A/E Leadership Retreat To Address Future For Engineering Click on this icon for more information and to register. ACEC has teamed up with the American Institute of Architects to offer a special senior management retreat focusing on the A/E industry of the future. The 2005/2006 North American A/E Leadership Retreat will be held December 7-9 at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. It will feature leading A/E/C industry futurists: William A. Draves, an internationally recognized consultant and author of the new book: Nine Shift: Work, Life and Education in the 21st Century, and Paul Chinowsky, organizer of the National Academy of Engineering's Engineer of 2020—an initiative designed to prepare today's engineers for the anticipated changes to the profession of the future. Registration is limited. Further information is available on the ACEC website—www.acec.org. Click on the A/E Leadership Retreat icon at the right of the screen.

Congress Nears Completion of F.Y. 2006 Transportation Spending Bill The House and Senate are driving to complete work on the F.Y. 2006 transportation appropriations bill (H.R. 3058), which would clear the measure for the President's signature. The bill provides $36 billion for highways, $8.6 billion for transit and $3.55 billion for airport improvements. Amtrak is funded at $1.3 billion, a slight increase over last year's level. This is the first appropriations bill that reflects the funding increases provided under the recently-passed SAFETEA LU surface transportation authorization bill. During consideration of this legislation, Congress included a provision concerning the controversial allocations contained in SAFETEA LU for two bridges in Alaska. The language eliminates the specific project earmarks, but allows Alaska to keep the funds.

Corps Gets Spending Boost; Package Includes Reductions For Energy Clean-up Programs Congress approved a $30.5 billion spending package this week that funds Department of Energy environmental programs and Corps of Engineers water projects. The measure provides $5.4 billion for Corps civil works projects. Aside from the emergency funding for Katrina in 2005, this funding level represents a 7 percent increase over current spending. A compromise position was worked out during the conference regarding the Corps ability to utilize continuing, multi-year contracts. Concerns have been raised previously in Congress over the Corps' multi-year projects, as well as the practice to reprogram funds between projects without proper authorization. The compromise language clarifies that multi-year contracts are permissible, as long as specific authorization is provided by Congress. The Corps also will be required to report to Congress on the reprogramming of funds. The bill provides $6.2 billion for defense site cleanup, $180 million above the White House's request but below the $6.8 billion F.Y. '05 level. Funding for Bureau of Reclamation water projects is set at $1.1 billion, $40 million over the 2005 level. Overall funding for energy research programs, including the FutureGen initiative and the Clean Coal Power Initiative, was increased by $106.5 million.

US DOT Inspector General Drops One Audit, Expands Another The U.S. Department of Transportation's Inspector General (IG) has quietly dropped a pending audit on state DOT and Federal Highway Administration cost recovery procedures as they relate to consultant errors and omissions. The IG's office cited the lack of a clear problem, although it did find some inconsistencies with state DOT cost recovery practices. The IG believes these inconsistencies can be best addressed by the FHWA. The audit was launched in 2004 amid concerns by the IG's office that cost recovery efforts by state DOTs and FHWA for engineering firm errors and omissions were insufficient. In response to the audit, and the fact that many state DOTs were revising their policies in response to the IG's actions, ACEC mobilized a task force which produced a model cost recovery policy. Click here to view the model policy. While dropping the errors and omissions audit, the IG has indicated its intention to expand a second audit on the accuracy of overhead rates and the treatment of executive compensation by engineering firms. In an initial examination of five firms, the IG's office cited concerns over unallowable costs being included in overhead rates, as well as compensation rates that do not meet the "reasonableness" standard under federal procurement rules. The IG has also expressed concerns over state DOT oversight, as well as a lack of understanding on the part of independent accounting firms conducting overhead audits. A task group of ACEC members and staff have met with the IG's office twice this year to discuss the audit. According to ACEC members engaged in those discussions, including representatives of ACEC's Transportation Committee and its Audit Task Force, there appeared to be a lack of understanding on the part of IG staff of the engineering industry in general and engineering-related procurement rules in particular. The IG intends to contact up to 100 additional firms for information, and conduct site visits with as many as 12 firms. For more information contact T.J. Schulz at 202-682-4369.

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