Last week the United States House of Representatives passed its version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. While most of the media attention focused on the lack of any Republican votes for the bill, there are many details of interest to contractors including:

Building Infrastructure Funding: Approximately $55 billion is marked for building construction. This includes amounts for construction by GSA, the military and the VA. In addition, $20 billion is marked for K-12 and higher education construction. These funds are to be distributed through Title 1 formulas for K-12 and with a new formula for higher education.

Highway and Transportation: This portion of the bill sets aside $46 billion in funding. Subcategories include $30 billion for bridge and highway funding (to be distributed by existing formulas), $12 for transit funding (new construction funds distributed on discretionary basis) and $3 billion for airport improvement grants.

Water Infrastructure: The House put $15 billion toward water infrastructure including $4 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, $2 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and $1.5 billion for Rural Water and Waste Disposal projects.

Buy American Requirement: The House bill requires that iron and steel used in construction and repair projects funded under the bill be manufactured in the United States unless it is found to be prohibitively expensive. This is defined as increasing the project cost by 25 percent.

Federal Contracting Requirements: The Federal Acquisition Regulations shall apply to all contracts that are “awarded with funds made available in this Act.” The Act does not define this provision and so it is unclear if this means projects awarded by states with funds from this act will be subject to the FARs or simply those projects awarded directly by the federal government. Additionally, Davis-Bacon requirements will apply to projects funded directly by or assisted in whole or in part by the federal government as well as projects funded by tax bonds.

The Senate is considering its version of the Act this week. Negotiations between Democrats and Republicans will likely yield legislation that is different from the House version. Thus, the Act will need to go through a House-Senate Conference Committee to work out these differences before it can be sent to the White House for execution. In any event, it is clear that the Act in whatever form it will be passed will contain a great deal of funding for a variety of construction projects.

Submitted by Steve Withee.