August 2003 Government Affairs Update
In this Issue…….
1.
Federal Prison Industries
2.
USGS Coalition
3.
Coalition for Outsourcing
and Procurement
4.
COFPAES
5.
FEMA Flood Map
Modernization
6.
Service Acquisition Reform
Act (SARA)
7.
Government Affairs Links
1. Federal Prison Industries
Laurence Socci participated in a teleconference
with other members of the Federal Prison Industries Coalition to discuss the
upcoming FPI legislation and come up with a strategy for pushing the favorable
legislation through Congress. The coalition agreed to try to find stories from
each group’s members relating to how FPI affected their individual members. The
stories will be used when groups meet with Members of the Judiciary committee.
If our members have any stories about how the Federal Prison Industry has
affect their personal business, we want to hear about it. Please send your
stories to Curt Sumner or Laurence Socci and we will use them when we meet with
Members of Congress on the FPI issue.
On July 25, the House
Committee on the Judiciary passed H.R. 1829, the
Hoekstra-Frank-Collins-Maloney-Sensenbrenner-Conyers Federal Prison Industries
Competition in Contracting Act of 2003. The legislation bars prisoners
from engaging in most mapping and geographic activities by prohibiting inmate access
to (1) personal or financial information about individual private citizens,
including information relating to such person’s real property, however
described, without giving prior notice to such persons or class of persons to
the greatest extent practicable; (2) geographic data regarding the location of
surface and subsurface infrastructure providing communications, water and
electrical power distribution, pipelines for the distribution of natural gas,
bulk petroleum products and other commodities, and other utilities. The bill
will be considered by the full House of Representatives during September.
2. USGS Coalition
Laurence Socci attended a meeting of the recently formed USGS Coalition. It was
clear from the discussion at the meeting that the coalition organizations have
interests that span the full range of USGS programs but share a common desire
to see an end to the budget stagnation that has compromised the strength of all
four disciplines in USGS and its mission as a whole.
The Senate is working to provide USGS with $928.8 million in FY04
appropriations, which is $9.5 million over FY03 enacted appropriations and
$33.3 million over the request by OMB for FY04. Although not quite as high as
the House total of $935.7 million, it is still a big improvement over the
request. The mapping division would get 128.9 million, down $4.3 million from
FY03.
The coalition plans to have meetings with USGS agency staff which it hopes will
provide an opportunity to introduce the coalition to key people at the USGS and
get feedback on how the USGS can best position itself to get more funding from
Congress and OMB. Top priorities for initial visitors to the coalition include
USGS Director Chip Groat and Deputy Assistant Secretary Tom Weimer and
Associate OMB Director Marcus Peacock.
The coalition finalized a USGS Coalition One-Pager, which can be seen at the
new USGS Coalition website at: www.usgscoalition.org. This document will be an
initial calling card for the coalition when meeting with Congressional or
agency staff.
3. Coalition for Outsourcing and
Procurement
In meetings with the Coalition for Outsourcing and
Procurement, it was learned that there is language in the Department of
Defense, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Interior Appropriations bills
which are contrary to the revised Circular A-76 provisions.
The language in the Agriculture bill is legislative
in nature, therefore a point of order will be made to keep the language out of
the bill. It is a general rule that language which is legislative in nature can
not be in an appropriations bill. When legislative language is still in the
bill when it is offered for consideration, a member can make a point of order
to have the language removed.
While the Coalition is taking an active role in opposing
the anti Circular A-76 language in the bills, ACSM continues to keep the needs
of both our federal worker members and our private sector members in mind when
deciding whether or not to join the Coalition’s actions.
4. COFPAES
COFPAES held its monthly meeting recently and many
topics were discussed. Here are some of the highlights.
Water Bill – H.R. 1560, the “Water
Quality Financing Act of 2003”, was approved by the House of Representatives
Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure on July 17. The bill authorizes $20 million in Federal
funding over five years to capitalize Clean Water State Revolving Loan Funds.
These funds provide low interest loans to communities for wastewater infrastructure.
Included in the bill is a provision promoted by COFPAES to extend the Federal
qualifications based selection (QBS) process for A/E and related services to
contracts by fund recipients. The bill goes to the full Committee when Congress
returns in September.
Federal
Prison Industries --- There is a proposed rule in the Federal Register regarding FPI,
John Palatiello will be putting out a comment on behalf of COFPAES.
