Federal Appeals Court Hears Silica Arguments

October 19, 2018 | Articles

By Nick Goldstein, vice president of regulatory affairs, ARTBA

Oral arguments were heard Sept. 26 in ARTBA’s legal challenge to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) new rule on exposure to crystalline silica, which took effect three days earlier.

ARTBA’s legal team focused on aspects of the rule that are both technologically and economically infeasible. OSHA attorneys responded that companies covered by the new standard have time to adjust and develop new technologies.

There also were arguments over whether or not the new standard is needed since OSHA’s existing silica rule has already significantly reduced harmful exposure rates.

No date has been set for a decision in the litigation, now in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ARTBA and its industry allies continue working on efforts to achieve a settlement with OSHA, hopefully leading to reconsideration of the rule in order to fix some of the contested areas.

Crystalline silica is a basic component of dust from soil, sand, granite and other minerals associated with construction. The standard, which is being challenged by ARTBA and industry allies in federal court, sets limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour shift, compared to the previous level of 250 micrograms for the construction industry.

OSHA has said that for the first 30 days of the new rule it will consider whether or not employers are making “good faith” efforts to meet the standard before issuing a citation.

GOP Releases Tax Reform Principles

October 19, 2018 | Articles

By Dean Franks, vice president of congressional affairs, ARTBA

Congressional Republicans and Trump administration officials Sept. 27 delivered long-awaited principles for a tax reform package they will attempt to move through Congress this fall.

The “Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code” is short on details and is largely full of broad concepts that were already widely known goals of any GOP tax plan, including:

• Reducing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent;
• Reducing the number of individual tax brackets from seven to three or four;
• Repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax;
• Repealing the estate tax;
• Expensing/writing off of depreciable assets; and
• Reforming the nation’s international tax code, including a one-time tax on profits of U.S. companies holding corporate earnings abroad.

Details on how the changes in the tax code would be paid for were scant, besides broad references to eliminating certain deductions.

Also not included in the GOP framework was any reference to permanently solving the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) revenue shortfall. Given the lack of details and the multiple references both publicly and privately that the House and Senate will now follow “regular order,” which means tax committees in each body will produce legislation and members will be allowed to offer amendments.  As such, the opportunity to address the HTF’s fiscal dilemma is still very real.

Accordingly, House Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Ranking Member Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-D.C.) sent a Sept. 28 letter to tax reform leaders both supporting inclusion of a HTF fix as part of tax reform. It also reminded leaders of the June 12 letter (included in link above) 253 bipartisan members of the House signed asking for a HTF solution to be part of any tax reform legislation.

The next steps for tax reform to move forward require both the House and Senate to pass FY 2018 budgets that include what’s known as “reconciliation” instructions – a procedural maneuver that allows for only 50 votes in the Senate to pass a tax package and usurp the chamber’s rules that allow a minority to block legislation. The House is slated to take up its version of the budget as soon as the week of Oct. 2.

Meanwhile, the Senate budget details came out Sept. 29 and, like the House budget, ignores many of the Trump administration’s requests, including cutting HTF-supported transportation construction programs to available receipts once the next trust fund shortfall is reached, sometime in 2021. Also similar to the House budget, the Senate version includes a deficit-neutral reserve fund that allows for spending on infrastructure to be increase beyond the levels laid out in the budget, as long as additional revenues are generated to pay for the increases or corresponding cuts elsewhere in the government. ARTBA and its partner organizations sent an April 7 letter asking for such a reserve fund to be included.

As the tax reform process moves forward in the House and Senate, ARTBA will continue to push for a permanent HTF revenue solution that stabilizes and grows federal highway and transit investment.  We will keep you posted as this process continues to move forward.

ARTBA Meetings Help Drive Your Business

October 19, 2018 | Articles

By T. Peter Ruane

Nearly one year after ratifying the bylaws that led to its creation, the first convention of the American Road Makers—or A.R.M. as ARTBA was known back then—took place Feb. 13-14, 1903, at the Wayne Hotel in Detroit.

Attendance levels were reflective of a nascent organization.

It was a different story, however, by February 1904, when 1,129 registrants from 29 states attended the second A.R.M. convention in Hartford, Connecticut. The increased participation reflected the growing influence of the association and increased interest in building new roads to get America out of the mud.

Bringing key professionals from the public and private sectors of the transportation design and construction industry together under one roof for advocacy work, policy development, information sharing, and networking and business development are tangible benefits of ARTBA membership. We’ve heard many stories over the decades about how relationships developed by attending such events led to project partnerships, joint ventures or breakthrough public affairs strategies.

