January 2005
Government Affairs Update
IN THIS ISSUE …
1. COFPAES
News.
2. Stafford
Act Coalition Update.
3. USGS
Coalition Happenings.
4. New
Members of Congress.
5. Brooks
Medal Goes to Don Evick.
6. Davis-Bacon
Act
7. PAC
Auction Form is attached.
New Members of Congress. The
freshman class of the 109th Congress was recently sworn in to the
new legislative term. We thought it might be interesting to see if any ACSM
members personally know any of the freshman class. Here is the list of
Representatives (along with their hometown) and Senators. Who do YOU know?
House Representatives
Rep. John Barrow, Athens, GA;
Rep. Melissa Bean, McHenry, IL; Rep. Dan Boren, Paden, OK; Rep. Charles W. Boustany, Jr., Lafayette, LA; Rep. Russ Carnahan, St.
Louis, MO; Rep. Henry Cuellar, Laredo, TX; Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Kansas City,
MO; Jim Costa, Fresno, CA; Rep. Geoff Davis, Ft. Mitchell, KY; Thelma Drake, East
Ocean View, VA; Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, Langhorne, PA; Jeff Fortenberry, Lincoln, NE; Rep. Al Green, Houston, TX; Rep.
Bobby Jindal, Metairie, LA; Randy Kuhl, Corning,
NY; Rep. Daniel Lipinski, Chicago, IL; Rep. Cathy McMorris,
Spokane, WA; Rep. Daniel Lungren, Gold River, CA;
Rep. Gwen Moore, Milwaukee, WI; Rep. Ted Poe, Humble, TX; Rep. David Reichert; Mercer
Island, WA; Rep. John T. Salazar, Pueblo, CO; Rep. Michael Sodrel,
Jeffersonville, IN; Rep. Lynn Westmoreland,
Sharpsburg, GA; Rep. Joe
Schwarz, Lansing, MI; Rep. Allyson Schwartz, Ambler, PA; Rep. Tim Price, Marietta,
GA; Rep. Charlie Melancon, Gonzalez, CA; Kenny Marchant Carrollton, TX; Rep. Connie Mack, Ft. Myers, FL;
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Decatur, GA Rep. Patrick McHenry, Hickory, NC; Rep.
Michael McCaul, Austin, TX; Rep. Bob Inglis Greenville, SC; Rep. Louie Gohmert,
Tyler, TX; Rep. Brian Higgins, Buffalo, NY; Rep. Charles Dent, Bethlehem, PA;
Rep. Virginia Foxx, Clemmons, NC; Rep. K. Michael Conaway, Midland, TX.
Senators
Ken Salazar, CO; Mel
Martinez, FL; Johnny Isakson, GA; Barack Obama, IL; David Vitter, LA; Richard Burr, NC; Tom Coburn,
OK; John Thune, SD; Jim DeMint, SC.
COFPAES News.
50th Anniversary of Circular a-76. January 15th marked the 50th
Anniversary of the federal policy that is known today as OMB Circular A-76. The
original policy was issued by President Dwight Eisenhower in the Bureau of the
Budget Bulletin 55-4 and declared that it is in the public interest that the
federal government establish a consistent policy to rely on the private sector
of the economy to provide goods and services that are necessary for or
beneficial to the operation and management of the federal government agencies
and to avoid federal government competition with the private sector of the
economy.
New rating system for Members of Congress. COFPAES will start to rate Members of Congress on
their attentiveness and voting habits relating to issues important to the A/E
community. This rating system should serve as a guide in helping us determine
who our friends are in Congress, and ultimately who deserves our financial
support.
Stafford Act Coalition News.
Laurence Socci recently
joined the Stafford Act Coalition in a meeting with House and Senate staff to
discuss the issues pending for the 109th Congress. Among the
relevant issues discussed were:
Reauthorization of the Predisaster
Mitigation Program. Legislation was introduced last year which would have
reauthorized the predisaster mitigation program for
three years. Although the Stafford Act Coalition supported this legislation, it
did not pass. The Coalition will push Congress to introduce legislation in the
109th Congress to reauthorize the predisaster
mitigation program.
