The Congressional Budget Office has cast a skeptical eye on President Obama’s proposal to shed excess federal real estate through creating a special Civilian Property Realignment Board. CBO says in a June 27 letter to a House committee chairman that the White House proposal is unlikely to bring in the $16 billion in additional revenue that the Office of Management and Budget projects. Related Links: CBO analysis of White House plan But the proposal has supporters in the administration and in Congress, who contend that the current system for disposing of excess federal property isn’t working and that a civilian

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has imposed a hold on the nomination of Lt. Gen. thomas Bostick, President Obama's choice to be the next Army corps of engineers chief. Vitter is withholding approval until the Corps provides satisfactory answers to the senator's questions about several Louisiana issues, including project funding.Senate holds block floor action on nominees. Furthermore, Bostick must gain approval from the Armed Services Committee, which has yet to convene a hearing on his nomination.Maj. Gen. Merdith W.B. “Bo” Temple, the Corps deputy commanding general, became the acting chief of engineers on June 17, following the retirement of Lt. Gen.

There is still no deal on the horizon on a multiyear Federal Aviation Administration bill, so Congress has approved another short extension. It would carry FAA activities, including Airport Improvement Program construction grants, through July 22. The bill, which the Senate passed on June 27 and the House cleared three days earlier, is the 20th stopgap since Sept. 30, 2007, when the last long-term FAA measure expired. The 19th extension was to lapse on June 30.

The Republican-controlled House is getting ready to deliver another punch to the General Services Administration's construction budget, following the Appropriations Committee's June 23 approval of a bill that would zero out fiscal 2012 GSA funds for new federal buildings. The full House is likely to pass the bill after July 4. But the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority, has yet to act on a GSA spending measure. The agency and construction industry officials are hoping for better numbers from that chamber.But if the House committee's figure becomes law, it would be the second heavy blow to GSA construction funds

The National Labor Relations Board has proposed changes that would speed up elections to determine whether workers in construction and other industries will unionize. Reaction to the proposed rule, announced on June 21, was sharply divided. Pro-union Democrats in Congress supported the plan, but business groups and Republicans criticized it. NLRB's three Democrats backed proposing the rule; its sole Republican dissented.The proposal would allow electronic filing of election petitions and shorten the time firms have to produce lists of those eligible to vote in representation elections. It would set general uniform deadlines for pre-election and post-election hearings. Now, the scheduling

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is the role of the Environmental Protection Agency, not the court system, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from powerplants under the Clean Air Act. In a June 20 decision in AEP v. Connecticut, the high court said that states and conservation groups could not challenge powerplants' greenhouse gas emissions in federal court through “public nuisance” lawsuits.In the 8-0 ruling, the justices said that Congress clearly intended that the EPA develop a policy to deal with greenhouse gases. EPA is expected to announce by May 2012 whether it will regulate such emissions under

Some U.S. nuclear powerplants are not prepared to deal with complete power blackouts that could result from severe events such as the earthquake and tsunami that struck and crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant in March, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials say. Officials from a NRC task force said in a June 14 public meeting that some U.S. powerplants are not ready to cope with an extended loss of power from both the electrical grid and emergency generators, which occurred at the Japanese plant. “NRC inspectors revealed deficiencies at some plants,” says Charlie Miller, task force chairman.The task force, charged with evaluating

As the House Appropriations Committee moves on fiscal 2012 spending bills, its Republican leaders are ycarrying out their budget-cutting pledge. They aren't sparing construction programs. The thin silver lining is that some of the House's recommended construction cuts are small. For example, a bill funding military and Veterans Affairs construction, which the House passed on June 14, would trim most accounts. Base realignment and closure spending would plummet, but that was expected, because the closure round that began in 2005 is nearing an end. Andrew Goldberg, American Institute of Architects senior director of federal programs, says, “The problem, and nobody

Some of the nation’s nuclear powerplants are not prepared to deal with potential station blackouts that could result from a severe event like the simultaneous earthquake and tsunami that struck Fukushima Daiichi, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on June 14. Officials from the task force established to inspect and evaluate the safety of the nation’s fleet of powerplants said in their 60-day report that some of the powerplants in the United States are not prepared to cope with a total station blackout—with a loss of both power from the electrical grid as well as from emergency generators-- that

The U.S. is gaining ground in its push to prompt China to end subsidies to its domestic wind-energy companies and give U.S. firms greater access to the booming Chinese wind market. APWideworld Workers install wind turbine at wind farm in east China's Anhul province. As China's wind power market expands, the U.S. has challenged China's subsidies to its equipment manufacturers, saying they violate World Trade Organization rules. Related Links: USTR's Release In the latest development in an eight-month trade dispute, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk says China has closed down a wind-energy fund that the U.S. contends violated World