Construction industry groups and some in Congress are objecting to a draft White House executive order that would require companies and executives to disclose their political contributions when they bid on federal contracts. Stephen Sandherr, CEO of Associated General Contractors, said the plan would “create the mechanism for enforcing a political litmus test” for contractors. Mike Bellaman, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors, said the administration proposal “would politicize the bidding process and open the door to cronyism and malfeasance.” Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), the panel's top Republican, Susan Collins of

The Environmental Protection Agency soon will issue new guidance to regulators responsible for issuing permits for surface mining, says Nancy Stoner, EPA acting assistant administrator for water. Stoner told a House subcommittee on May 11 that the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the new guidance, which will take note of input from EPA’s Science Advisory Board and replace April 2010 interim guidance. GOP members of the subcommittee said the environmental requirements of the interim guidance make it nearly impossible to get a coal mining permit and are costing jobs in Appalachia. Stoner said the guidance is not binding

With federal highway and transit dollars facing a tight squeeze, those drafting a new surface transportation bill are seeking to produce the biggest bang for a limited number of bucks. But how to measure which projects have the best payoff? Source: Pew Center on the States and The Rockefeller Foundation, 2011 Rating the States on Evaluating Highway, Transit Projects’ Impacts A Pew Center on the States-Rockefeller Foundation report, released on May 11, says only 13 states get top marks for goals, performance yardsticks and data to help their transportation officials set highway and transit spending priorities. The Federal Highway Administration

A superior court judge in Benton County, Wash., has ruled that a whistle-blower lawsuit by an employee at the Hanford nuclear site against contractors Bechtel National and URS Corp. can move forward in May 2012. Walter Tamosaitis claims that, last July, he was removed from his role as technology manager for raising safety issues on the $12.2-billion waste vitrification plant project at the U.S. Energy Dept. site. Bechtel is the contractor. He now is employed by URS, its subcontractor, but in a lesser role, he says. Jack Sheridan, an attorney for Tamosaitis, says the court is set to decide on

Early next year, the American Institute of Architects plans to launch a cloud-based service that will enable users of its contracts and documents to search, edit, share and store the forms easily. AIA unveiled its Next Generation Service during its convention on May 12-14 in New Orleans. The program will be compatible with both Apple and PC formats and have security features similar to online banking, says Maan Hashem, AIA managing director for software products and services. All the institute’s 100-plus contracts will be made available.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked six natural gas drillers to disclose by May 25 information on how and where they dispose of or recycle drilling process water in the Marcellus shale region. "We want to make sure that the drillers are handling their wastewater in an environmentally responsible manner," said EPA mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin in a statement. "EPA is continuing to work with Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection officials who are on the frontlines of permitting and regulating natural gas drilling activities in Pennsylvania."The companies receiving information requests are: Atlas Resources, L.L.C.; Talisman Energy USA, Range

The Internal Revenue Service has given design and construction firms a one-year reprieve from a contract-payment withholding requirement that industry contends would deal them a financial blow. The mandate stems from a provision of a 2006 statute that requires federal, state and local governments to withhold an amount equal to 3% of their payments to anyone providing them with goods or services. The mandate applies to agencies whose total annual spending on goods and services is $100 million or more. Individual payments of less than $10,000 would be exempt from the withholding requirement. The mandate originally was to take effect

The Dept. of Energy has named a panel of outside specialists to study natural-gas hydraulic fracturing. The panel, which DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced on May 5, will make recommendations within 90 days about immediate steps that could improve the safety and environmental impact of “fracking.” Panel members include representatives from industry, academia, environmental groups and state government.

As the Dept. of Transportation works with congressional committees to draw up a new multiyear transportation bill, DOT officials are dismissing a legislative text obtained by a Washington newsletter as “an early working draft that was never formally circulated within the administration.” The 498-page document, obtained by Transportation Weekly, tracks the $555.9-billion, six-year highway-transit-rail proposal that DOT outlined in February. The draft includes some new items, such as multiple, but vague, references to a “new energy tax.” In a statement, DOT spokesman Justin Nisly said, “This is not an administration proposal ... and does not represent the views of the

The National Labor Relations Board's acting general counsel has filed a complaint in federal court against Arizona for passing a measure that says workers can only use secret-ballot elections to determine whether they want to unionize. Organized labor prefers employees have the option of signing authorization cards to show support for unionizing. In a complaint filed on May 6 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, NLRB's Lafe Solomon said a 2010 Arizona constitutional amendment conflicts with federal labor law. Three other states have adopted similar measures. Solomon says he plans to file a complaint in South Dakota and may take