Recently, 51·çÁ÷ sent letters opposing the possible use of a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate posted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District. The letters address the possible use of mandatory PLAs involving the construction work on the Chickamauga Lock in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Kentucky Lock Addition near Paducah, Kentucky.
Save $75 on Registration Fee; Held May 10-11 in DC
Register before January 31 for the 2016 51·çÁ÷ Federal Contractors Conference (FEDCON) and save $75 off the registration fee. FEDCON—held May 10-11 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.—is the premier conference for federal construction contractors to discuss the latest projects, policies and contracting issues facing the industry with federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Facility Engineering Command, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, General Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of State, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Bureau of Reclamation.
Passage Expected Before Christmas
On Wednesday, Congressional leaders released a $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that will fund federal agencies and programs for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2016. Overall, the bill includes mostly good news for construction accounts, as many see increases compared to FY 2015 levels and others receive significantly smaller cuts than Congress initially wanted. The omnibus bill provides nearly $121 billion for federal construction accounts as tracked by 51·çÁ÷. This is an increase of approximately $8 billion from fiscal year 2015 and $15 billion less than the administration’s fiscal year 2016 budget request. To give time for passage of this final spending package, Congress passed another short-term funding bill—called a continuing resolution—that will fund the government through Dec. 22. The House is expected to pass the omnibus bill on Friday, with a vote in the Senate to follow shortly thereafter.
Prior to Thanksgiving, the president signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2016 (NDAA Bill), which includes several 51·çÁ÷-backed federal procurement reform provisions that will help prevent individual surety fraud, allow joint ventures to submit individual businesses’ relevant past performance evaluations as part of their proposals—not merely the relevant past performance of the joint venture itself—and fix a recent court decision that would have required small business construction contractors to purchase all their materials and supplies from other small businesses.
51·çÁ÷ Federal Procurement Priorities to Become Law
Both the House (last week) and Senate (this week) overwhelmingly passed the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2016 (NDAA Bill), a bill the president vetoed just two weeks ago. The president is expected to sign the bill into law as a result of the bipartisan budget agreement reached two weeks ago. Compared to the vetoed version of the bill, this NDAA bill has slightly lower levels of spending for Department of Defense programs.
Save $100 on Registration Fee
Register today for the 2016 51·çÁ÷ Federal Contractors Conference (FEDCON) and save $100 off the registration fee. FEDCON is the premier conference for federal construction contractors to discuss the latest projects, policies and contracting issues facing the industry with federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Facility Engineering Command, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, General Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of State, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Bureau of Reclamation.
The House and Senate approved the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, which includes several 51·çÁ÷-supported procurement reforms. Those reforms:
Positive Change Stemming from 51·çÁ÷ Legislative Action
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released a proposed rule that would allow prime contractors to count lower-tier, small business subcontracts towards their small business subcontracting goals. Currently, prime contractors can only take credit for their small business subcontracts at the first tier. This proposed rule will allow prime contractors to take credit for such subcontracts—above $650,000—at any tier to meet such goals.
51·çÁ÷ Legislative Success Begins Implementation Process
The FAR Council released a proposed rule that would help limit the number of short-listed design-build teams to no more than five during a two-step design-build procurement through federal agencies. The proposed rule takes a two-pronged approach to implementing this policy. First, for contracts at or below $4 million, contracting officers will have to document their reasons for including more than five teams on the short-list. Second, for contracts above $4 million, contracting officers will not only have to provide such documentation to include more than five teams, but also have approval from the head of the contracting agency—i.e., Chief of Engineers at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—to include more than five teams on the short-list.
Prohibits Reverse Auctions for Construction Services Contracts
This week, Sens. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced and passed legislation out of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee that would help prohibit federal agencies from conducting reverse auctions for construction services contracts. A reverse auction is a procurement process through which contractors bid down price—and can see others’ bids—for a good or service contract in real time. Many federal agencies use reverse auctions to procure non-variable commodities like pens and paper. However, several federal agencies also use reverse auctions to procure construction services, which are inherently variable based on the project, site location and construction professionals.