ARRA Still News

Here is a summary of some recent news about the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

OSHA Activities Under the Recovery Act (Department of Labor, July 16, 2013)

OSHA, State Plans Did Not Use Almost Half Of Allocated Recovery Act Funds, Audit Finds (Rolfsen, B., Bloomberg BNA, July 25, 2013)

Upgraded Palm Springs Airport tower ready for increased business (Descant, S., Desert Sun, July 26, 2013)

Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October 2012 Through December 2012 (Congressional Budget Office, Feb. 2013)

In Congress (Infrastructure Watch, Feb. 22, 2013)

In Shovels, a Remedy for Jobs and Growth (Porter, E., New York Times Economic Scene, Feb. 12, 2013)

INSPECTOR GENERAL QUESTIONS $12 MILLION IN SMART GRID RECOVERY-RELATED COSTS (Recovery.gov, Feb. 20, 2013)

Crumbling Pipes and Underground Waste: A Glimpse at Our Ailing Sewer System (PBS News Hour, Jan. 3, 2013)

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act News (Infrastructure Watch, Dec. 4, 2012)

Recovery Act Review (Infrastructure Watch, Dec. 4, 2012)

Waiver From Rescission of Unobligated Funds Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Obama, B., Federal Register 77, 70883, Nov. 27, 2012)

Clean-energy subsidies are vanishing. What should replace them? (Plumer, B., Washington Post Wonkblog, Apr. 18, 2012)

Google

In Congress

Balancing Act

The Balancing Act (H.R. 505) has been referred to several committees of the House of Representatives. The bill is intended to delay sequestrations, improve efficiency, reduce tax loopholes, and extend some programs. Some of the infrastructure related highlights of the bill include

-elimination of several tax breaks related to fossil fuels,

-immediate appropriations for air and surface transportation,

-create an infrastructure bank called the American Infrastructure Financing Authority,

-extending certain tax exemptions on bonds.

If Congress would like to put this blogger to work, it should end this ongoing threat of sequestration and agree on a budget.

Congressional Budget Office Releases 4Q2012 Recover Act Report

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the economic impact of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) for the last quarter of 2012. During that period, ARRA funded 113,000 full-time-equivalent jobs (FTEs), though this figure does not necessarily correlate to increased jobs in the economy. CBO estimates the economic impacts for the reporting quarter to be

-0.1 to 0.6 percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP),

-0.1 to 0.4 percentage point decrease in unemployment, and

-increased the number of people employed by between 0.1 million and 0.8 million.

Fix It First

President Barack Obama’s Fix-It-First proposal has received some fairly gentile criticism from House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (PA). The plan would provide an additional appropriation of $50 million to transportation projects ($40 million to transportation programs and $10 million to capitalize an infrastructure bank). Rep. Shuster says the proposal fails to address the long-term issue of transportation funding. Current transportation funding sources bring in $35 billion annually, but Congress has approved spending of more than $50 billion annually. You can read more about this issue at The Hill.

Infrastructure in the Fiscal Cliff Deal

President Obama signed a bill (H.R. 8) embodying an agreement to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”  In some ways, the bill is a punt.  The 113^th Congress and the president will be negotiating new deals again in a couple of months.  Rather than complain about the chronic procrastination and shortsighted partisanship that is prevalent in our capital (I supposed I just complained), I’ll summarize some of the infrastructure-related features of the bill.

ENERGY

The bill extends the tax credit for wind energy of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour.  The extension is for 10 years and will cost $1.2 billion annually.

A more modest provision in terms of price, $1 million annually, will extend a subsidy of $2 per ton for coal produced on Indian lands.

Other provisions

•          Extend tax credits for home energy improvements and energy-efficient new homes and appliances,
•          Extend the tax credit related to what are now called second generation biofuels,
•         Extend credits for a variety of alternative energy generation in addition to wind,
•         Extend a number of programs that support biomass projects through tax credits and financial assistance,
•          Extend the tax credit on refueling properties for alternative fuel vehicles,
•          Extend credits for biodiesel.

TRANSPORTATION

Railroads will receive a one-year extension of the tax credit for maintenance.  The will be about $165 million of the year.

An expired increase in the tax credit for taking public transit that originated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is revived for 2013 and retroactively for 2012.

Electric scooters and bikes will be supported by an extension of the tax credit for “2- or 3-wheeled plug-in” electric vehicles.

