April 2003 Government Affairs Update

 

Highlights from Phoenix

 

We had great attendance at the JGAC meeting in Phoenix. Here are some of the highlights.

 

• Proposed ACSM Lobby Day on Capitol Hill. A Lobby Day for ACSM members on Capitol Hill was proposed. It was well received and thought to be a good idea. Plans for the event were discussed after the meeting, see what we’ve come up with later in this update.
• Legislative Folders. We unveiled the new ACSM Legislative Folders at the meeting. The folders will be used when we meet with Members of Congress and federal staff to discuss issues important to us.
• Flood Map Modernization Funding. We talked about FEMA receiving $150 million for flood map modernization in FY-2003. FEMA asked for $200 million for FY-2004.
• Department of Homeland Security. We talked about plans to become involved in the DHS, particularly in the GIS area. Jason Racette, a cadastral surveyor with the BLM volunteered to help us by using his contact to get a meeting for us with the right people in the DHS.
• USGS Coalition. Laurence Socci has been attending working group meetings with the new USGS Coalition. We were invited to formally join the coalition and a vote was put before the Board, who voted to officially join the coalition.
• State Legislation Affecting Our Members. We took a look at several pieces of legislation in states that we are watching and which will affect our members. For example, there was QBS legislation introduced in Washington state; it looks as if the bill won’t get far. There are also reports of attempts by unions to organize technician level employees in engineering and surveying firms. These reports are mostly coming out of the highly unionized states around the Great Lakes. There is a licensing bill in the Illinois Senate, which would not comply with the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES). As written, the bill would require a firm that does any mapping in Illinois, to have the work done by a licensed Illinois land surveyor.

 

From Congress

            New Legislation            H.R.1816 National Flood Insurance Program Fairness Act
Title: To amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to ensure homeowners are provided adequate notice of flood map changes and a fair opportunity to appeal such changes.
Sponsor: Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] (introduced 4/11/2003)      
Latest Major Action: 4/11/2003  Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.

Summary: The bill improves the existing program by requiring the FEMA Director to notify by registered mail the Chief Executive Officer of each community affected by the changes in Flood Insurance Rate Maps, rather than by first class mail as is the case currently. The Director will be required to provide a copy of the revised map, along with a statement explaining the process of appeal. The Director will also provide the affected community sufficient information to identify which homes are affected.

It also requires the Director to notify by registered mail, rather than first class mail, the Chief Executive Officer of each community of FEMA's response to the community's appeal of the flood insurance rate maps. This change will ensure that the community receives the notice of changes and has ample time to comply with the map changes within the statutory effective date.

The bill improves upon current law by requiring the Director to notify by first class mail each owner of property affected by the changes in the flood insurance rate maps. Currently, the community is responsible for making sure that the residents are aware of the flood map changes. Requiring FEMA to notify residents expedites the process by eliminating the middleman.

Finally, it requires FEMA to reimburse a resident or property owner for reasonable costs incurred in connection with a surveyor or engineer for a successful request to be removed from the special flood hazard area to the Director. This does not include legal services incurred by the resident.

Curt Sumner and Laurence Socci are in the process of getting a meeting with Representative Stark’s office to get a better understanding of the bill and to learn how the bill affects our members.  Our members will receive an update on this legislation in the future.

 

Old Legislation.  In past updates, we discussed key pieces of legislation that affects our members. We continue to monitor that legislation and will bring you changes in the status of the legislation.

 

H.R. 20 Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2003. The status of the bill remains unchanged, however, there are now over 130 cosponsors to the bill. Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) will introduce his own version of the bill. Since this is a competing bill, it may take away some potential cosponsors from H.R. 20.

H.R. 670 Flood Loss Mitigation Act of 2003. The status of this bill remains unchanged and there are no cosponsors.

H.R. 1217 Subcontractor Protection Act.  The status of this bill remains unchanged and there are no cosponsors.

H.R. 958 Hydrographic Services Amendments of 2003. The status of this bill remains unchanged. There was a subcommittee hearing on the bill on March 27, but it did not change the bill.

S. 212 High Plains Aquifer Hygeologic Characterization, Mapping, Modeling and Monitoring Act. This bill passed the Senate on April 7, 2003 and was referred to the House Committee on Resources.

S. 237  The as yet unnamed bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to clarify the exemption from the minimum wage and overtime compensation requirements of that Act for certain construction engineering and design professionals. We contacted Senator Graham, the sponsor of the bill to get clarification on the bill. Laurence Socci was told that the bill would not expand the class of people who are exempt from overtime and it does not affect state law. Because the bill only has one cosponsor and does not appear to be going anywhere at the moment, we will continue to monitor it.

 

ACSM Lobby Day... ACSM will host a Lobby Day on Capitol Hill to coincide with our fall meeting in Gaithersburg. While the details need to be set, everyone is encouraged to participate in the event. Laurence Socci will give a briefing before we visit the Hill to go over our issues and to give tips on effective lobbying. This event will give members a chance to take an active role in getting issues and concerns heard by Members of Congress.

 

Outsourcing Issues.

A-76 Revisions. New outsourcing rules likely will prohibit federal agencies from turning over work to private contractors without first letting employees defend their jobs, Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Angela Styles said recently. The Office of Management and Budget is poised to eliminate this outsourcing method -- known as direct conversion -- and approve several new techniques as part of its rewrite of federal outsourcing rules, contained in Circular A-76. The new A-76 revisions are scheduled to come out soon.

