NASBP Focal Point – June 10, 2021

Not surprisingly, the administration and the Republican chief negotiator, Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Ranking Member on the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works (EPW), were unable to reach an agreement on an infrastructure package. The roadblock continues to be pay-fors. The administration supports a tax increase for corporations, while the Republicans support a user fee based approach.

It appears that the administration may look again to using reconciliation in order to avoid the Senate’s 60-vote requirement to advance legislation, a strategy the administration used to pass a $2 trillion COVID-relief package. However, this strategy may not work a second time. A group of bipartisan senators, which includes Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), have not given up on a bipartisan agreement and are trying to broker another infrastructure plan. The group has taken tax hikes and user fees off the table but has not addressed how to pay for their plan.

Meanwhile, the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus released a  $761.8 billion infrastructure plan, calling for improving and investing in highways, roads and bridges, transit and railways, ports and airports, water and sewer systems, energy systems and the power grid, and broadband and communications networks. Funding and financing sources, according to the Caucus, could come from expanding tax-advantaged financing options, such as municipal bonds and private activity bonds, and incentivizing states to adopt Public-Private Partnership Agreements (P3s) enabling legislation (41 states have already done so) and establish P3 units to evaluate projects for viability as public-private partnerships.

Early Thursday night, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee marked up and passed a nearly $547 billion surface transportation bill, H.R. 3684, the “Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America) Act.” The five-year bill authorizes $343 billion for roads, bridges, and safety, $95 billion for passenger and freight rail, and $109 billion for transit. H.R. 3684 passed mostly along party lines, with only two Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-1^st) and Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon (PR), voting in favor of advancing the bill. House members filed hundreds of amendments , which included Amendment 45, filed by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA-8^th). The bipartisan Lynch, et al amendment, as described in the NASBP press release, provides essential protections for workers, contractors, and suppliers by requiring payment and performance security on federally financed infrastructure projects receiving Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans, including public-private projects (P3s). Unfortunately, the Lynch amendment was not included in H.R. 3684. For your reference, you may listen to the YouTube clip where Mr. Lynch and Balderson address the importance of the amendment.

This afternoon, the House Small Business Committe Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure held a hearing entitled “Utilization of Small Contractors in the Infrastructure Plan.” The hearing focused on the importance of infrastructure investment and how it helps promote contracting opportunities for small businesses. NASBP, working with the members of the Construction Industry Procurement Coalition, helped the committee secure two witnesses for the panel: Sheila Ohrenberg, National President of Women Construction Owners and Executives, and Josh Bone, Executive Director of Industry Innovation, National Electrical Contractors Association.