Related posts and articles

From NASCAR to rum, the 10 weirdest parts of the ‘fiscal cliff’ bill (Plumer, B., Washington Post Wonkblog, Jan 2., 2013)

DOT Inspector General Gets Extension to Spend Stimulus Funds

The American Recovery and Investment Act (ARRA) provided funds for inspectors general at agencies receiving supplementary appropriations through the act to conduct investigations related to the spending of the funds, oversight of projects, and compliance with special requirements.  A subsequent act directed act (the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) required the return to the Treasury of unobligated ARRA funds after December 31, 2012, unless the president found it was not in the national interest to do so.  At the request of several inspectors general, including the one at the Department of Transportation, President Barack Obama waived the recession of ARRA funds for the inspectors general so they could continue long-term investigations and oversight.

Recovery Act Review

Economic Impacts of ARRA 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports quarterly on the estimated economic impact of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA).  In its report for the third quarter of 2012, it estimated that ARRA funded more than 135, 000 jobs (full-time equivalents, or FTEs).  It expects 90 percent of ARRA’s budget impacts will be realized by the end of the year.  It projects that ARRA will increase they budget deficit by $833 billion by 2019, up from its original estimate of $787 billion.

Cleanup Projects

 The Department of Energy (DOE) received $6 billion from ARRA for the cleanup of DOE-managed sites that produced nuclear material.  According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, ARRA-funded jobs peaked in the fourth quarter of 2010 at about 11,000 FTEs.  They reduced the footprint of managed sites by 70 percent; that is they cleaned up more than 650 square miles.

Beginning with ARRA, DOE implemented a project management approach that broke down projects into more manageable pieces.  GAO found that this practice may have allowed the agency to classify projects in a way that may have allowed them to avoid certain review processes.  In addition, inconsistencies in developing project scope, schedules and targets, along with variability in documentation, makes it difficult to accurately assess and compare project and program performance.

State and Local Management of ARRA

State and local governments had significant responsibilities in managing ARRA funds as recipients.  GAO reported findings related to their review of state and local management.  Some of those findings include:

-The emphasis on obligating ARRA funds resulted in delayed obligation of other funds.

-Recipient expertise effected the management of ARRA funds.  Particularly, state agencies tended to have more success in managing their ARRA projects that local agencies because of greater familiarity with federal requirements.

-Unclear guidance caused problems for various projects.

-Internal controls of some recipients were not adequate, at least at the start, for monitoring compliance with ARRA requirements.

Related posts and articles

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act New (Infrastructure Watch, Dec. 4, 2012)

Coverage of Infrastructure Economic Stimulus (Infrastructure Watch, May 14, 2009)

Economic Stimulus Funds 2000 Transportation Projects (Infrastructure Watch, Apr. 14, 2009)

Government Accountability Office Watches Recovery Act Implementation (Infrastructure Watch, Aug. 23, 2010)

Infrastructure & Stimulus News (Infrastructure Watch, June 17, 2010)

Missouri Top State in Wastewater Stimulus Funding Use (Infrastructure Watch, Mar. 28, 2010)

News about the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (Infrastructure Watch, Sept. 14, 2011)

Recovery Act Infrastructure Criticism (Infrastructure Watch, Sept. 18, 2012)

Recovery and Stimulus News (Infrastructure Watch, Mar. 25, 2011)

Reviewing the Recovery Act (Infrastructure Watch, Aug. 2, 2011)

States Obligate All Highway Stimulus Funds (Infrastructure Watch, Mar. 10, 2010)

Summary of Transportation Stimulus Oversight Findings (Infrastructure Watch, Sept. 27, 2009)

What You Are Looking For

Infrastructure Watch is not above self-promotion, but we try to focus on the topics related to infrastructure and the environment.  Even so, we got a little curious about what draws readers this blog.  We checked out the top Google search terms that linked people to this blog.  They are:

Infrastructurist blog

We noted the farewell of The Infrastructurist, a blog that was more professional, better researched and better written that IW.

On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis

On this blog (and on Keenan’s Book Reviews), contributor Keenan Patterson posted a review of Warren Bennis’ classic leadership book that he wrote for a class back in 1997.  Judging from the popularity of this search, it is still assigned reading in many classes. 