 

Flood Map Modernization Update

The Floodmap Modernization Coalition met with two representatives of the GAO team who are conducting a study on FEMA's floodmap modernization initiative.  The GAO was tasked by the House Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Outreach  to study FEMA's remapping efforts, specifically: (1) Review FEMA's  remapping plans, including timeframe, cost and cost sharing efforts; and (2) assess the impact remapping will have on the financial position of the NFIP.

 

The GAO representatives told the coalition that their timeframe for completing the study is late in 2003.  They will be using a case-study methodology to evaluate how the re-mapping effort is proceeding in various communities across the country.  This methodology will be useful in assessing the various strengths and weaknesses of the re-mapping initiative.  Members of the coalition were encouraged to suggest to the GAO contacts of individuals who are knowledgable about re-mapping efforts in their community and provide GAO with that information.  

 

Federal Prison Industries (FPI)

Laurence Socci attended a FPI Competition in Contracting Coalition meeting hosted by Bill Montalto of Representative Pete Hoekstra’s office. The coalition discussed a plan to push the new FPI bill, H.R. 1829, through Congress. The coalition is looking to expand the number of cosponsors on the bill to 150 cosponsors. ACSM’s view on this subject is that the purpose of FPI, to rehabilitate prisoners, is fine; but that rehabilitation should not cost law biding and tax paying citizens their jobs.

 

USGS Coalition

As noted earlier, the ACSM Board in Phoenix voted in support of ACSM joining the USGS Coalition. Laurence Socci attended a recent coalition meeting. The coalition now has 22 organizations signed on so far. At the meeting, the coalition decided to officially launch the coalition in the latter part of May.
The coalition is working on a one page document which will describe the purpose of the coalition and how the USGS affects the organizations involved. The coalition wants to make the best case possible for the unique value of the Survey in several key disciplines.

NDGPS Funding

We are continuing to monitor the funding for NDGPS in Congress. Unfortunately, at this point in time there is not a lot of support for additional funding in Congress or in any part of the federal government. Everyone will agree that NDGPS is important, but the decision makers can not agree on where additional funding can come from. In the meantime, the GWEN sites already running can not be upgraded and the planned sites can not get up and running. ACSM is still looking at the degree to which the NDGPS affects our members in the field and we will continue to monitor the situation.

 

RESPA

After months of getting no response from the people at RESPA regarding our proposed language about the benefits of a survey to homebuyers, Curt Sumner, John Kohl and Laurence Socci will meet again with RESPA on April 29 to see what progress has been made and what, if anything else ACSM can do to move things along. Stay tuned for further developments.

 

COFPAES

At the last COFPAES meeting, the following points were discussed:

Bundling Comment.  John Palatiello sent a comment to the GSA regarding FAR Case 2002-029: Contract Bundling on behalf of COFPAES. ACSM has a copy of the comment and accompanying notes if anyone is interested.

 

SRF Water Bill. Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) is introducing a version of a bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize appropriations for State water pollution control revolving funds. This is similar to HR 20. John Palatiello e-mailed Duncan’s point person and asked that section 3(b) of HR 20 be included in Duncan’s version of the bill. The section relates to A/E contracts and that they be QBS based.

 

SARA. This is the Tom Davis bill similar to the one he introduced last year. It is a bit expanded from last year though, it pushed QBS in Grants, Co-ops, etc. John Palatiello started talks with Susan Collins, the Senate Government Affairs Chair to get support on the Senate side. COFPAES will meet as a group with Collins’ staff person in the near future.

 

Construction as a Commercial Item. Many subcontracting A/E and construction jobs (including surveying and mapping) have been sent overseas. The problem is that contractors use the money they get from the government for subcontracting work and send the job overseas for a cheaper rate and keep the difference. Rob Burton OFPP associate will speak at the COFPAES morning session about the subject.

A-76. The final version of the revised A-76 circular will come out in May. Angela Styles noted that the Circular and the Legislation differ, she will put recognition of the Brooks Act in the Circular.

SF-330. Anticipated release of the new SF-330 form will be in May.

 

ACSM PAC News

If you missed the PAC auction in Phoenix, you missed a really fun and bargain filled event. There were many donations this year, and many items went for less than their appraised value. The auction brought in around $6,000 for the PAC, a very good showing. Thanks to everyone who donated and to everyone who participated. A special thanks goes to Joe Dolan who once again made the event fun and entertaining.

 

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION

For those who have interest in reconstruction work in Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) has established a special web page with information, including on-line vendor registration.  It is www.usaid.gov/iraq.

 

ESRI SURVEY AND GIS SUMMIT - BRIDGING THE GAP 2003

Bridging the Gap 2003 is integrating survey and GIS.  This conference will feature presentations by industry leaders from around the world on integrating survey and geographic information system (GIS) technology.  Presentations will include survey, mapping, and GIS applications at the national and local government levels, in utilities, and in private industry.  For additional information visit www.esri.com.surveying or www.esri.com/surveysummit.

 

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS LINKS AND INFORMATION

 

Federal Government Resources on the Web:

United States Senate - http://www.senate.gov 

U.S. House of Representatives (House Web Server) - http://www.house.gov 

Status of Legislation (Library of Congress) - http://thomas.loc.gov 

Who is my Representative in Congress? - http://www.vote-smart.org   

Email Your Member of Congress Today! http://www.MrSmith.com

Official U.S. Executive Branch Web Sites:

 http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/executive/fed.html

The White House - http://www.whitehouse.gov

 

Links to State Legislatures:

View the National Council of State Legislatures Web site