For the Week Ending October 6, 2000
This weekly report is written by the American Society of Civil Engineers? 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 by e-mail or at 202/789-2200.
Inside This Week:
1. FREE BREAKFAST IN SEATTLE
Will you be attending the 2000 Civil Engineering Conference and Exposition in Seattle? On Thursday, October 19 from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., members of ASCE?s Key Contact Program are invited to learn more about the accomplishments of the 106th Congress and how to make the most of the Key Contact Program. Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA) has been invited to be the keynote speaker. Representative Dicks is the Ranking Minority Member of the House Appropriations Interior subcommittee and also sits on the Military Construction and Defense subcommittees.
ASCE?s Key Contact Program provides members with the opportunity to help shape public policy in areas that affect the civil engineering profession. This breakfast is offered free of charge to Key Contact Program members by the ASCE Government Relations Department. Advance registration is required. Please contact Liz Hermsen, ASCE Manager of Grassroots Programs at (202) 789-2200 or lhermsen@asce.org to reserve your seat or to learn more about the Key Contact Program.
2. CONGRESS RAISES CAP ON H-1B VISAS
On October 3, the Senate voted 96-1 to increase from 115,000 to 195,000 the number of highly skilled foreign workers permitted into the country each year under H-1B visas. Shortly afterward, the House followed suit by passing the legislation, S. 2045, by voice vote. President Clinton has indicated that he will sign the bill.
The H-1B program allows employers to hire a limited number of foreign, highly skilled workers for temporary jobs in the U.S. Three-fourths of those visas are granted for workers in the ?high-tech? computer and engineering fields.
The legislation has raised concerns among engineering and scientific societies, including ASCE, which believe that the easy availability of guest-workers reduces incentives for companies to hire and train U.S. workers. While unable to derail the proposed bill, especially in the face of the strong backing of the computer industry and its campaign contributions, the engineering community was successful in modifying the legislation. The final bill includes a $500 fee for each visa application. The $300 million raised from this source will go to education and training programs to help American workers obtain the skills required for high-tech jobs. To view ASCE?s policy statement, go to the web site /pressroom/news/policy_details.cfm?hdlid=28.
On a related note, the House on October 6 passed, by unanimous consent, a bill designed to double the fee that employers pay to hire foreign professionals under the H-1B visa program. The H-1B fee increase legislation was introduced earlier in the week by House Rules Committee Chair David Dreier (R-CA) and Ranking Member Joseph Moakley (D-MA), when the House approved a Senate-passed bill to raise the caps on the number of H-1B visa holders entering the United States - many of whom are sought by the high technology industry. The Senate did not, however, agree to include the fee increase in Rep. Dreier's version of H-1B legislation, which is intended to fund education programs to ensure American workers can fill those high tech jobs in the future. Rather than amend the Senate bill, Reps. Dreier and Moakley simply offered the fee increase as a separate measure.
3. INTERIOR AND TRANSPORTATION SPENDING BILLS PASS
The Senate on Thursday, October 5 cleared, with a vote of 83-13, the conference report on an $18.8 billion Fiscal Year 2001 Interior appropriations bill. President Clinton has indicated that he would sign the bill, which the House of Representatives had already passed on October 3 with a vote of 348-69. The conference report totals $2.4 billion more than the President originally requested, $3.8 billion more than the House?s original bill and $3 billion more than the Senate?s. It contains an emergency boost of $1.6 billion for fire fighting and prevention after this year?s severe Western forest fires. Land management agencies would receive a total of $7.2 billion. The Interior bill would be the third of 13 appropriations bills enacted this year.
Further, both the House and Senate adopted the Fiscal Year 2001 Transportation appropriations conference report on October 6 and will send it to the President for his likely signature. The $30.7 billion spending conference report passed the House on a 344-50 vote, and the Senate followed suit 78-10. The final bill, which President Clinton is expected to sign, would require states to adopt a legal drunk driving standard of 0.08 percent blood alcohol content or forfeit up to 8 percent of their annual highway funds by 2008. Thirty-three states have a .10 percent BAC standard; seventeen states and the District of Columbia have already adopted the .08 percent BAC standard.
House and Senate leaders are planning to act on all of the remaining nine spending bills the week of October 10, even as last-minute snags threatened to stall remaining measures.
4. COFPAES TO DONATE $25,000 TO CALIFORNIA PROP. 35 FIGHT
The Council on Federal Procurement of Architecture and Engineering Services (COFPAES) voted to give $25,000 to the coalition promoting Proposition 35 in California. A California court ruling inhibits the ability of state and local governments in that state to contract services to private sector architecture and engineering firms. ASCE is a founding member of COFPAES.
Proposition 35 would overturn that ruling and allow governments in California to hire private sector firms. COFPAES is a coalition of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, and surveying organizations dedicated to promoting of the use of qualifications-based selection procedures when governments procure A/E services.
5. 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 bill(s), 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 afulk@asce.org.
6. Transportation Summit in Connecticut
On September 28th, the state of Connecticut sponsored a Transportation Summit to address transportation issues in the state for the future. While not an official participant, the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE) made its views known to participants. For two weeks prior to the Summit, the Society sponsored an advertising campaign publicizing the event and highlighting what civil engineers can do for the state. The campaign, which was partially funded by an ASCE State Public Affairs Grant, helped educate the public about the important work civil engineers perform in solving transportation problems. Additionally, two days before the Summit, CSCE Vice President Randall States and CSCE member Herb Levinson, participated in a one hour on air interview discussion with State House of Representatives Speaker Moira Lyons on radio station WICC AM 600, which had an audience of approximately 60,000 listeners.
7. State Ballot Initiatives
A number of state ballot initiatives this year deal with transportation, infrastructure and smart growth issues, including the following:
South Carolina
Voters in Charleston County will vote on a proposal to raise a local sales tax by one-half cent to fund roads and transit. If passed, the tax is estimated to bring in an additional $1.2 billion in new funding.
New Jersey
A ballot initiative here asks the voters to decide whether to dedicate all tax proceeds from sales of petroleum and auto sales to the state's transportation fund. The fund, which is used to pay for highway and transit capital projects, would see its funding increase by an estimated $1 billion over the next four years if the measure passes.
Oregon
Oregon currently has some of the nation's strictest land-use regulations, but that could change if the state's voters approve Measure 7 this November. Measure 7 would expand the state constitution's "takings" clause to require the state to compensate property owners for state regulatory actions that reduce a property owner's land value. Currently, compensation is only required when the state actually takes an owner's property.
Ohio
State Issue # 1, a bond authorization, would make up to $400 million available for brownfield redevelopment and open space and farmland conservation.
Rhode Island
Question 1 would authorize the issuance of $34 million in state bonds for land purchases to help preserve open space. The money would be leveraged with other funds to provide $80 million for land acquisition.
Florida
Voters will be asked to support a proposed monorail system linking the state's five largest metropolitan areas. The initiative has no funding provisions but, if passed, would require the state to proceed with the project.