Plagiarists beware, if you can find this review so easily, so can your professor.  If you just need to talk about the book as if you’ve read it, good luck.  You might also want to check out Keenan’s review of How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard.

Blogger

IW isn’t a prominent blog, but apparently referring to yourself as a blogger who makes no money from it (and linking to the complaint on your Google Plus page) is enough to get you in the top search results for the topic.  Now everyone will be doing it.

Recovery Act infrastructure criticism

IW hasn’t exactly been a critic of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA), at least not when it comes to the infrastructure funding that was part of the supplementary appropriations bill.  An IW contributor spent a fair amount of time doing ARRA-funded work in 2011 (I think we just mention this blog has not made any money, though it would be nice if it did).  Even so, we’ve posted several things related to ARRA including a summary of reviews of the program’s performance.

Whatever your reason for visiting Infrastructure Watch, thank you.  We hope you find the posts and links here useful.  In addition, thanks to those who link to us on your blogs and social networking profiles.  We welcome comments, especially from other professionals in environmental and infrastructure design, planning, construction, management and policy.

Invest in Water Infrastructure: Put this Blogger to Work

As I’ve lamented before, blogging doesn’t pay the bills.  My work as an engineer and environmental consultant does.  I’m not strictly a disinterested party when it comes to encouraging investment in drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

I think we can look at the response to the Recovery Act (ARRA) to see how ready we are to make this kind of investment.  The Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds received additional appropriations as part of ARRA.  They were tasked to commit the money in very short order and they did.  There aren’t a ton of “shovel ready” water projects because of the way they are planned and funded, but there is a great backlog of need.

In addition, interest rates for federal borrowing are very low.  I’m not a fan of huge government debt, when their borrowing to make ends meet.  It’s not something I recommend on an individual level, either.  However, when borrowing is done for the purpose of long-term investment an expected return of value, it makes sense.  Investing in water infrastructure will pay back in jobs, health, reliability, and in the simple loan repayments as local governments, and possibly even private utilities, pay back into the programs that provided the financing.

Related posts and articles

Nine reasons to invest more in the nation’s infrastructure

Want Jobs? Fix America's Water Crisis

News about the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act

Caldecott Tunnel Edges Forward, Tribute to Stimulus Bill (Elinson, Z., New York Times, September 10, 2011)
DOT’s August Stimulus Payouts Near $700 Million (Boyd, J. D., Journal of Commerce, September 12, 2011)

Could Unspent Stimulus Money Be Used to Fend Off a New Recession? (Grabel, M., ProPublica, August 9, 2011)
DOT Pays $208 Million in Stimulus in Latest Week (Boyd, J. D., Journal of Commerce Online, August 22, 2011)
The End of an ARRA (Center for an Urban Future, August 2011)
The End of ARRA (InfrastructureUSA, August 22, 2011)
Reviewing the Recovery Act (Infrastructure Watch, August 2, 2011)

Recovery Act: Funding Used for Transportation Infrastructure Projects, but Some Requirements Proved Challenging (Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-600, June 2011)
Recovery Act: Funds Supported Many Water Projects, and State and Federal Monitoring Shows Few Compliance Problems (Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-608, June 2011)

Recovery & Stimulus News (Infrastructure Watch, March 25, 2011)

Reviewing the Recovery Act

Infrastructure Watch has been following the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) since it was enacted. While infrastructure accounted for a relatively small amount of the total supplementary appropriations provided by ARRA, tens of billions of dollars is noteworthy in any industry. Much of the money that went to infrastructure has been spent and ARRA will begin a slow wind-down from the perspective of infrastructure. It seems like a good time for a review of the program and it effects so far.

INFASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT

ARRA committed only a fraction of its supplementary appropriations to infrastructure. Even so, the $62 billion appropriated to transportation and water infrastructure was significant considering that federal spending in this area had been declining. In 2009, this resulted in a $6 billion increase in federal infrastructure spending, of which $4 billion was directly from ARRA.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 90 percent of these funds will be spent by 2013. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had reported that 90 percent of the highway funds had been obligated by February 2010 and about a quarter of that had been paid out to state transportation programs. The clean water and drinking water state revolving fund (SRF) programs had drawn almost 80 percent of the funds by June 2011.

