The Week Ending June 23, 2000
This weekly report is written by ASCE's Government Relations staff. If you have questions or comments about any items in this report, please contact Brian Pallasch, Michael Charles, Martin Hight, Austin Fulk, or Liz Hermsen at 202/789-2200.
Inside This Week:
EPA Readies Final TMDL Rule for White House Approval
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent a draft of the final rule to revise the total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulation under the Clean Water Act to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB has 60 days to review and recommend action on the proposal.
The draft contains significant changes to the proposal published August 23, 1999, including priority status for TMDL development for drinking water sources, deletion of listing certain forestry operations as point sources, reduction of the TMDL completion deadline from 15 years to 10 years, and listing a definite date by which the impaired water will meet water quality standards.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives approved the EPA spending bill for FY 2001 this week. An amendment would delay implementation of the TMDL proposal by at least 18 months. The Senate still must approve an EPA appropriations bill and the TMDL language. President Clinton has condemned the funding bill as anti-environmental, but has not threatened to veto the bill.
Lawmakers Seeking Solutions to Increasing Gas Prices
With the national average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gas jumping to $1.64, and prices in the Midwest spiking to over $2 a gallon, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) has recently called on some Republican governors to urge them to suspend their state sales tax on gas. Indiana Democratic Governor Frank O'Bannon announced such a move on June 20 and Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan has moved to call a special session of the state's legislature to suspend the gas tax. In early April, the U.S. Senate voted to defeat a bill that would have suspended a federal excise gas tax of 4.3 cents per gallon. ASCE opposed the bill because a cut in those taxes would have reduced highway and transit funding to all states.
However, Lott (R-MS) on June 22 said the best way to curb rising oil and gasoline prices is to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). "We need to open up areas that are now closed, like ANWR," Lott said. "We need to have incentives to get...oil wells that are now capped and so-called marginal wells back into production." ASCE policy states that if ANWR is developed, it should be done in an environmentally responsible manner.
President Clinton has urged lawmakers to encourage more "stripper well" production in the United States, to help make marginal domestic wells more viable, and called on Congress to reauthorize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which he called "one of the options we have to maintain downward pressure on oil prices." Clinton has also ordered the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible price gouging by oil companies. The FTC's preliminary report is expected to be available by the third week of July. Information on national and state-by-state data on gasoline prices is available from the American Automobile Association on the web at http://www.aaa.com/.
House Subcommittee Passes Energy and Water Funding Bill
The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee on June 20 passed a $21.7 billion Fiscal Year 2001 spending package. The total is $456 over FY 2000 levels but nearly $950 million below the Clinton Administration's budget request.
The Army Corps of Engineers' flood control, navigation, and shoreline protection programs would get $4.12 billion, slightly more than FY 2000 and about $60 million above the President's request. The Bureau of Reclamation would receive $730.5 million, $70 million less than the President's request and $36 million below FY 2000. The Department of Energy's allocation would be $17.3 billion, $686.5 million over FY 2000 but $852.8 million less than the President's budget. Ranking Member Peter Visclosky (D-IN) noted that water projects in the bill are $6 million below FY 2000 levels, even though there is a $30 million backlog of water construction projects, among other backlogged projects.
Senate Subcommittee Approves Interior Spending Legislation
The Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee on June 20 voted to pass a $15.47 billion Fiscal Year 2001 appropriations bill. The legislation rings in at $628 million above FY 2000 levels but $955 million below the President's budget request. The bill provides a $258 million increase for the four major land management agencies - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Service. The Bureau of Indian Affairs' construction account would receive a $143 million increase, including an earmark of $84 million for school repair and rehabilitation.
Federal Employees Ruled Ineligible to Protest Contracting-Out
The federal government's General Accounting Office (GAO) determined on June 7 that federal employees and their unions are not eligible to challenge an agency's decision to contract out to the private sector commercial activities currently performed in-house. Department of Defense (DOD) employees and their union challenged the awarding of a DOD contract to a private firm following an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-76 study. OMB Circular No. A-76 outlines procedures for determining whether commercial activities should be performed under contract by private enterprise or in-house using governmental facilities and personnel, and sets out the steps of the cost comparison process.
The employees said the A-76 study was not performed properly. The work could have been done better by federal employees, the union said. The DOD said that employees and their unions are not actual or prospective bidders or offerors and therefore cannot be considered "interested parties" eligible to maintain a protest at the GAO. The GAO agreed and dismissed the protest on the grounds that the employees lack standing under the "Competition in Contracting Act of 1984."
Senate to Take Up House's Estate Tax Bill
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) said on June 20 that the Senate would likely consider, before the July fourth recess, the House-passed federal Estate Tax elimination bill. The House passed an estate tax relief measure two weeks ago by a veto-proof margin.
Computer Equipment Tax Write-Offs May come Sooner Under Bill
Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL) has introduced a bill that would allow businesses to expense the cost of personal computers and peripheral equipment in the year in which they buy the products, rather than having to spread the deductions over five years as in current law. While the total cost of the bill is yet unknown, a bill introduced in 1997 to cut the depreciation period from five years to two years was estimated to cost $21 billion over five years. Weller's bill is presumed to cost more.
Issues Survey Coming to Your Mailbox
The next time you reach into your mailbox, you may find ASCE's first annual Key Contact Issues Survey. ASCE's Government Relations Department is asking you, as an important member of our Key Contact Program, to help us set our compass for 2001 on the most important public policy issues for the civil engineering profession at the federal and state/local levels. Your responses to the survey will be compiled into a report for ASCE's Committee on Government Affairs and Board of Direction to assist in determining our public policy priorities for the 107th Congress. Please complete the survey and return it to ASCE's Government Relations Department by July 12, 2000. If you have any questions, please contact Liz Hermsen, Manager of Grassroots Programs at govwash@asce.org or (202) 789-2200.
State Legislative Update
ASCE continues to provide updates on state legislation affecting civil engineers as state legislative sessions progress. For more information on the following bills, or any other state legislative matters, please contact Austin Fulk, ASCE's Manager of State Government Relations, at (202) 789-2200 or via email at govwash@asce.org.
Delaware
In a move that could help protect public safety, H.B. 623 has been introduced in Delaware. If enacted, it would require all stormwater management plans and designs to be sealed by a PE. This could prevent unqualified professionals from designing systems that are vital to public health and safety.
Rhode Island
H.B. 8319 has been introduced in the Rhode Island House as a counterpart to S.B. 2814. Both of these bills would exempt from civil tort liability engineers who render assistance within their profession in good faith during a declared disaster emergency. The introduction of a companion bill in the House shows that the subject is being taken seriously by legislators and has a better chance of passage.
