ACEC submitted comments on a proposal from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to substantially increase the fees associated with employment-based visas.

USCIS processes the visas that engineering firms use to employ international talent when qualified Americans and U.S. residents are not available. This includes optional practical training (OPT), H-1B visas, and employment-based green cards. Over ninety percent of the USCIS budget comes from visa fees and the agency generally proposes fee increases every four years, although the fees were last raised in 2016.

This week, ACEC submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is proposing to revise title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR). Specifically, ACEC shared the Council’s concerns over past interpretations of CFR 2, Section 200.319, which states, “In order to ensure objective contractor performance and eliminate unfair competitive advantage, contractors that develop or draft specifications, requirements, statements of work, or invitations for bids or requests for proposals must be excluded from competing for such procurements.”

On Friday, FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt circulated new guidance on implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Administration's priorities. The memo supersedes guidance issued in December 2021 that was the subject of some confusion and concern, particularly with respect to the way it discouraged construction of new highway capacity projects.

ACEC was pleased to host a meeting of the Federal Agencies Procurement Advocacy meeting at our new Washington, DC offices.

The proposed amendment to the FAR, called the Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk, would require federal contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emis­sions. It would also require larger firms to set science-based emis­sions reduction targets.