SPRING 2007 JOINT
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT
ST. LOUIS, MO. MARCH
9, 2007
Introduction
I
am happy to report that since our last meeting in Arlington, we made
significant strides in many government affairs issues. We worked with several
coalitions on issues important to our members, including the Government
Withholding Relief Coalition which is working to repeal the 3% withholding tax
which was signed into law last year as part of broader legislation. We also
worked on the House Resolution for National Surveyor’s Week which,
unfortunately, was not brought up for consideration last year. Also, with the help of COFPAES, we were able
to once again stop a Brooks Act violation.
We
still have a lot of work ahead of us, however. We are once again facing an
uphill battle with Small Business and Association Health Plan legislation and we
will most likely have to work on Federal Prison Industries reform legislation.
In addition, we are facing new challenges regarding the 3% withholding tax
issue, budget cuts in several federal agencies that work with surveyors and a
new issue of proposing legislation for the monumentation
of abandoned railroads.
Multi-Year Flood Hazard
Identification Plan
As part of the FEMA Flood Map
Modernization Coalition, we worked with other interested groups for the
continued funding and operation of the FEMA Multi-Year Flood Hazard
Identification Plan. The latest version of the Multi-Year Flood Hazard
Identification Plan was released by FEMA recently and it can be found at http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/fhm/mh_main.shtm.
The new MHIP incorporates FEMA’s conclusions from its recently issued Mid Course
Adjustment. Although we, along with several other groups have asked FEMA to
work more on accurate maps, and not be so concerned with digitizing the flood
maps; FEMA still seems very concerned only with digitizing the maps. The
situation does not appear to be getting better anytime soon, especially since
President Bush proposed cuts to the program in the FY 08 budget.
Last year, there were at
least two bills that dealt with the Flood Map Modernization issue, but neither
of them passed Congress. We hope to get legislation introduced and passed this
year to address the issue. To help accomplish this, we developed a position
paper which we will use when meeting with Members of Congress on the issue.
Federal Prison Industries
Reform
Last year, Federal Prison
Industries Reform legislation passed the House of Representatives after much
hard work by several organizations including ACSM. We supported language in the
legislation that prevented federal prisoners from having access to and
digitizing sensitive property information and we fought to keep the language in
the legislation the passed the House. The Senate version of the bill was not
been brought up for consideration. We expect that Congress will once again
introduce legislation relating to Federal Prison Industries reform.
COFPAES
As a member of COFPAES, we
work with other A/E associations on issues important to our industry and our
members. At the Fall COFPAES Delegates meeting, held in December, 2006, we discussed
several important issues. One of those issues was the need to bring more
sustaining members into COFPAES. Another topic was the idea of putting together
a task force of government members to draw up a white paper on the
implementation of A-76 to A/E services which would be presented to OMB as well
as OFPP. Each COFPAES member organization should recommend a few people from
their organization to work in the task force. We also discussed the possibility
of making changes to the Brooks Act. This is a tricky situation because on the
one hand, most people would agree that changes need to be made to the Brooks
Act. On the other hand, however, most people are concerned about opening up the
Brooks Act to Congressional scrutiny. Of course, a big topic of discussion was
the COFPAES lawsuit against the FAR; this is discussed in detail later in this
report.
In other COFPAES news, the
Army Corp of Engineers issued a Directive in November 2006 calling for all A/E
contract services to be procured through the Brooks Act. Also, there appears to
be an issue of the U.S. Navy contracting for surveying services in violation of
the Brooks Act. COFPAES is still looking into this issue.
Lobby Day
Last year, we had our Lobby
Day right before the Fall conference. This proved to
be great timing because we had a more participants than we’ve had in the past.
We kept our issues to a reasonable number, only 3 or 4 for the House and Senate
and we kept our groups small. This formula has been a success in the past and
it once again proved to be successful. We hope that Lobby Day 2007 brings the
most participants we’ve had yet. Additionally, we are going to make some
changes to our preparation for Lobby Day. These changes may include role-plays
and presetting the meeting assignments.
National Surveyors’ Week
Resolution
Last year, we got a National
Surveyor’s Week Resolution passed in the Senate. The House version of the
resolution was not brought up for consideration. The House resolution went
through the House Government Reform Committee which had a rule that before any
legislation could be brought to the full House for consideration; it had to
have 50 co-sponsors. Because of our hard work the resolution had 43
co-sponsors. The 50 co-sponsor rule would not be waived and the resolution was
not brought up for consideration.
We’ve already drafted a new
Resolution for this year. This new resolution is a Concurrent Resolution, which
means that the House and the Senate agree to the same resolution. Rep. Charlie
Dent (R-PA) has agreed to introduce the Resolution in the House. We are working
to find co-sponsors in the House as well as Senate sponsors.
Trig-Star Funding
We received information from
Representative Chris Van Hollen about the grant
process for the Trig-Star program. ACSM Headquarters is located in Congressman
Van Hollen’s district, so he would be the most
appropriate person to sponsor any earmarks.