SARA/DOD --- John Palatiello also wrote
letter on behalf of COFPAES to the Senate Committee on Armed Services regarding
the House passed DoD bill H.R. 1588, which contained SARA. He wrote that
COFPAES supports Sections 1414 and 1428 of the bill, however he noted that
sub-section (b) of Section 1428 could be interpreted as requiring a licensed
professional engineer on all A/E contracts, including contracts for
architectural and surveying services. He urged that Section 1428(b)(1) be
stricken and the requirement in 1428(b)(2) should suffice. He noted that a
provision clarifying the definition and application of the A/E selection law is
missing from the SARA provision. He urged that section 224(a) of H.R. 3832 be
included in the conference report language in the FY 04 DoD bill. That language
would bring the surveying and mapping definition up to date with current state
of the art practice and technology in the geospatial sciences.
Anti-A-76
Language in Appropriations bills --- Provisions which short circuit Circular A-76
have been showing up in House appropriations bills. These provisions shut down
A-76 and keep things in-house. John Palatiello provided talking points on A-76
to the other COFPAES delegates.
SF-330 --- SF-330 has been
approved and transferred to OMB. It should be approved by OMB by August, there
is a 6-month waiting period, which means that they should come into effect by
February/March 2004. Don Evick will give a class on the new form, which will be
sponsored by COFPAES.
ACEC “Idea
Act” ---
American Council Engineers Council (ACEC) recently drafted a proposed piece of
legislation relating to design-build. John
Palatiello met with ACEC to discuss their draft bill, the “Idea Act”. At the
meeting, he asked them “what’s broke with design build now?” Their response
was: (1) no uniform implementation of design-build across the government; (2)
design-build is costly to A/Es, can sometimes cost $1 million to play; (3)
tries to codify the standard procedure alternatives in the ABA Model law; (4)
attempts to enhance the role of design professionals in design-build rather
than always the contractor. ACEC has already floated the draft bill on the
Hill. We need to answer the question: What, if anything is wrong with design
build and how do we fix it? This will provide a counter to their bill once it
takes off.
5. FEMA Flood Map Modernization
The
Senate passed the Homeland Security Appropriations bill with the full $200
million for FEMA Flood Map Modernization remaining intact. The next step is a
conference with the House bill.
Laurence Socci attended a meeting at NAR with the
Flood Map Coalition to speak with FEMA Reps about a Flood Map Initiative
Update. It was a well attended meeting with every member of the Coalition
represented as well with 8 people from FEMA.
Socci raised the question of whether the purpose of
the modernization would be to make multi-hazard maps or to bring the flood maps
up to date. FEMA assured the coalition that bringing the flood maps up to date
was the primary purpose and making them multi-hazard was secondary. The
coalition was told that bringing multi-hazard data into the maps would help the
Dept. of Homeland Security. The flood map initiative is high priority at DHS.
The maps will have a geospatial data platform (both paper and electronic) and
other hazard data will be included in the data.
States will make 25% contributions/in-kind match.
The contribution/match will come at the end of the process. Some communities
will be contributing more than others.
FEMA will have a performance based approach when
looking for contractors or subcontractors. The map modernization program is
being developed now. It will have an outreach component once the program is
set. The program will hold contractors more accountable to the time frame. FEMA
said there will be a performance based strategy which will leverage industry
innovations and best practices. FEMA will integrate performance accountability
into the procurement process.
When the contractor is chosen, they will be
expected to work with local private firms in all regions. The Flood Map
Coalition will have a meeting with the contractor after the firm is chosen.
There will be one contractor, but there will be subcontractors in all 10
regions. FEMA’s goal is to decentralize the mapping, but centralize the
management.
FEMA will identify high risk, high population areas
and work on the maps for those areas first. It will use performance based
management, develop a workforce to deliver a geospatial platform. Also, it will
develop a framework for a multi-year plan. Some of the FY 03 activities
include: pipeline flood hazard studies, DFIRM upgrades and regional flood study
projects.
6. Service Acquisition Reform Act
(SARA)
The Defense Department Authorization bill for FY
2004 (H.R. 1588), was passed by the House of Representatives on May 22 and is
now before a House-Senate Conference Committee. The bill includes a number of
procurement reform proposals originally introduced in H.R. 1837, the Services
Acquisition Reform Act of 2003. Included in the bill are provisions raising the
$85,000 threshold for small business set asides for A/E contracts by Defense
agencies to $300,000, prohibiting use of GSA schedule for A/E contracts, and
creating a program to enhance the government’s A/E acquisition workforce.
7.
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