... CONGRESSIONAL DOCKET

Congress Breaks for Elections
Some Issues of Interest to NACA Members Remain Unfinished

Both the U.S. House and Senate recessed for the November elections last Saturday, leaving a number of important pieces of legislation unfinished. They include:

.........• Non-Defense Discretionary Funding Bills—The first order of business after Congress returns in November will be completion of the annual budget process. Congress completed action on only two annual funding bills—the fiscal year 2007 defense and the homeland security appropriations bills.

The remaining spending measures—including non-defense domestic spending bills providing federal infrastructure investments—will be completed after the elections. Congress approved a continuing resolution funding programs in the yet to be enacted spending bills through November 17.

.........• SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Bill—House and Senate transportation committees were not able to finalize legislation making programmatic and technical language corrections to last year's highway and public transportation law prior to breaking for the elections.

The House completed action on the measure (H.R. 6233) last Friday evening. The Senate, however, was unable to gain consent to bring the House-passed corrections bill up for consideration due to objections from the Senate Banking Committee regarding the inclusion of a transit provision.

ACPA and PCA were successful in securing inclusion of language correcting a provision in SAFETEA-LU that changed the long-standing cost share requirements within the pavement and concrete bridge research sections from the TEA-21 level of 80-20 ratio to a 50-50 match.

If not corrected, the net effect of this change will be to limit the amount of pavement and concrete bridge research that is done under this program.

.........• Water Resources Bill—House and Senate conferees working on the Water Resources Development Act of 2006 (H.R. 2854) were unable to reach a final agreement before recessing.

Conference negotiations will continue after the election break to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills. There are several controversial issues that negotiators need to address, including the scope of independent review of Corps projects; revisions to the principles and guidelines the Corps uses to measure project benefits; and the overall number of water projects authorized in the final legislation.

.........• The ROCK Act—Congress also did not complete consideration of the recently introduced legislation that would make the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Information TEAM (MIT) an independent agency within the Department of the Interior.

As H.R. 6080, "The Resources Origin and Commodity Knowledge (ROCK) Act," was only recently considered by the House Resources Committee, enactment was not expected to occur this year.

The MIT collects, analyzes, and disseminates domestic and international shipments data for minerals and basic commodities, including portland cement. The information reported by MIT is instrumental for understanding the effective use of the nation's resources and for accurate forecasting. The reports related to portland cement shipments have a superior level of credibility and are used by the investment and contracting communities.

Congress is expected to return November 13 for a "lame-duck" session, and will continue working toward completing its business for the 109th Congress.

For more information, contact: Jim Kolb or David Hubbard.

Senate Approves Transportation Nominee

Prior to adjourning last Saturday morning, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Mary Peters as the nation's 15th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. She succeeded Norman Y. Mineta.

Secretary Peters—a long-time friend of the transportation-construction industry—served as Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration from 2001 to 2005. Previously, she spent 16 years at the Arizona Department of Transportation, including three years as director. Most recently, she was a senior vice president at HDR Engineering.

In a statement issued Saturday, the President described Secretary Peters as "an innovative thinker who will work with state and local leaders to confront challenges and solve problems."

For more information, contact: Jim Kolb or John Sullivan.

Agency Reaffirms Pledge to Use New Rules in Enforcement

In response to a letter from Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) affirmed its enforcement policy is still driven by the latest regulations related to new source review (NSR).

Several NSR rules and policies are currently tied up in court; some have been the subject of conflicting decisions in various jurisdictions.

This uncertainty was said to have concerned Senator Inhofe, who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Specifically, he asked whether the EPA's enforcement policies were still being guided by a 2005 memo from Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock. The memo stated the EPA would bring enforcement actions only against violations of the new rules, even if the alleged violation occurred prior to the promulgation of the rule change.

The reply to Senator Inhofe effectively reaffirms the Peacock memo.

For more information, contact: Tom Carter.

Seattle Plans to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Seattle Mayor Gregory Nickels has announced a strategy for reducing the city's greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

This reduction is what was assigned to the United States by the United Nations Kyoto Protocol, even though the initiative was never ratified in the United States.

The Seattle plan would focus on extracting reductions by improving transportation and reducing energy consumption. The city government has already reduced its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent from 1990 levels.

For more information, contact: Tom Carter.

Agency Unveils New Safety, Health Topics Page

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) yesterday announced its new Web page, "Making the Business Case for Safety and Health" on the agency's Web site topics page.

OSHA has developed approximately 200 such pages to educate workers about safety and health issues in the workplace. The new page focuses on how businesses can improve and save money by adopting comprehensive safety and health programs.

OSHA launched a concrete and concrete products (manufacturing and construction) safety page earlier this year.

The Web site directs users to resources that detail the true costs of injuries and illnesses; the economic benefits from workplace safety and health programs; and, particularly, the project designs that incorporate safety as an element.

For more information, contact: Tom Harman.

Agency Offers Hexavalent Chromium Guidance For Small Businesses

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) announced earlier this week it has issued guidance for small businesses to use to comply with the rule to address occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium in the workplace.

The document is divided into sections that address the major parts of the standard, including exposure monitoring, regulated areas, respiratory protection, and hygiene areas.

With the exception of engineering controls, all provisions of the standard must be in place at work sites by November 28, 2006, or May 31, 2007, depending on the number of employees at the company.

Exposures from portland cement were excluded from the scope of the standard in all three major sectors regulated by OSHA: construction, general industry and maritime.

In addition to the portland cement exclusion, the ready-mixed concrete industry was excluded under the threshold exemption. Results from an inhalation survey conducted by the RMC Research Foundation provided objective data that workers are not exposed above the level noted in the threshold exclusion, currently at 0.5 µg/m³ as a time weighted average over eight hours.

For more information, contact: Tom Harman or Andy O'Hare or Tom Carter.

Senate Rejects Agency Nominees One More Time

Before adjourning last week, the U.S. Senate once again returned to the President the nominations of Richard Stickler to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, along with William Wehrum to be the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation.

Both nominees were similarly rejected before the summer recess in August. It is unclear at this time how the nominations will be handled by the White House. Stickler and Wehrum could still be appointed to their positions by the President while Congress is in a recess. Wehrum continues to serve as the Acting Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation.

The most likely time for a recess appointment would be after the new Congress convenes in 2007. A recess appointment made after the new Congress convenes in January would be effective until the end of the Bush Administration in January 2009.

For more information, contact: Andy O'Hare, Tom Carter, or Tom Harman.

Motor Carrier Safety Administration Releases Draft Strategic Plan

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has released for comment a draft Strategic Plan. The final plan, to be released later this year, will be an important foundation for reauthorization, which will span 2010 through 2016.

The aim of draft plan is to define the strategic goals of the FMCSA in the context of a growing commercial motor vehicle environment while staying true to the agency's central mission of safety.

Indeed, one of the primary objectives identified will be to achieve a commercial motor vehicle fatality rate of no more than 1.65 per 100 million miles traveled by 2008.

The draft plan indicates that this objective will be met in part using new technological solutions that include such applications as crash avoidance, rollover protection, and lane-departure warning systems.

Click here to review the draft plan.

Comments or suggestions on the draft can via e-mail. FMCSA will collect comments through October 27, 2006.

For more information, contact: Robert Sullivan.

Questions about this newsletter? For more information or to unsubscribe, send an e-mail to info@washingtonbriefing.com.