Unfortunately, the paperwork
and application for earmark consideration was not filed on time, and we will
not qualify for consideration this year. Hopefully, we can find another avenue
to get some federal funding for the program.
Association Health Care
-- Small Business Health Plan Legislation
Three bills relating to
Small Business and Association Health Plans have already been introduced in the
House of Representatives. No similar legislation was introduced in the Senate.
We will continue to monitor these bills and any future AHP legislation.
COFPAES Lawsuit against
the FAR
The COFPAES lawsuit against
the FAR is moving forward. There recently was a hearing on the Government’s
Motion to Dismiss. The judge has not yet made a ruling on this issue. All of
the documents and filings relating to the lawsuit can be found on the MAPPS
website at: http://www.mapps.org/QBSlawsuit.asp
Brooks Act Violation
We received another notice
from an ACSM member notifying us a solicitation that appears to violate the
Brooks Act. We passed the information on to COFPAES for appropriate action and
once again the solicitation was pulled because it violated the Brooks Act.
Proposed Legislation Regarding
Abandoned Railroad Monumentation
At the last JGAC meeting, we
discussed the issue of the need for the monumentation
of abandoned railroads. It was decided that we should look into the possibility
of drafting legislation to address the issue. After having met with a number of
Members of Congress on the issue, it appears that many Members and staff
understand the issue and agree that something needs to be done. We are now
examining the various ways to introduce appropriate language.
3% Withholding of
Payments on Government Contracts
The Tax Increase Prevention
and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-222 :: H.R.
4297 was recently passed by Congress and signed by the President in May 2006.
The legislation contains a provision, Section 511, mandating that federal,
state and local governments withhold 3% from payments for goods and services.
This new tax withholding requirement affects all government contracts as well
as any payment to any person for a service or product provided to a government
entity. The withholding is based on revenues from government payments with no
relationships to a company’s taxable income.
Section 511 requires tax
withholdings at a rate of 3% on all government payments for products and
services made by the federal government, state governments, and local
governments with expenditures of $100 million or more. It affects payments for
goods and services under government contracts as well as payments to any person
for a service or product provided to a government entity. It applies to all
payments starting in 2011.
ACSM recently joined a newly
formed coalition called the Government Withholding Relief Coalition. The
coalition is comprised of approximately 60 business associations working
together to repeal Section 511 of the Tax Increase Prevention and
Reconciliation Act of 2005. This year, the coalition worked on lobbying many
Members of Congress on the issue. Additionally, the coalition wrote a letter to
the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy with the U.S. Dept. of Treasury asking
for repeal of Section 511, a letter to Congressman DeFazio regarding reports
that the effective date would be accelerated and that withholding tax would be
used as a revenue offset for the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools
and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, and a letter to Congressmen
Kendrick Meek and Wally Herger thanking them for their introduction of H. R.
1023, which would repeal Section 511.
Federal Agency Budget
Cuts
The President’s FY 08 budget
came out in February and it included funding cuts to a number of federal
programs affecting surveyors. Some of those proposed budget cuts include: a
proposed cut of $3.2 million to the BLM Cadastral Survey program, a proposed
cut of $1.6 million to USGS Geography programs ($323,000 from the Land Remote
Sensing Program and $1.3 million from the Geographic Analysis/Monitoring
Program). There is also a proposed cut of $8 million to the FEMA Flood Map
Modernization Program and there is no funding being proposed for the FRA NDGPS
program.
Congress Scorecard
I am proposing that we
develop a scorecard to keep track of how Members of Congress vote on issues
affecting us. The scorecard can help us determine who we should support through
the PAC. At the end of the year, we can host a fundraiser for the Member who
voted the most times in our favor.
Tax Gap Issue
Near the end of 2006, ACSM
was invited to join the Coalition for Fairness in Tax Compliance. This
coalition was formed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Legislative Council.
As a bit of background on
the issue; in 2005 the IRS presented evidence of a significant amount of tax
revenue that was not being collected by the federal government. The IRS
estimated that the tax gap, the tax revenue not being collected by the federal
government, was approximately $345 billion. The IRS believes the tax gap came
from both an underreporting of incomes and an overstatement of deductions and
expenses. Congress is interested in closing the tax gap as both a matter of
fairness and a potential revenue source. The Coalition for Fairness in Tax
Compliance was formed to make sure that the interests of business are protected
as Congress debates the issue.
Contributions to
Fundraisers and PAC activity
The PAC made several
contributions to fundraisers so far this year. In an effort to keep everyone
informed about what I do at these fundraisers I’ve started a policy of sending
out a report on all of the fundraisers that I attend.
Conclusion
As you can see, we’ve been
very busy this year, but there is still a lot of unfinished business and plenty
of new issues for 2007. I welcome all questions, suggestions and comments on
these issues.
Sincerely,
Laurence Socci
The C. L. A. Group
Government Affairs
Consultant