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Volume XXII, Number 36
December 27, 2001
The Month In Review

1015 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-347-7474
Fax 202-898-0068
www.acec.org

E-mail acec@acec.org

Ellen Mullally, Editor
Francis George, Production Manager
___________________

 ACEC Means
Business

Mark Your Calendars   

The Small Firm Council (SFC) and Council of Professional Surveyors (COPS), Annual Winter Meeting, Jan. 11-12, Newport Beach, Calif. The meeting will include a seminar, Limiting Liability and Exposure Through Health and Safety; a networking reception; a CEO roundtable; a membership meeting and other events. Visit www.acec.org/Events/sfcwin02.pdf for more information or call Roger Jordan at 202-347-7474.

2002 Marketing Summit: Strategies for Engineering Firms, Jan. 18-19, Newport Beach, Calif., seminar co-sponsored with SMPS (Roger Doucette, 202-347-7474);

From Ground Zero, Jan. 28, National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., co-sponsored with AGC (register at 202-272-2448 or pkillmer@nbm.org at $12 special rate);

Business of Design Consulting, Feb. 23-27, Orlando, Fla., seminar (Roger Doucette, 202-347-7474);

Federal Markets Conference/Consulting Congress Day/Engineering Excellence Awards Gala, March 11-12, Washington, D.C. (Roger Doucette, FMC, Crystal Browne, CCD, Susan Courtney, Gala, 202-347-7474);

ACEC Annual Convention, May 12-15, Las Vegas (Chris Coats, 202-347-7474).

ACEC-PAC Gains Momentum

Responding to an appeal by ACEC Chairman Steve Goddard on behalf of ACEC-PAC, members from around the country are sending contributions to bolster the association’s political muscle. More than $14,000 has been raised so far, and more contributions are arriving daily. For more information, contact Susan Doyle, ACEC-PAC director, at 202-347-7474 or e-mail her at sdoyle@acec.org.

Contract Document Sets  

Get a complete set of Owner Engineer, Construction, Design Build, and Engineers-Sub-Consultants documents for your firm today, available in hard copy or disc or by downloading from www.acec.org/publications. For more information, contact Ed Bajer at ebajer@acec.org.  

Get Last Word By
E-Mail

Stay up to date on national legislative and policy developments, organizational changes, and other industry news by receiving the weekly Last Word via e-mail. If you or others in your company are not receiving these weekly e-mails, contact Francis George today at fgeorge@acec.org.

GA Report

This week's edition:
December 21, 2001

ACEC Victorious On Environmental Bill

ACEC’s "Brownfields" legislation passed the House last week. This legislation (H.R. 2869) was one of two main priorities on ACEC’s environmental agenda this year. The House adopted the Senate version of the bill (S. 350) that passed in April. ACEC worked with congressional staff to draft the legislation, submitted written testimony, and coordinated grassroots support for its passage.

The second priority on the environmental agenda—the Price Anderson Act—provided another ACEC victory as the House last month approved reauthorization of the Act, which caps liability for nuclear projects (see 11/30/01 Last Word). The Senate is expected to pass the legislation early next year.

"Passage of this Brownfields bill is an important victory for ACEC because it clears the way for the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated sites - and that means more work for ACEC member firms. It also encourages more development while at the same time improving communities and putting these sites back into productive use."

                David Kennedy, co-chairman,
                ACEC Environmental Business Committee
               President, Kennedy Jenks Consultants

ACEC Defeats Anti-Outsourcing Amendment

ACEC’s lobbying efforts hit pay dirt earlier this month as House and Senate conferees for the F.Y. 2002 Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization bill dropped the remaining elements of an amendment offered by Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) to restrict DoD’s ability to outsource work to private engineering companies.

ACEC was successful in removing most of the amendment’s provisions prior to consideration by the House. ACEC prevented any similar amendments from being attached to the Senate version of the bill, and then launched an assault that succeeded in removing the remaining elements of Abercrombie’s amendment in the final conference report.  

Appropriations Wrap-Up –
A Good Year For Infrastructure Funding

ACEC worked diligently throughout the year to secure necessary investments for key infrastructure programs. As Congress wraps up the final appropriations bills for the year, here is a rundown of the major funding programs for F.Y. 2002:

¨ Transportation: $60 billion overall, including $32.9 billion in highway spending (4 percent increase), $13.3 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration (4.5 percent increase), and $6.7 billion in transit spending ($493 million increase).

¨ Defense: $530 million for airport and transit security, $200 million in aviation security upgrades, $85 million for federal highways destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center, $93 million to assess/enhance security at U.S. seaports, $400 million for the Customs Service, and $100 million each for security enhancements to Amtrak, mass transit, and NY/NJ ferries.

¨ EPA: $25 million increase for the Safe Drinking Water SRF program, for a total of $850 million, and $1.35 billion for the Clean Water SRF.

¨ Energy and Water: $19.5 billion overall, an increase of $877.2 million, including $7.14 billion for the Environmental Management program, an increase of $169.7 million.

ACEC Sponsored Energy Conference Attracts Broad Industry Attention

A large conference room at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., was jam packed Dec. 13 to hear

USEA Executive Director Barry
Worthington discusses national
energy policy with ACEC Chairman
Steve Goddard.
ACEC energy experts participate in Implementing a National Energy Strategy: Breaking Down the Barriers, a conference co-sponsored by ACEC and the U.S. Energy Association (USEA).

ACEC speakers on various panels included Charles Thornton, chairman, Thornton Tomasetti Group; Don Zabilansky, senior vice president, Lockwood Greene; Dan Gullaksen, vice president, Sargent & Lundy; and Dan Arvizu, senior vice president, CH2M Hill.   

Standards Guide Promotes ACEC Name And New Look Throughout Federation  

ACEC Member Organizations (MOs) last week received the new ACEC Logo Graphic Standards Guide and CD to assist them in implementing the new name and graphic. Any questions on usage can be directed to Francis George at 202-347-7474.

Momentum continues to build as MOs voice support for the new name and logo graphic. ACEC Colorado’s board of directors voted Dec. 18 to adopt the new logo in support of a unified ACEC. And in a Dec. 11 letter to ACEC Chairman Steve Goddard, Consulting Engineers Council of Metropolitan Washington Executive Director Karen Silberman said, "The unification effort on the part of ACEC is appreciated. The benefits of the ‘united front’ between ACEC and the Member Organizations and coalitions of the ACEC are great. We are proud to be part of this effort."

Judge Denies Anti-Prop. 35 Injunction

A California judge denied a motion by the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) for an injunction in PECG v. BT & H, a case seeking to terminate existing design and project management contracts and severely restrict future contracts, all regardless of the passage of Prop. 35.

ACEC Receives Clean Bill Of Health From Auditors 

The "Management Letter" from ACEC’s auditors, Councilor Buchanan and Mitchell, following the recently completed audit of ACEC’s books for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, said: "The accounting records are in very good condition. All generally accepted accounting procedures are in place and are being followed. All records and documentation are well kept and were readily produced by accounting staff upon our request." 

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