The simmering debate over how to cut the federal budget deficit is heating up, with the April 13 release of President Obama's outline for shrinking the budget gap squaring off against House Republicans' deficit-trimming plan, drafted by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.) and approved by the chamber on April 15. Photo: Courtesy of House Republican Conference Duel begins between budget plans from the House GOP’s Ryan and Obama. Photo: Pete Souza Both proposals would slice non-defense domestic spending, which could hit construction programs. Construction officials welcome the fiscal focus. The proposals aim to slash the deficit by about $4

Although it is difficult to determine how the Supreme Court justices might rule in a major environmental case argued on April 19, they asked several questions related to whether the courts or another branch of government should establish the nation's policies on global warming and whether, in a hypothetical common-law public-nuisance case, a federal regulation would supersede a determination by a district judge. At issue in the case, American Electric Power v. Connecticut, is whether states and individuals can sue utilities under federal common law for contributing to global warming and force them to reduce emissions of CO?. Legal observers

Bills dealing with air-pollution regulation have met different fates in the House and Senate. The Republican-controlled House on April 7 passed a bill to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from moving ahead with greenhouse-gas rules. But in the Senate, where Democrats have a majority, four air-pollution-related measures, including one identical to the House-passed bill, on April 6 failed to win the 60 votes needed to advance.

Republican governors in Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida grabbed headlines by rejecting federal high-speed-rail funds awarded to their states, but many other governors—Democrats and Republicans—are hungry for the money that was turned back. In a signal that demand for rail money still outpaces supply, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has received almost $10 billion in requests for shares of $2 billion in rail aid Florida rejected earlier this year. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said on April 6 that 24 states, the District of Columbia and Amtrak submitted more than 90 applications for the money Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) turned back.

By the end of April, President Obama will release details of a proposal to realign, consolidate and dispose of excess federal buildings, Obama administration officials say. The plan, modeled on the military's Base Realignment and Closure program, includes a commission that would recommend which buildings ought to be sold. Obama proposed the panel in his State of the Union speech. The Office of Management and Budget suggests the program could save $15 billion. Another money-saving idea would retrofit buildings to be more energy efficient, said Daniel Werfel, OMB controller, at an April 6 House transportation and infrastructure subcommittee hearing. Subcommittee

Despite the Dept. of Labor's efforts to improve its process for determining Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wages, it continues to produce potentially inaccurate data, according to the Government Accountability Office. A March 22 GAO report finds that Labor's wage survey has shortcomings in how timely and representative the information is and in using local data as the basis for wage calculations. Among surveys reviewed by GAO, Labor issued 11% of key wage rates at the county level, 42% at the multi-county level and 40% at the state level. More than 25% of rates were based on six or fewer workers. GAO

In a move welcomed by construction groups and other business organizations, Congress has cleared a bill to repeal a tax-reporting provision of last year's health-care law. Final congressional approval came on April 5, when the Senate passed the measure on a 87-12 vote. The House had approved the bill on March 3. The measure now goes to the White House for President Obama's expected signature. After the Senate vote, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that "we are pleased Congress has acted to correct a flaw that placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses." The

Will this be the year a long-delayed, multi-year aviation bill finally becomes law? There has been progress. The House on April 1 passed a four-year bill, but infrastructure advocates don’t like its cuts to Federal Aviation Administration airport construction grants. House lawmakers next will take their bill into negotiations with the Senate, which approved a two-year bill in February. Construction groups prefer the Senate version’s funding for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) construction grants, which finance runway work and other projects. The Senate bill averages about $4 billion per year for AIP. However, the House bill slices the program to an

After a long delay, the Army Corps of Engineers’ first rewrite in 28 years of its “Principles and Guidelines” for evaluating water projects is expected to be released in June, top Army officials say. The new standards will be a major shift away from the present P&G, issued in 1983, which said the sole federal water-resources planning objective is “to contribute to national economic development” while being “consistent with protecting the nation’s environment.” Photo Courtesy U.S. Senate Environment And Public Works Committee Darcy (left) and Van Antwerp say new project evaluation standards will be out in June. Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant

In a move aimed at spurring U.S. exports of construction equipment and services to Brazil, the U.S. Export-Import Bank is providing a $1-billion line of credit for infrastructure projects in that country.