The Senate and House cleared a pension bill that offers temporary help for single-employer and multi-employer funds and individual retirees hurt by the financial markets’ downturn. Final action came with Senate passage on Dec.11. Multi-employer plans are important in unionized construction. The bill gives underfunded multi-employer plans 13 years, up from 10 now, to implement improvement plans. It also lets multi-employer plans elect to freeze their category—healthy, endangered or seriously endangered—for one year, which would help plans that were healthy until the markets’ plunge. “It’s a great temporary fix and ...was very much needed,” says Dana Thompson, Sheet Metal and
President-Elect Barack Obama (D) has selected a veteran team of regulators and administrators to fill the nation’s top energy and environmental posts, a team that sources say will be focused on climate change and developing renewable energy sources. He formally announced his picks for energy secretary, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and a new advisory position to coordinate policies on climate change and energy across all federal agencies Dec. 15. Environmental groups say they like what they see in the nominees. Obama has asked former EPA Administrator Carol Browner to serve as
The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have issued a new guidance document that they hope will clear up some of the considerable confusion over the scope of federal wetlands jurisdiction in light of the U.S. Supreme Court 2006 Rapanos decision. The revised guidance, released on Dec. 2, replaces a July 2007 version, which critics claimed created more fuzziness than clarity in defining which wetlands are subject to Clean Water Act permitting requirements. The high court’s ruling in Rapanos v. U.S. said that although federal jurisdiction does extend beyond strictly “navigable waters,” other areas in which jurisdiction
With the Bush administration coming to a close, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s head, Edwin G. Foulke Jr., has left to join Fisher & Phillips LLP, an Atlanta-based law firm. He started there as a partner, effective on Nov. 10. Thomas M. Stohler, the Labor Dept.’s deputy assistant secretary for occupational safety and health since May, was named acting assistant secretary. He had been a senior legislative officer at Labor.
Environmental groups are cheering the election of Barack Obama and an end to an era they view as less than friendly to the environment. “The Bush administration has done a lot of damage to our nation’s environmental protections over the past eight years,” says Mike Daulton, National Audubon Society’s legislative director. Looking ahead, environmentalists’ priorities include securing passage of global warming legislation, limiting offshore oil drilling and reversing changes to the Endangered Species Act. Other environmental goals dovetail with those that construction groups support, such as reauthorizing Clean Water State Revolving Funds and boosting spending on water infrastructure. The National
As the Senate began a lame duck session, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Nov. 17 proposed a $100.3-billion economic-stimulus bill, with about $23 billion for infrastructure work. But in a sign that the plan faces long odds, Reid also said he has a smaller backup plan, without public-works aid. The $100.3-billion bill has $10 billion for highways, $2.5 billion for transit, $2.5 billion for wastewater treatment and drinking-water projects, $2.5 billion for schools and $900 million for Corps of Engineers civil works. Some Republicans, cool toward a public-works stimulus, may block the bill. Reid’s Plan B only has an
Fewer employers than initially proposed will be required to use the government’s electronic system for checking employees’ immigration status under a final Dept. of Homeland Security rule that takes effect on Jan. 15. DHS had proposed that companies holding prime federal contracts over $3,000 would have to use the federal “E-Verify” system. But the final rule, published on Nov. 14, changes the prime contract level to $100,000. Business groups had lobbied heavily for a higher threshold. But the American Sub�contractors Association is disappointed that subs still will be subject to the $3,000 level. DHS says companies enrolling in the program
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. indicated on Nov. 18 the Bush administration will hold back some of the $700 billion in economic rescue aid until President-elect Barack Obama takes office. Paulson told a House hearing, “This financial crisis is... difficult to counteract.” He said officials decided it was “prudent” to reserve some funds, “maintaining not only our flexibility but that of the next administration.”
