Competition remains intense for the Dept. of Transportation's TIGER grants, which help fund road, rail and other projects deemed to have major regional or national impacts.DOT reported on April 5 that it had received 703 applications, totaling $10.2 billion, for the 2012 round of its Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program—far more than the $500 million it has to award. Applications flowed in from every state, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.The new TIGER competition is the fourth since 2009. In the first three rounds, DOT received 3,348 applications totaling more than $95 billion. It awarded

A partisan fight over the House GOP-written fiscal 2013 budget has escalated as Election Day nears. President Obama attacked the bill as "so far to the right it makes the Contract With America look like the New Deal." House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the bill's architect, fired back, saying Obama's budget plans were "reckless" and that the president "chose to duck and run" on the economy.The budget resolution, passed by the House on March 29 by a 228-191 vote, is non-binding and seen as having no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But the budget will affect key House

Photo Courtesy of the Society of American Military Engineers Nearly 650 construction industry executives flocked to hear updates on military construction spending plans for fiscal 2013 and beyond. Even with military construction programs set for major cuts in fiscal 2013 and possibly in the current year, industry executives still were optimistic about the market's potential. An annual Defense Dept. construction chiefs' budget briefing drew record attendance on March 27 in suburban Washington, D.C.The Obama administration proposes $10.7-billion milcon budget for the next fiscal year, down from $14.8 billion currently. Speakers told the nearly 650 attendees at the event, sponsored by

New rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency could put a choke hold on the construction of new, conventional coal-fired powerplants, industry sources say. On March 27, the EPA proposed the first-ever Clean Air Act standard for carbon emissions from new powerplants. The proposed rule—which does not apply to existing powerplants or plants that already have been permitted and will break ground within the next 12 months—would require power-generating units to limit emissions of carbon dioxide to 1,000 pounds per megawatt. Currently, there are no limitations on how much carbon dioxide can be emitted by powerplants. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson

Related Links: Report by GSA Inspector General's office The head of the U.S. General Services Administration, Martha Johnson, resigned on April 2 and earlier removed the leader of GSA's Public Buildings Service and another senior official from their jobs, an Obama administration official says. The shakeup was sparked by an inspector general’s report blasting GSA for “excessive and wasteful” spending and failing to follow federal contracting rules on a 2010 conference whose price tag exceeded $822,000. The Obama administration official said the two GSA executives removed were PBS Commissioner Robert Peck and Stephen Leeds, senior counselor to Johnson. The administration official

Related Links: Senate Passes $109B Highway-Transit Bill As a March 31 deadline loomed, House Republicans continued to struggle to pass legislation that would keep federal highway and transit programs operating for at least several weeks.House GOP leaders on March 27 had proposed a two-month extension, but later in the day postponed a scheduled floor vote on that measure.The day before, Republicans canceled a planned vote on a three-month extension, apparently because they lacked the two-thirds majority needed to pass it.Surface transportation programs have been running under a series of extensions since September 2009, when the last long-term authorization ran out.Brian

Construction industry sources say they are hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court overturns President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which they contend is problematic for employers.

Related Links: Highway-Transit Stopgap Stuck in House Senate Passes $109B Highway-Transit Bill Beating a March 31 deadline with little time to spare, Congress has approved—and President Obama has signed—legislation that would keep federal highway and transit programs running for the next three months. The stopgap is the ninth short-term extension since September 2009, when the last multi-year authorization expired. Final congressional action on the bill came on March 29, when the Senate passed it on a voice vote. Earlier in the day, the House had cleared the measure by a 266-158 tally.Obama signed the bill on March 30, one day before

Photo Courtesy of Chesapeake Bay Foundation Algae blooms, like this one in the Chesapeake Bay, are typically caused by high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. Environmental groups say a pair of lawsuits they have filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are necessary to reduce the size of large algae blooms, or "dead zones," that stretch for miles in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and other waterways across the nation.But the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) says court rulings in the environmental groups' favor could have "astronomical" financial impacts on wastewater treatment agencies, which would face facilities

Related Links: Link to Supreme Court website with Sackett v. EPA ruling The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous March 21 ruling, said that an Idaho couple could legally challenge an Environmental Protection Agency compliance order that told them to restore wetlands on property they had purchased to build a new home.Construction industry groups say the case is not only a win for landowners, but also for developers and construction firms. “It’s a victory for all people who develop land, not just the small mom and pops” says Tom Ward, vice president of legal advocacy for the National Association of