The author and others working in these industries are already looking for what projects or business lines might have the potential to bring in revenues as the ARRA well runs dry in a few years. The prospects aren’t entirely gloomy. Generally, the federal government accounts for only 25 percent of the spending on transportation and water infrastructure. The rest comes almost entirely from state and local governments.

Though federal funding is a minority of the investment in infrastructure, it is a significant portion of the capital investment, with relatively little going to operations and maintenance. This trend continued with ARRA. Smart Growth America criticized ARRA because to much went the construction of new transportation assets and too little to repairing existing infrastructure. They thought the extra appropriation would have been better spent and had a greater economic stimulus if more of it had been spent on the repair of existing infrastructure.

Maintenance of Effort
Though states are already a significant contributor to spending on transportation efforts, ARRA required states to continue funding transportation at the level they would have without the extra funding. Congress wanted to increase spending on transportation infrastructure, not give states a way to shift money to other areas.

The requirement has proven problematic. States are facing losses of revenue that may have forced them to cut transportation spending anyway. In addition, ARRA didn’t require to report what there level of effort would be until several months after they began to use the funds. States may not have, strictly speaking, circumvented the maintenance of effort requirement, but it has become difficult to say they have continued funding as they would have anyway.

JOBS CREATION
ARRA recipients reported more than 580,000 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs in he last quarter of 2010. The way jobs are reported by recipients makes it difficult to determine the exact impact of ARRA on jobs.

ARRA recipients report work-hours that were paid for out of the ARRA funding. In the case of an infrastructure project, these work hours might involve construction trades, construction management, engineering design and oversight, and other services (legal, environmental, and more). The nature of these jobs means that the people may be working part-time on ARRA projects while working part-time on other projects, or temporarily work full time on an ARRA project. It is easy to add up the hours and calculate an FTE. It is difficult to know if any of these jobs were created ARRA, or if they might have ended except of ARRA, or might not have been affected.

This type of reporting has a built-in decline as ARRA money is spent down and projects end. Reported ARRA-related jobs is already declining in the SRF programs. ARRA-related jobs reported from SRF programs peaked in the Spring of 2010 and have declined since. Some foresaw a post-stimulus jobs drop even as it was just getting off the ground.

The author is an example these features of jobs reporting, ARRA work having accounted of about a quarter of an FTE in relation to him over the last 19 months. It’s impossible to say what, if any, other work the author may have done if not involved in ARRA projects; he’s glad to have good projects from wherever they come. When he transfers his effort to other work, hopefully, over the next year or so, his hours reported for ARRA will decline and end.

In addition, only some of the ARRA-funded programs are required to report jobs. Those that report jobs only have to trace them so far, to primary contractors and their subcontracts. It is a practical impossibility to count the jobs created or retained by such a program.

Even so, CBO made a go at estimating it. They estimate that ARRA increased the number of people employed by between 1.3 million and 3.5 million in the last quarter of 2010.

CONSTRUCTION COSTS
In the years before ARRA, construction costs had been rising more rapidly that prices the rest of the economy. Bucking that trend, GAO reported that many ARRA-funded projects were receiving bids that were lower than expected. The author has heard from water utilities and state revolving fund programs that a similar trend is occurring in drinking water and wastewater projects.

The thought is that the recession has made the environment very competitive and more bidders are going after each job. In response, contractors are taking minimal profits in order to get projects and stay afloat until the economy recovers. The Associate General Contractors of America has even suggested that contractors have bid projects at less than cost for that purpose.

This drop in bid prices is a reflection of the economic environment, not a response to ARRA. The touted “bid savings” that have ostensibly allowed the ARRA dollars to stretch farther have provide the same benefit to all the other money spent on construction.

MACROECONOMICS
CBO estimates that ARRA increased the gross domestic products (GDP) by between 1.1 percent and 3.5 percent in the last quarter of 2010.

FEDERAL DEFICIT
CBO estimates that the ARRA will increase budget deficits by $821 billion between 2009 and 2019. They estimated 70 percent of that, approximately $575 billion, was realized by the end of September 2010.

REFERENCES
The following references were used in the preparation of this review of ARRA.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October 2010 Through December 2010. Washington, DC: CBO, 2011.

-----. Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure. Washington, DC: CBO, 2011.

Cooper, M. Companies pretty up prices to win stimulus projects. New York Times. March 28, 2009.

Farley, R., & Grabell, M. ProPublica and PolitiFact test Obama claims on stimulus. ProPublica. Nov. 10, 2010.

