Major A/E Tax Cut Clears House And Senate—Now In Conference Legislation that includes tax rate reductions for A/E firms that ACEC has been championing is now in conference after victories in both the Senate and the House. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (H.R. 4520) reduces the tax rate for A/E firms by three percent for large corporations, with similar reductions for small corporations. Companion legislation—the Jumpstart Our Business Strength (S. 1637)—also features ACEC-backed language to ensure that A/E firms qualify for new tax reductions. The legislation repeals a current export-based tax benefit—the Extraterritorial Income Tax Exclusion (ETI)—that was found to be in violation of international trade rules by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Congress has been focused on replacing ETI with a tax benefit for the manufacturing sector and, because of ACEC's efforts, only recently included A/E firms as beneficiaries. The Senate bill is applicable to all businesses, while the House bill applies to corporations only. ACEC is now focusing on convincing conferees to adopt the more wide-ranging Senate approach to the legislation.

ACEC/PAC Trustees Set $500,000 Goal For '04 Trustees for ACEC/PAC have adopted an aggressive fundraising goal of $500,000 for 2004 to help support the Council's legislative agenda in Congress. To achieve the goal, each State Organization has been assigned specific fundraising targets based on membership strength. ACEC/KY and ACEC/NE are already coming close to meeting their 2004 fundraising goals, and several other states are making solid progress. For more information on ACEC/PAC, contact ACEC/PAC Director Jenny Sheffield at 202-347-7474 or jsheffield@acec.org.

QBS Bill In New York—Major Breakthrough; Now Awaits Governor Signature ACEC/NY Exec. Director Jay Simson: "The bill is a great victory." A landmark bill to expand Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) to cover public benefit corporations and authorities in New York State, was passed by the state Senate and Assembly and now awaits signature by Governor George Pataki. The ACEC/New York legislation mandates that the selection of engineering design services be based on qualifications, and covers any public benefit corporation or authority which has at least one member appointed to its board by the Governor. Such entities include the New York State Thruway Authority and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Their projects are valued in the billions of dollars.

Senate Committee Passes ACEC-Backed $41B Water Bill The ACEC-supported Water Infrastructure Financing Act (S. 2550) was passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this month. The bill provides $41 billion over five years in water infrastructure funding, significantly boosting funding levels for the water and wastewater State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) programs. ACEC will now focus on getting the bill before the full Senate before Congress adjourns at the end of the year. In addition to increasing SRF authorization levels, S. 2550 includes $1 billion for wet weather projects and $5 billion to assist small communities with drinking water compliance problems such as arsenic. Latest Reverse Auction Threat Defeated By ACEC Kentucky ACEC/Kentucky recently defeated regulatory changes that would have authorized the use of reverse auctions. This is the latest chapter of ACEC's ongoing effort to eliminate reverse auctions throughout the nation. Kentucky had issued a new regulation to create an online bidding process where engineering firms would have had to underbid one another for state projects. The practice, known as reverse auctions, effectively undercuts consideration of qualifications in the selection process, despite ample evidence of cost savings and other benefits associated with Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS). ACEC/Kentucky representatives met with the Governor to explain the problems with using reverse auctions, and mobilized its members for a strong showing at a public hearing on the issue. The organization also launched an aggressive letter-writing and phone campaign which led the Governor's office to withdraw the regulations from consideration.

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