Joint Government Affairs Update

January 1, 2004

1.   SF-330 effective date delayed until June 8, 2004.  As noted in a previous Update, the new SF-330 form was officially approved with an effective date of January 12, 2004. ACSM, along with COFPAES and other industry users, requested that the effective date be extended so that companies will have an opportunity to learn about the form and adapt to it.

2.   Proposed revisions to Davis-Bacon Act. The Federal Register recently announced that the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement revised definitions of construction and site of work in Dept. of Labor regulations. The Councils also propose that revisions be made to the Davis-Bacon Act to reflect these definitions. It has long been held that the Davis-Bacon Act does not apply to survey crews, and there is nothing in the proposed revisions to change that view. However, to avoid confusion, ACSM will file a comment stating that survey crews should not be subject to the Davis-Bacon Act. The Federal Register announcement appeared on December 23 at pages 74403-74409.

3.  Commemorating National Surveyors Week. With National Surveyors Week fast approaching, ACSM is looking for ways to commemorate the week. Here in Washington, we are looking at the possibility of getting a Presidential Proclamation in recognition of the week. What is your state or local organization doing to celebrate our week?

4.  Legislative Outlook for 2004. There are several pieces of legislation that we will be working on when Congress gets back in session later this month. Two important bills are S. 1230 and H.R. 3367, they are the Senate and House bills introduced to provide for additional responsibilities for the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Homeland Security relating to geospatial information. S. 1230 was introduced by Senator Wayne Allard and will come to the floor this month or next month. H.R. 3367 was introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) last October. Laurence Socci will meet with Rep. Sessions staff to discuss the bill and ACSM’ role in moving it forward.

We will also be working on S. 346, a Senate bill relating to Federal Prison Industries competition in contracting. The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill last year and the Senate is expected to do the same.

 5.   Lobby Day 2004. We are looking at having our Lobby Day 2004 between May 12 and15, 2004, but we need to finalize the day. This year, we would like to use small groups (3-5 people per group) instead of one large group, as we did last year. We will have an issue briefing the day/evening before we go to the Hill, so that all participants will be clear on the issues. If any members would be interested in participating in Lobby Day, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can begin to secure meetings with Members of Congress.