As reported last week, the House T&I Committee voted to approve the
INVEST In America Act
( H.R. 2) and sent it to the full House where action is expected this week.
While the bill provide major fund increased for highway, bridges, airports, transit, water, rural broadband, schools, and more, there may be one major problem directly impacting consulting engineers.
Congressman Garamendi (D-CA), has offered an amendment to mandate that only public employees perform construction inspection services. If included in the final legislation, this would shut consulting engineering completely out of the construction inspection business on federally funding projects.
Before the bill can go to the full House, it must first clear the House Rules Committee. That Committee will decided which proposed amendments will and will not be allowed on the House floor.
The bill was drafted by the Democratic leadership on the House T&I Committee, without input and agreement by the Republican minority. That means that the only real chance to derail the amendment in the Rules Committee is to convince Democratic members of the House Rules Committee not to accept the amendment. ACEC is working feverishly to convince those Members to reject the amendment.
Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole is the Ranking Member of the Rules Committee. ACEC OKLAHOMA is in contact with Congressman Cole's staff urging the Congressman to object to the amendment when it's brought up for consideration.
We'll keep you updated!