Fields, G. Job cuts loom as stimulus fades. Wall Street Journal. Dec. 1, 2009.

Government Accountability Office (GAO). Recovery Act: Funding Uses for Transportation Infrastructure Projects, but Some Requirements Proved Challenging. Washington, DC: GAO, 2011.

-----. Recovery Act: Funds Supported Many Water Projects, and Federal and State Monitoring Shows Few Compliance Problems. Washington, DC: GAO, 2011.

-----. Recovery Act: One Year Later, States’ and Localities’ Uses of Funds and Opportunities to Strengthen Accountability. Washington, DC: GAO, 2010.

Smart Growth America. Recent Lessons from the Stimulus: Transportation Funding and Jobs Creation. Washington, DC: Smart Growth America, 2011.

The following references are offered for those interested in additional information on ARRA.

Infrastructure Watch (blog). Coverage of infrastructure economic stimulus. May 14, 2009.

-----. Coverage of infrastructure in economic stimulus. Apr. 14, 2009.

-----. Government Accountability Office watches Recovery Act implementation. August 23, 2010.

-----. Infrastructure & recovery news. Oct. 8, 2010.

-----. Infrastructure & stimulus news. June 17, 2010.

-----. Infrastructure economic stimulus in the news. July 1, 2009.

-----. Infrastructure stimulus. Jan. 27, 2011.

-----. Recovery Act and infrastructure in the news. Jan. 26, 2010.

-----. Recovery Act and infrastructure in the news & elsewhere. Aug. 1, 2009.

-----. Recovery Act and infrastructure news. May, 11, 2010.

-----. Recovery & stimulus news. Mar. 25, 2011.

-----. Show me the money: Stimulus & infrastructure news. July 7, 2010.

-----. Summary of transportation stimulus oversight findings. Sept. 27, 2009.

-----. USDOT redirects high-speed rail stimulus away from slow states. Dec. 21, 2010.

McNamar, T. Profiles from the recession. Blueprint America (blog). Sept. 15, 2010.

Recovery & Stimulus News

Colo. No. 25 for ARRA Jobs (Hicks, L. W., Denver Business Journal, March 25, 2011)
DOT’s Stimulus Payout Reaches $26.7 Billion (Boyd, J., Journal of Commerce, March 23, 2011)
GDOT: Stimulus Program a “Tremendous” Success (Dacula Patch, March 23, 2011)
Mo. Auditor: Oversight Lacking on Stimulus Funds (Jefferson City News Tribune [Associated Press], March 24, 2011)
Rebuilding Green: The American Reinvestment and Recover Act and the Green Economy (Infrastructure USA, March 14, 2011)

$590 million in federal passenger rail funding (Snohomish Times, Feb. 28, 2011)
House Passes Appropriations Bill (Infrastructure Watch, Feb. 21, 2011)
New report reveals smart transportation spending creates jobs, grows the economy (Smart Growth America, Feb. 4, 2011)
Recent Lessons from the Stimulus: Transportation Funding and Job Creation (InfrastructureUSA, Feb. 7, 2011)
Rejected Florida money now could be used for Washington State Railways (NCWTV, Feb. 16, 2011)

Infrastructure Stimulus (Infrastructure Watch, Jan. 27, 2011)

On a personal note, a (hopefully very short) hold on an ARRA-funded project could mean IW may have more time for blogging next week. Bloggingd doesn't pay the bills, so keep your fingers crossed that the project gets moving again,

House Passes Appropriations Bill

The House of Representatives has passed a continuing appropriations bill (H.R. 1) to cover the rest of the current fiscal year. In addition to providing appropriations for all agencies, it modifies stimulus funding that was provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). All ARRA funds not obligated by February 11, 2011, would be rescinded except for those related to accountability. ARRA funds would no longer be available for signage indentifying ARRA projects.

Still Trying to Axe the Plaques

Rep. Aaron Schock (IL) has introduced the End the Stimulus Advertisement Act (H.R. 389). The bill would end funding of signage that indicates a project was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It would recover funds previously spent on such signage from affected agencies by reducing their appropriations for 2012 and 2013.