Restoring the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
Formula to 15%. The FY03
appropriations omnibus package included language to change the formula for HMGP
from 15 percent of disaster costs, to 7.5 percent, which has caused degradation
of post-disaster mitigation opportunities. The coalition will ask Congress to
restore the post-disaster mitigation program to the 15 percent level of
disaster costs for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
USGS Coalition Happenings.
Laurence Socci recently
joined the USGS Coalition as it met with Greg Knadle,
House Interior Appropriations Committee Staff to discuss funding for the USGS. Mr.
Knadle talked about how funding for the USGS is
especially tight this year, in spite of all of the recent disasters throughout
the country, because the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is making cuts
in a number of programs. He suggested that the coalition work to bring its message
down to the average person’s level and “make it personal” when speaking to
legislators. He also mentioned that Congress won’t consider new USGS programs
or related funding to states because there are many programs in the USGS that
are sinking.
Brooks Medal Goes to Don Evick.
COFPAES
has awarded its prestigious “Brooks Medal” to Donald R. Evick,
PE, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The award was recently presented at a special ceremony at The American
Institute of Architects. The Brooks Medal honors individuals who have provided
extraordinary service to the public in their advocacy of qualifications based
selection (QBS) of A/E services. The
medal is named for former Congressman Jack Brooks, the author of the Brooks Act
and for whom the Brooks Act is affectionately named.
Past
award recipients have included Senator William Cohen, who later became
Secretary of Defense, Senator James Inhofe, Congressman Tom Davis, and
Congressional staff member Bill Montalto.
In
remarks at the award presentation, COFPAES Chairman Joe Wisnewski,
FAIA, 2004 COFPAES Chairman, said “Don Evick has been
the epitome of quality and professionalism.
He has been an effective advocate for QBS within government agencies and
has been one of those dedicated Federal employees who work quietly, behind the scenes;
to make qualifications based selection work.
At a time when it is popular in some quarters to bash government
bureaucrats, it is heartwarming to know there are dedicated public servants who
choose government service and are dedicated to making government work for the
people. Don epitomizes the thousands of
Federal employees who make the system work.
For a career of dedication to quality in the relationship between
Federal agencies and the design professionals it retains by contract, COFPAES
is pleased an honored to bestow the Brooks Medal to Don Evick.”
During
his with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Evick has
been the primary instructor and developer of the Corps’ A/E contracting class,
teaching as many as 10 sessions of the course each year. He has written the Engineer Supplement to the
FAR/DFAR/AFAR on the A-E process, and the Corps pamphlet on doing A-E business
with the Corps. He was a leader in the
development of the new SF 330, which replaced the old 254 and 255 earlier this
year and he was responsible for seeing this all the way through OMB
approval. He reformed and updated the
old A-E contracting support system (ACASS), migrating it to a new web based
system, has been the liaison between the professional organizations and the Corps
on A/E contracting policy, facilitating issues raised by the contracting
community; helped negotiate the Corps partnering agreement with several A-E
organizations which became a model for public-private partnership between the
Corps and the A-E community and for a number of years, has handled all
professional registration policy issues for the Corps.
Davis-Bacon Letter Now Available on ACSM website.
We've
received many requests from members asking for clarification about the
Davis-Bacon Act and how it applies to the various states. The general rule is:
(1) Davis-Bacon only applies to federal contracts; (2) Davis-Bacon only applies
to laborers. The Department of Labor has ruled that Davis-Bacon does not
generally apply to surveyors. However, where surveying is performed immediately
prior to and during actual construction, in direct support of construction
crews, such activity is covered by Davis-Bacon requirements for laborers
and mechanics. Thus, instrumentmen, transitmen, party chief, etc. are not considered laborers
and not covered by Davis-Bacon, while crew members who primarily do manual
labor, like clearing brush, is considered a laborer and is covered for the
time spent doing the manual work. Curt Sumner and Laurence Socci met
recently with Dept. of Labor staff to get clarification on the issue and, as a
result of that meeting, received a letter from the Dept. of Labor which
clarifies the rule. The letter is available on our website at http://www.acsm.net/govaf00.html