. Brune points to California voters’ rejection of
Now is the time for the U.S. to update its approach to water treatment, says Bob Perciasepe, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deputy administrator. “[The challenge] is how to get a 20th-century law—the Clean Water Act—appropriate for 21st-century projects,” he said at the Water Environment Federation’s annual meeting, held on Oct. 3-7 in New Orleans. When water-quality standards were first developed during the 1960s, problems such as high nitrogen and phosphorous levels as well as pharmaceuticals and other endocrine disruptors were not considered. Perciasepe said that implementing and enforcing Total Maximum Daily Load standards for contaminants are the best way to
Cutting through the din of rancorous partisanship in American politics isn’t easy, but the two-year-old National Transportation Policy Project has gathered high-level veteran public figures to state clearly and advance the cause of transportation programming. HECKER The project is part of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., non-profit organization—founded by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Jr. (R-Tenn.), Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and George Mitchell (D-Maine)—that offers policy recommendations on health care, energy, homeland security and other national topics. But with a six-year transportation reauthorization at hand but not yet on the legislative agenda and funding at
Four more associations have joined the ConsensusDOCS coalition, bringing the total number of groups affiliated with the group to 28. Established three years ago, ConsensusDOCS focus is on developing construction contract documents through a consensus-oriented approach. The group started out with 20 member associations, including the Associated General Contractors, the Construction Users Roundtable and the American Subcontractors Association. The four new members are the American Society of Professional Estimators, the National Ground Water Association, Women Construction Owners & Executives USA and the Construction Specification Institute. Brian Perlberg, executive director of ConsensusDOCS, says the addition of the four groups shows ConsensusDOCS
The building energy-use reporting tool released this month by the American Institute of Architects may help firms get a handle on how their designs compare to others regarding predicted energy consumption, but it won’t help designers comply with myriad statewide energy codes. Not only are there different codes in different states for both commercial and residential construction but statewide energy codes are constantly evolving, making it tough for designers to keep up with changes, say code experts. Image Image State codes are generally based on model energy codes, which are “getting more rigorous,” said Dave Conover, senior technical adviser with
Licensed U.S. architects working globally, a group that is growing, need support from the American Institute of Architects in several ways, including promoting and endorsing a strategic plan that enables U.S. architects to gain professional practice licenses in foreign jurisdictions. AIA also should endorse the International Union of Architects’ (UIA) professional advisory standards, international education standards and international accreditation/validation standards. Image There is a growing need for U.S. architectural services in developing nations, the urban areas of which have few architects per capita. “The AIA should be advocating practices that enable its members to diversify their geographic, civic and cultural
Upset with a perceived lack of opportunities for Richmond, Va.’s minority contractors, the executive director of the NAACP’s Virginia state conference has threatened “direct action” against current and planned city construction projects. King Salim Khalfani alleges that only 6% of city contracts have minority involvement in planning or construction, reported the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Unless that figure is improved, Khalfani said, the NAACP will disrupt various projects. One tactic would be parking unmarked dump trucks at construction sites to block access. The organization is focusing on projects that are publicly funded or receive government-backed financing. Potential targets include the Richmond Redevelopment
Rocky economic times, green infrastructure, lean construction and helping the industry be heard were themes at the Associated General Contractors of America convention in Orlando on March 17-20. AGC has to be about “the industry, not about the politics,” says AGC’s new president, Ted Aadland, CEO of Aadland Evans Construction Inc., Portland, Ore. “We can’t afford to be a partisan organization. We need to work with elected officials in both parties on the issues.” Aadland said AGC is like “the sleeping giant”—members can “wake up” to influence those who make codes and regulations and reach out to other construction associations
The Associated Builders and Contractors, an Arlington, Va., group that represents non-union construction firms, proposed a five-step plan on March 2 to help create new jobs in a sector in which unemployment has reached 24.7%. ABC is calling on Congress and the Obama administration to focus on what it calls “free-enterprise initiatives,” instead of “anti-business legislative and regulatory proposals.” It also calls for increasing access to capital for new construction projects, reducing the tax burden, enacting a national comprehensive energy plan that includes new construction and upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure, and allowing the “entire construction industry workforce to participate
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