USDOT Redirects High-Speed Rail Stimulus Away from Slow States

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that $1.195 billion in high-speed rail funds originally designated for Wisconsin and Ohio will be redirected to other states. Wisconsin has suspended work under its existing high-speed rail agreement and the incoming Governors in Wisconsin and Ohio have both indicated that they will not move forward to use high-speed rail money received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

ARRA included $8 billion to launch a national high-speed rail program. High-speed rail grants announced under ARRA can be used only for high-speed rail projects and not for other transportation projects.

The Federal Railroad Administration originally announced $810 million for Wisconsin’s Milwaukee-Madison corridor and $400 million for Ohio’s Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland “3C” route. The Federal Railroad Administration will redirect $810 million from Wisconsin and $385 million from Ohio, and will work with these states to determine whether they have already spent money under their contracts that should be reimbursed.

The $1.195 billion originally designated for those high-speed rail projects in Wisconsin and Ohio will be used to support projects in the following states:

California: up to $624 million
Florida: up to $342.3 million
Washington State: up to $161.5 million
Illinois: up to $42.3 million
New York: up to $7.3 million
Maine: up to $3.3 million
Massachusetts: up to $2.8 million
Vermont: up to $2.7 million
Missouri: up to $2.2 million
Wisconsin: up to $2 million for the Hiawatha line
Oregon: up to $1.6 million
North Carolina: up to $1.5 million
Iowa: up to $309,080
Indiana: up to $364,980

You can read the original Department of Transportation statement here.

Related posts and articles
Federal News in Brief
Federal Officials Discuss High-Speed Rail with State Officials
Infrastructure Economic Stimulus in the News
Transportation Department Releases Guidelines for Stimulus Funding of High-Speed Rail

Bill Would Rescind Unobligated Stimulus Funds

Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA) has introduced American Recovery and Reinvestment Rescissions Act (H.R. 6403). The bill would rescind all unobligated, discretionary funds from Division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It would also eliminate further funding of ARRA signage (some congressmen have been after those signs from the start).

Related posts and articles:
Infrastructure & Recovery News

Federal News in Brief

High Speed Rail Project Announced

Fifty-four high-speed rail projects in 23 states will share in $2.4 billion to continue developing America’s first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service. The Federal Railroad Administration received 132 applications from 32 states totaling $8.8 billion, more than three times the $2.4 billion available. During the first round of awards in the fall of 2009, applicants submitted more than $55 billion in project proposals for the initial $8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) 2009 and 2010 appropriations as well as ARRA. (See the original DOT news release here.)

Emissions Standards Proposed for Trucks, Buses
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced national standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and buses. This comprehensive national program is projected to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons in the program’s first five years. The proposal and information about how to submit comments is at: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regulations.htm and http://www.nhtsa.gov/fuel-economy . (See the original DOT news release here.)

First Stimulus Project to Begin Construction Opens

Missouri rushed to be the first state to begin construction on a project funded by the American Recover and Reinvestment Act. Construction on the bridge over the Osage River near the rural town of Tuscumbia, which replaces an older bridge, began about 18 months ago and it was opened to traffic earlier this month. You can find out a little more from the Missouri Department of Transportation news release and blog.

Government Accountability Office Watches Recovery Act Implementation

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has monitored the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)and issued several reports. Some of the issues raised by the GAO are summarized below.

Jobs Reporting
ARRA requires assistance recipients to report on jobs created and retained by their projects. GAO found that there were inconsistencies in guidance and the calculation of full time equivalents (FTEs) that might affect the reported figures and the aggregation of jobs. They believed that recipients were making a good faith effort to report correctly.

Federal Requirements Effect Project Timing, Selection, Starts
GAO found that federal agencies and states reported that federal requirements related to ARRA affected the timing, selection, and starts of projects. The requirements that seemed to have the most effect were Davis-Bacon and Buy American.

The Davis-Bacon Act requires contractors on federal projects to pay local prevailing wages to laborers and mechanics. Generally, it applies to direct contracts with the federal government. It applies to all projects that are funded with ARRA funds. Timing of some projects was effected by this requirement. It seems likely that this is because these requirements are new to 40 programs because of the attachment of the requirement to ARRA funds.

The ARRA Buy American requirements are new to all the affected programs. The selection and start of some projects were effected by this requirement.

Though some projects were affected by federal requirements, it appears they have caused few significant problems for overall program implementation. Only a few agencies surveyed by GAO reported major problems.

