This Week in Washington
For the Week Ending June 7, 2001This 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:
- Issues Survey -- In Your Mailbox and On-line
- President Signs Tax Bill
- Congress Still Working on Education Issues
- FAA Unveils Aviation Plan
- Corps Seeks to Ease New Wetlands Regulation
- NAS Tells White House That Global Warming is Real
- Report Card Receives More Attention
- Wind Hazard Reduction Coalition Will Hold Capitol Hill Briefing
- State Government Relations Update
1. Issues Survey -- In Your Mailbox and On-line
The next time you reach into your mailbox, you may find ASCE’s second 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 2002 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 second session of the 107th Congress.
Please complete the survey by June 29, 2001. If you have any questions, please contact the Government Relations Department at govwash@asce.org or (202) 789-2200.
2. PRESIDENT SIGNS TAX BILL
President Bush signed the $1.35 trillion tax cut bill on June 7. A complete rundown on provisions concerning civil engineers can be found in the May 31 version of This Week in Washington at /pressroom/news/grwk/thisweek0531.cfm#one.
3. CONGRESS STILL WORKING ON EDUCATION ISSUES
Education issues are still in play on Capitol Hill. The Senate resumes debate on S. 1, President Bush’s education reform bill. The debate will begin with several amendments concerning school testing and federal funding for testing. The House has completed work on its version of the bill, H.R. 1.
Meanwhile, the House Science Committee began consideration of two bills that deal with math and science education programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Authored by Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), the bills, H.R. 100, “the National Science Education Act” and H.R. 1858 “the National Mathematics and Science Partnerships Act,” seek to augment math and science education through programs at NSF.
H.R. 100 would authorize $75 million for programs within NSF to create a master teachers program, fund a study to determine best practices for teaching math and science, fund teacher training in the use of information technologies, fund pilot programs on distant learning, and provide scholarships for teachers to participate in research programs.
H.R. 1858 would provide grants for institutions of higher learning and appropriate nonprofit organizations to establish math and science education partnerships to improve math and science teaching. The measure would also provide for education research; expand the National Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education Digital Library; establish centers for research on education and learning; and create a scholarship program designed to recruit and train math and science teachers. The bill would authorize a total of $260 million in new funding.
Copies of all bills are available on the Web at http://thomas.loc.gov by doing a Bill Number search.
4. FAA UNVEILS AVIATION PLAN
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) unveiled on June 5 its 10-year blue print for increasing the capacity of the nation’s aviation system. The plan, which the FAA claims will increase capacity by 30 percent, relies heavily on new technologies. It also includes expansion of airport facilities and improved communications. The plan, known as the Operational Evolution Plan, incorporates 50 programs and will cost, over 10-years, $11.5 billion for facilities and equipment and $77 billion in operations expenses. The report can be viewed on the Web at www.faa.gov/programs/oep/.
5. CORPS SEEKS TO EASE NEW WETLANDS REGULATION
The Army Corps of Engineers has confirmed that it wants to relax a series of year-old rules designed to restrict development and the resulting degradation of thousands of streams and other wetlands, angering environmentalists and drawing sharp criticism from other federal agencies.
In the spring of 2000, the Corps provoked a lawsuit by the nation's home builders by adopting new nationwide general permits for a number of activities -- including one that required a permit for any construction of single-family housing disturbing more than a quarter of an acre of wetlands -- making it much harder for developers to secure "general" permits to drain or fill wetlands. The new rule requires developers to obtain more onerous "individual" permits for all but the least intrusive projects.
But now the Corps has proposed more than a dozen measures that would roll back some of the stricter mandates, while giving the agency much more flexibility to decide who needs the tougher permits on a case-by-case basis. The goal is to make the permitting process work more manageably, said a Corps spokesman on June 4.
6. NAS TELLS WHITE HOUSE THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL
Responding to a request from the Bush administration, a new report by a scientific review panel of the National Academy of Science (NAS) says that the current state of world science indicates that global warming and climate change are real issues.
Based on assumptions that emissions of greenhouse gases will accelerate and conservative assumptions about how the climate will react to that, computer models suggest that average global surface temperatures will rise between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius) by the end of this century.
The committee said the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the global warming that has occurred in the last 50 years is likely the result of increases in greenhouse gases accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community.
But it cautioned that uncertainties about this conclusion remain because of the level of natural variability inherent in the climate on time scales from decades to centuries, the questionable ability of models to simulate natural variability on such long time scales, and the degree of confidence that can be placed in estimates of temperatures going back thousands of years based on evidence from tree rings or ice cores.
7. REPORT CARD RECEIVES MORE ATTENTION
In the May 28 San Francisco Bay Guardian, Green Party activist Ralph Nader stated, “The neglect of the nation's infrastructure -- everything from water plants to transportation systems -- is a national disgrace that threatens not only the economy, but the health and safety of the entire citizenry.” Nader uses ASCE’s 2001 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure to make his point. The Report Card, available on ASCE’s Web site at /reportcard, was released in May 2001 and gave our nation’s infrastructure an overall grade of D+. Nader’s article can be viewed on the Web at http://www.sfbg.com/nader/152.html.
8. WIND HAZARD REDUCTION COALITION WILL HOLD CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING
The Wind Hazard Reduction Coalition, of which ASCE is a founding member, will hold a briefing on “Hurricanes & Tornadoes: What to Expect from the 2001 Season” in Washington, DC on Wednesday, June 13. Hear from hurricane and tornado experts as the present the latest information on economic impacts, emergency management, evacuation and sheltering, flood and wind threats, mitigation efforts, and future research needs. Speakers will be ASCE members Steve Leatherman, Florida International University International Hurricane Center; Marc Levitan, Louisiana State University Hurricane Center; and Kishor Mehta, Texas Tech University Wind Engineering Research Center. The briefing will be held in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. To RSVP or for more information, please contact Nora Smith at govwash@asce.org or (202) 789-2200.
Thirty Representatives currently hold membership in the Congressional Wind Hazard Reduction Caucus, the congressional counterpart to the public-sector Wind Hazard Reduction Coalition. Legislation supporting wind hazard mitigation, research, and technology transfer is expected to be introduced shortly in the House of Representatives.
9. STATE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS UPDATE
ASCE provides updates on individual state government matters affecting civil engineers. For more information on the following item(s), or any other state government relations matters, please contact Austin Fulk, ASCE’s Manager of State Government Relations, at (202) 789-2200 or via email at afulk@asce.org.
State Legislative Update
The following bills were recently introduced in state legislatures across the country. If you have questions about particular legislation, please contact Austin Fulk. These bills affect the civil engineering profession, but ASCE National has not taken a position on them unless otherwise noted.
California
A.B. 620 would establish the High-Tech Schools Grant Program to funnel funds to establish schools that offer rigorous pre-college programs in math, science, or engineering.
Illinois
H.B. 3489 would authorize the issuance of $3.5 billion in new bonds to fund transportation projects.
Nevada
S.B. 362 consolidates and streamlines the processes and permits necessary to construct new power plants.
North Carolina
S.B. 852 allows state departments to obtain design and construction insurance against property damage caused by the state on public works projects.
Tennessee
H.B. 110 calls for an inventory of existing dams and sets forth a procedure for ongoing reclassification of their hazard factors based on new construction downstream from them.
Wisconsin
A.B. 436 would require the Department of Transportation to review proposals for school construction and/or modification to determine the modifications’ impact on local traffic flow and provide input to the school district on traffic flow related to the construction.
