This Week in Washington

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, or Austin Fulk by e-mail or at 202/789-2200.

Inside This Week:

• House and Senate Adopt Conference Report on VA-HUD Appropriations Bill
• Conferees Signal Quick Action on Aviation Security Measure
• New Consolidated Form SF 330 Proposed in Federal Acquisition Regulation
• U.S. Oil, Gas Reserves Increased in 2000, Says DOE
• State Government Relations Update

1. House and Senate Adopt Conference Report on VA-HUD Appropriations Bill

The House and Senate adopted the VA-HUD and independent agencies FY 2002 appropriations bill, HR 2620, on November 8. The legislation includes funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Lawmakers provided EPA with $7.9 billion, a $75 million increase from FY 2001 and a nearly $600 million boost over the Bush administration's request.

Little controversy surrounded the EPA segment of the larger VA-HUD bill. The lone dispute within the EPA budget came from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who is concerned about the potential $1 billion in new costs that rural and small communities will face due to the EPA's proposed 10 parts per billion arsenic standard for drinking water.

The bill, H.R. 2620, calls on EPA Administrator Christie Whitman to provide Congress in March with both her agency's planned or underway actions for arsenic as well as recommendations on how lawmakers should deal with the costs to small and rural communities.

Conferees funded the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund $1.35 billion, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund at $850 million, Section 319 non-point source pollution grants at $237 million, Section 105 and 103 state and local air quality grants at $222 million and provided $10 million for new water quality monitoring at the nation's beaches. Also at FY 2001 levels is the EPA Superfund program, set at $1.27 billion, which includes $95 million for the brownfields program.

As part of the HR 2620, the National Science Foundation will receive $4.789 billion in FY 2002, a 8.2 percent increase over FY 2001. Among the specific line items are:

RESEARCH AND RELATED ACTIVITIES: ($3,598,340,000) including $467.5 million for engineer research.

MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES CONSTRUCTION ($138,800,000) including $24 million for Earthquake Engineering Simulation.

EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES ($875,000,000), including $160 million for Math and Sciences Partnerships, $11 million for the Office of Innovation Partnerships, $5 million for the New Undergraduate Workforce Initiative, and $105 million for Graduate Stipends (Graduate stipends will be $21,500 for FY 2002).

In other areas, the bill provides $2.2 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster relief, and it funds FEMA?s firefighting program at $150 million, $50 million above the budget request.

2. Conferees Signal Quick Action on Aviation Security Measure

House and Senate Conferees opened the first conference meeting to reconcile differences between House and Senate aviation security bills by staking out positions, but indicated willingness to compromise to send a bill to the president before Thanksgiving.

The main area of disagreement is the employment status of airport security workers--whether they should be federal and local government workers, as in the Senate bill, or private workers under increased federal oversight, as in the House bill. Another issue is where oversight of airport security should be handled, by the Transportation Department as in the House bill, or by the Justice Department, as in the Senate bill. Some conferees, such as Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) are adamant that DOJ officials supervise the screeners.

3. New Consolidated Form SF 330 Proposed in Federal Acquisition Regulation

On Friday, October 19, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Proposed Rule 2000-608, New Consolidated Form for Selection of A-E Contractors, was published in the Federal Register for public comment. The proposed rule change will affect the selection of architect-engineer (A/E) contractors for the U.S. Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The new form, SF 330, will replace Standard Forms 254 and 255 that have been used for 25 years. Comments are due to the FAR Secretariat by December 18, 2001.

View the document.

The new SF 330 would expand essential information about the firm?s qualifications, experience, disciplines, and technology. The new form will also be organized into data blocks for electronic entry, thus reducing the time involved in processing the submittals. ASCE will be submitting comments to the government on this issue.

4. U.S. Oil, Gas Reserves Increased in 2000, Says DOE

U.S. crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids proved reserves increased in 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the Department of Energy.

Proved reserves of dry natural gas increased 6 percent, by far the largest increase since EIA has been estimating the nation's proved gas reserves. Such an unusually large increase should not be expected to occur very often in the future, because the number of frontier areas is diminishing. In addition, the unusual combination of a large increase in the number of exploratory wells and a large increase in total discoveries per exploratory well is unlikely to occur very often in the future, because an increase in the number of exploratory wells usually decreases discoveries per well, the EIA said.

Reserves additions replaced 152 percent of U.S. dry natural gas production. The majority of natural gas proved reserves additions came from Texas and New Mexico in the Southwest, and from States with large coal bed methane reserves like Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. U.S. natural gas proved reserves have increased in six of the last seven years. Natural gas liquids reserves increased in proportion with natural gas reserves.

U.S. crude oil proved reserves increased about 1 percent. Crude oil reserves additions replaced 115 percent of oil production. The majority of crude oil proved reserves additions came from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore frontier area. Large total discoveries of crude oil in 2000 also came mainly from this Federal Offshore frontier area and the Alaskan North Slope, which both provided very high discoveries per exploratory well.

Proved reserves are the estimated quantities, which geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.

5. 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 e-mail at afulk@asce.org

Election Wrap-Up
Tuesday's elections brought about a number of changes in the state political landscape. In Virginia, Democrats captured the top two statewide offices, governor and lieutenant governor. Transportation was a major issue in the campaign, with the candidates having diverging views on a proposal to let local jurisdictions in northern Virginia hold a referendum on whether or not to impose a local sales tax to provide more funding for transportation and school construction. Despite losing several statewide races, Republicans gained 12 seats in Virginia's House of Delegates. Among the newly elected Delegates is Tom Rust, currently mayor of Herndon, Virginia. Delegate Rust becomes the only civil engineer in the Virginia legislature.

Democrats made big gains in New Jersey, capturing the governor's office, re-taking control of the state Assembly, and gaining a tie in the state Senate. Transportation was also a major issue in the elections, with one candidate proposing the elimination of tolls on the Garden State Parkway.

In Washington state, voters passed I-747, which limits property tax increases to 1 percent annually unless voters in a locality vote for a higher increase. It is feared that this initiative, if held to be constitutional, could result in less money being available for infrastructure projects.