The information for this post was draw from these GAO reports:
Officials’ Views Vary on Impacts of Davis-Bacon Act Prevailing Wage Provision (
GAO-10-421)
Project Selection and Starts Are Influenced by Certain Federal Requirements and Other Factors (GAO-10-383)
Recipient Reported Jobs Data Provide Some Insight into Use of Recovery Act Funding, but Data Quality and Reporting Issues Need Attention (GAO-10-223)

GAO has also issued these reports on ARRA:
One Year Later, States’ and Localities’ Uses of Funds and Opportunities to Strengthen Accountability (GAO-10-437)
California’s Use of Funds and Efforts to Ensure Accountability (GAO-10-467T)
Clean Water Projects Are Underway, but Procedures May Not Be in Place to Ensure Adequate Oversight (GAO-10-761T)
Contracting Approaches and Oversight Used by Selected Federal Agencies and States (GAO-10-809)
Factors Affecting the Department of Energy's Program Implementation (GAO-10-497T)
Increasing the Public’s Understanding of What Funds Are Being Spent on and What Outcomes Are Expected (GAO-10-581)
Recipient Reported Jobs Data Provide Some Insight into Use of Recovery Act Funding, but Data Quality and Reporting Issues Need Attention (GAO-10-224T)
States’ and Localities’ Uses of Funds and Actions Needed to Address Implementation Challenges and Bolster Accountability (GAO-10-604)
States’ Use of Highway and Transit Funds and Efforts to Meet the Act’s Requirements (GAO-10-312T)

Check out these posts and articles for additional information on ARRA:
Infrastructure & Stimulus News
Recovery Act and Infrastructure in the News
Recovery Act and Infrastructure News
Show Me the Money: Stimulus & Infrastructure News
States Obligate All Highway Stimulus Funds
What’s Up in Congress

What’s Up in Congress

Axe the Plaque is Back
Rep. Aaron Schock (IL) has introduced the End the Stimulus Advertisement Act (H.R. 5679), which would prohibit funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) from being used to pay for signs indicating the project is ARRA funded. The bill would also reduce appropriations for administration of ARRA-funded agencies to recover the funds already spent on signs.

Senate Bill Calls for Study of Mississippi River-Great Lakes Separation
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) introduced the Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act of 2010 (S. 3553). The bill calls for a study by the Corp of Engineers to study the feasibility of hydrologic separation of the basins of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes in order to prevent the spread of aquatic nuisance species

Senate Bill Would Establish Green Infrastructure Program, Centers
Sen. Tom Udall (NM) introduced the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act of 2010 (S. 3561). The bill would establish centers for excellence in green infrastructure throughout the United States and create a green infrastructure program in the Environmental Protection Agency.

Related posts and articles

Bill Watch—111th Congress
Bill Would Axe Stimulus Plaques
Green Infrastructure Bill Introduced
Infrastructure & Stimulus News

Infrastructure & Stimulus News

County plans paving projects using recovery act funds (The Progress, June 4, 2010)
Madison Suburban Utility District to be upgraded (Humbles, A., The Tennessean, June 8, 2010)
State recognized for efficient use of ARRA funds for water projects (Huntington News, June 8, 2010)

$1.5 Million Waldron Dam Work To Start (Times Record, May 18, 2010)
ARRA funds play key role in putting Americans to work, report stays (The Trucker, May 11, 2010)
Highway Paint Is in Short Supply: Outages reduced supply of key ingredient as stimulus work kicked up demand (Parsons, J., Engineering News-Record, May 26, 2010)
Maryland’s Largest ARRA Transportation Project Gets Started (GovMonitor, May 18, 2010)
Missouri communities have put out for bid, awarded and started construction of projects totaling 100% of the state's allocation (Daily Dunklin Democrat, May 21, 2010)
Missouri Top State in Wastewater Stimulus Funding Use (Infrastructure Watch, May 28, 2009)
Recovery Act and Infrastructure News (Infrastructure Watch, May 11, 2010)

Missouri Top State in Wastewater Stimulus Funding Use

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee recently recognized Missouri as the state that has most aggressively moved wastewater projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). This is very good news considering that Missouri was the last state in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 to be awarded ARRA funds for the CWSRF.

You can read a news release from the Missouri governor’s office here.

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Missouri Receives Stimulus Funds for Drinking Water and Wastewater