Engineering Inc - July/August 2017 - 9

The Federal Highway
Administration has finalized
two regulations implementing
the performance management
requirements for state DOTs
and metropolitan planning
Organizations under the
Moving Ahead for Progress
in the 21st Century Act and
the Fixing America's Surface
Transportation Act.
The Pavement and Bridge
Condition Performance
Measures final rule establishes
measures for state DOTs
to assess the condition of
pavements on interstates and
the National Highway System
(NHS), and for bridges
carrying the NHS, including
on- and off-ramps connected
to the NHS.
The agency also finalized
the national performance

management measures for
assessing freight movement,
travel time reliability, congestion mitigation and air quality improvement programs.
This was the last and most
complicated of the performance rules mandated by
Congress. The agency indefinitely postponed a controversial provision requiring states
to measure and set reduction
targets for CO2 emissions,
which ACEC and other
stakeholders had opposed as
outside the agency's statutory
authority and an unnecessarily burden on transportation
agencies.
State DOTs are required
to set performance targets
by May 2018 and submit
biennial progress reports
beginning in May 2020.

Bipartisan Senate Water Bill
Funds CSO Projects, Expands QBS

HISHAM IBRAHIM / GETTY IMAGES

Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and John Boozman, R-Ariz., have
introduced legislation that authorizes funding to control wet
weather discharges and expands Qualifications-Based Selection
(QBS) for federally funded water projects.
The bill authorizes $1.8 billion
over five years to assist communities with projects to control combined sewer overflows, sanitary
sewer overflows and stormwater
discharges. The measure would
also expand the requirement to
use QBS for engineering services
under the State Revolving Fund
program to include drinking
water projects.
Both provisions were adopted
as part of a larger water bill in
the Senate last year. ACEC is working with the bill's sponsors
to promote passage, either as a stand-alone bill or as part of a
larger infrastructure proposal this year.

ISSUES ON THE MOVE

WHAT'S NEXT

F.Y. 2018 Budget

Congressional action this
summer

New financing for public
buildings

Possible action as part of tax
reform in the fall

Water infrastructure, QBS

Congressional action expected
this summer

ACEC Steps up Fight
Against PVC Pipe Mandates
ACEC is working at the state and national levels to oppose
proposed legislation requiring the use of PVC and other types
of plastic pipe on infrastructure projects in a manner that
interferes with the judgment of licensed engineers.
To date, ACEC and its state organizations
have had an unbroken record of success
in stopping these proposed mandates,
arguing that technical decisions regarding
pipes and other materials should be made
by engineers in consultation with their
clients.
New challenges, however, continue to
emerge. Over the past year, the plastic pipe
industry has been most active in Indiana,
Michigan, Ohio and South Carolina.
ACEC is working with our state
organizations to assemble materials to
assist in this effort and is coordinating with national partners
to broaden the coalition in opposition to such mandates.
EYJAFJALLAJOKULL / THINKSTOCK

FHWA Finalizes Performance
Management Regulations,
Withdraws GHG Emissions
Measurement

ACEC Backs Legislation to
Create Level Playing Field for
Federal Trade Association PACs
ACEC is backing legislation to repeal the "prior
approval" rule, which requires ACEC/PAC
and other federal trade association political
action committees (PACs) with corporate
members to get permission from individual
members before soliciting and/or accepting
contributions.
The bill, introduced by Mark Amodei, R-Nev.,
would allow ACEC and other associations
to communicate with their members under
the same set of federal rules that apply to
corporate PACs and labor unions.
The current prior approval law is
discriminatory because no other political entity,
including corporate, labor union and individual
membership association PACs are subject to
this restriction. The requirement also limits free
speech protected by the First Amendment
because it hinders political participation
among association members.

JULY / AUGUST 2017

For
More
News
For weekly
legislative
news, visit
ACEC's Last
Word online
at www.
acec.org.

ENGINEERING INC.

http://www.acec.org http://www.acec.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc - July/August 2017