December 2006 Government Affairs Update
IN THIS ISSUE …
1. National Surveyor’s Week Resolution,
Gone But Not Forgotten.
2. Upcoming Issues for 2007.
3. COFPAES Update.
National
Surveyor’s Week Resolution, Gone But Not Forgotten. The 109th Congress ended
without the National Surveyor’s Week Resolution (H. Res. 518) being brought up
for consideration. Consequently, the Surveyor’s Week Resolution only passed in
the Senate this year. The House version of the resolution went through the
Government Reform Committee. There is a standing rule in that Committee that
before any bill or resolution originating from that Committee can be brought to
the House floor for consideration; it must have 50 co-sponsors. Because of our
hard work, H. Res. 518 had 43 co-sponsors. Unfortunately, the 50 co-sponsor
rule would not be waived, so the resolution was not brought up for
consideration. We have not given up, however, and we will work with Congress to
pass the National Surveyor’s Week Resolution next year.
Upcoming Issues for 2007. We will be working on a number of important issues
with the new Congress in 2007. We expect that Congress will once again
introduce legislation relating to procurement of A/E services, Federal Prison
Industries reform, and Association Health Plans among other things, and we plan
to be involved in those issues. In addition, we will once again work for
funding for Trig-Star and will work for the introduction of legislation
regarding the monumentation of abandoned railroads.
Democrats
have said that they plan to examine the federal contracting process and may
review the Federal Davis-Bacon Act; we will monitor these issues too.
COFPAES Update. COFPAES had its Delegates Meeting on November 30 and the delegates
covered a number of interesting topics. We heard from the lawyers regarding the
COFPAES lawsuit against the FAR. The latest news is that the government made a
Motion to dismiss the lawsuit and the judge in the case denied the Motion. Both
sides of the lawsuit are going through discovery now, and a hearing date has
been set for February 2, 2007.
The
delegates also discussed the need for federal employee members of the COFPAES
organizations to participate in a task force to draft a white paper of the
acquisition of A/E services by the federal government.
We
discussed the progress of Federal Prison Industries reform legislation.
Legislation relating to FPI reform passed the House but not the Senate.
Consequently, FPI reform did not pass Congress this year.
Finally, we
talked about what the member organizations would like to see if revisions were
made to the Brooks Act. The purpose of these ‘what if” revisions is to have a
COFPAES approved package ready in the event there is a political and legislative
situation to enact improvements to the Brooks Act without risk.