Today, ARTBA annually hosts between 16-20 national or regional events for thousands of industry professionals. The annual convention, now in its 115th year, is still going strong. The P3s in Transportation Conference turns 30 next year. Along the way, we’ve also introduced events such as the 7th Annual Dr. Don Brock TransOvation® Workshop scheduled this fall in Boston, and the 4th Annual National Workshop for State & Local Transportation Advocates, which occurred this summer.

Earlier this year, an ARTBA Meetings Task Force, established by Chairman David Zachry and chaired by HNTB’s Tom O’Grady, initiated a broad examination of the association’s overall meetings program and assessed the need for changes. Surveys of the Board of Directors and Industry Leader Development Council (comprised of the next generation of association leaders) revealed that members are overwhelmingly satisfied with the scope and content of the meetings program, and the amount of time devoted to connecting with their peers.

With the challenges of business travel today, and the need to limit expenses and time away from the office and family, the Meetings Task Force took to heart some of the survey respondent feedback. Among its recommendations:

• Build an annual convention program schedule that has flexibility for attendees to stay two nights or maximum three nights, depending on other commitments.
• Host events, when possible, near major city airports to limit multiple flight connections and thereby make it more time efficient for attendees.
• Continue to hold the four Regional Meetings in cities with strong ARTBA membership presence and keep the content format focused on market issues with the involvement of nearby public agency officials.
• Incorporate the Dr. J. Don Brock TransOvation® Workshop into the National Convention or one of the Regional Meetings to help maximize attendance and better reach the target audience in the Industry Leader Development Council.

All of these ideas and others were fully endorsed by the ARTBA Board in May, and are already working their way into the planning for the upcoming events, including the 115th Annual ARTBA Convention, Sept, 17-20, in Amelia Island, Florida, and extending to the regional meetings and TransOvation® Workshop.

These meetings will be a good investment of time for you and your firm’s colleagues to attend. After all, ARTBA’s meetings help drive your business!

Pete Ruane is ARTBA president and CEO.

Finding Progress Amid Fake News

October 19, 2018 | Articles

Six months into the first year of Republican control of the White House and Congress since 2006, we are far enough along to know what’s fake and what’s not about the looming infrastructure package and other federal transportation priorities.

President Trump came to Washington promising a $1 trillion infrastructure package.  Despite initial resistance, Republican congressional leaders now acknowledge the need to advance such a measure and the President deserves credit for forcing it onto their agenda.

The timing is complicated by two factors: a crowded legislative calendar and the fact that—as of right now—an infrastructure package is somewhere in the Capitol Hill ether.

Republicans are grappling with repeal of Obamacare, which is a stark reminder of how difficult it is to pass major legislation even with single party control.  Also waiting in the wings is a massive effort to rewrite the tax code.  The annual government spending bills and a battle over another U.S. debt ceiling increase will also chew up additional time.

The Trump FY 2018 budget provides the first tangible outline of its infrastructure package.  It confirms the initiative will total $1 trillion over 10 years and consist of: $200 billion of direct federal funding for transportation and other types of infrastructure; incentivized non-federal funding; reduced costs; and leveraged federal funds through public-private partnerships.

Beyond these components, the administration has only provided broad principles of how its goals can be achieved.

Unfortunately, the budget was not as vague about the administration’s vision for the existing surface transportation program.  It proposes to pair the infrastructure initiative’s $200 billion in direct spending with $100 billion in highway and public transportation investment cuts over the same 10-year period.  This outcome would be the result of the administration’s proposal to scale back Highway Trust Fund (HTF) supported spending to what current revenues would enable and call on states and localities to finance more of their transportation needs.

Cutting highway and transit spending by 40 percent is not ARTBA’s definition of an infrastructure package.  This is the same HTF deconstruction scheme House Republicans have marched out routinely since 2011, and which has not seen the light of day in either chamber.

Further evidence that gutting the HTF is fake news came shortly after the budget was released when 253 House members called for including a long-term HTF revenue solution as part of a tax reform package.  This level of support is well above the 218 votes needed to pass legislation and includes a majority of House Republicans and Democrats.

Even though the House and Senate haven’t acted on tax reform, both are working aggressively on it.  A tax code rewrite moving in close proximity to an infrastructure initiative is a true opening for addressing the HTF’s structural deficit.  In the past 30 years, all HTF revenue enhancements have come as part of a broad tax or budget bill.

An infrastructure package and tax reform may very well move separately.  However, enactment of a tax package with a permanent HTF revenue solution could and would set up subsequent action on infrastructure.  An HTF fix could also be part of a stand-alone infrastructure plan, and lawmakers have been clear that it must be supported with real revenue.

The key points to understand are that we are working with a blank slate and there is growing interest in Congress for addressing the HTF once and for all.  We will continue to sift through the fake news and keep pursuing real opportunities.

Stay tuned.