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Advocacy

March 21, 2023

ACEC Submits Comments on Employment-Based Visa Fees

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.

Advocacy

March 17, 2023

Council Reinforces Need to Maintain Fair and Open Competition

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.”

March 10, 2023

FRB Report: Newly Graduated Engineering Students Earn More than Any Other Discipline

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released in February an economic research report examining the labor market for recent college graduates. The study examined underemployment, unemployment, and early and mid-career median incomes.

The data on early and mid-career incomes should prove particularly compelling for future engineers...

March 3, 2023

Saluting An Engineer Who Found His "Calling"

Today is the 175^th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Graham Bell: scientist, engineer, and, as inventor of the telephone, the reason you keep getting all those calls about your expiring auto warranty.

Bell’s invention of the telephone was born of his early work as a teacher of the deaf. Bell’s mother and wife were hearing-impaired. It was a visit with her that sparked his idea of “electronic speech.” As a husband, son and teacher of hearing-impaired people, Bell had long had a fascination with how sound is transmitted via the human voice. With Samuel Morse’s telegraph as inspiration, Bell began applying his knowledge of sound and speech to invent what he called his “electrical speech machine.”

March 3, 2023

New Members Elected to ACEC's College of Fellows

ACEC’s College of Fellows is a federation of engineers selected by their peers in recognition of both their professional achievements and contributions to their communities. Fellows are charged with enhancing the image of engineering and with conducting outreach to encourage and recruit future engineers. The College is pleased to announce the recent election of three distinguished new Fellows.

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Member Firm News

August 16, 2022

Brown and Caldwell announce Euan Finlay has been promoted from senior vice president to chief operating officer (COO), effective immediately. A senior executive with 25 years of experience, Finlay excels in leading organizations and teams to deliver excellence to clients while driving sustainable growth.

https://brownandcaldwell.

August 9, 2022

VHB welcomes Meghan Powell as Director of Transit and Rail for the Mid-Atlantic region. In this role, Powell will carve a path forward for VHB's Transit and Rail service line by strategically leading the development and implementation of its growth strategy.

https://www.acppubs.com/a

August 2, 2022

Brown and Caldwell today announced Vice President Dr. Kati Bell has been appointed a fellow of the UC Irvine Water-Energy Nexus Center (WEX Center).

The WEX Center promotes fundamental and applied research at the water-energy nexus in partnership with industry. Its research focuses on all dimensions of power/energy use and efficiency in the water processing sector, including extraction, treatment, conveyance, reclamation, and reuse.

https://brownandcaldwell.