A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) official testified before the House Subcommittee on Highways & Transit last week that the Highway Trust Fund will run out of money in Fiscal Year 2015 unless lawmakers cut spending, make a transfer from the General Fund, or boost revenues. CBO reported that the Fund will support current spending levels through the end of MAP-21 in September 2014.

A U.S. Department of Transportation representative added that unless Congress provides additional funds, the department could be forced to slow the rate of spending from the Highway Trust Fund. Reimbursements to states for project costs would be delayed until sufficient tax receipts were credited to the fund.

ACEC is working with the staffs of key Senators on how to advance a long-term, sustainable solution on transportation financing within the broader negotiations on the budget, deficit and tax reform.

Click here for more information on the hearing, including witness statements and archived video.

President Obama presented a “grand bargain” in a speech on Tuesday in Chattanooga, Tenn., calling on Congress to enact a series of tax reforms to raise revenue to be invested in infrastructure, education and domestic manufacturing.

Among the proposed reforms were closing a multitude of tax loopholes and lowering the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. Click here to read the President’s speech.

“It’s an open question whether the President’s proposal will pass political muster on Capitol Hill, but he publicly acknowledges something that ACEC and others have been saying for months—tax reform is a viable vehicle for raising revenue for infrastructure,” said ACEC President Dave Raymond.

ACEC is working with both Congressmen and Senators to identify new revenue to pay for an expanded highway and transit program to replace MAP-21 next year. Lawmakers in both parties have said that wide-ranging tax legislation could be used to raise new funds for infrastructure, but many conservative members believe there should be matching cuts in other areas.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies approved a $24.3 billion bill to fund the Department of Interior, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and related agencies, $4 billion below the current funding level.

The bill cuts EPA funding by 34 percent to $5.5 billion, including major cuts to the wastewater and drinking water State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan programs. The wastewater SRF is cut by nearly 83 percent—from $1.44 billion to $250 million—and the drinking water SRF is reduced by 61 percent—from $889 million to $350 million.

The legislation also eliminates funding for brownfields infrastructure projects from both the State and Tribal Assistance Grants and Environmental Programs and Management.

Click here for a detailed breakdown of the bill.

"It's not pretty," said Interior Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson, but "this bill makes very difficult choices in an extremely tough budget environment. In order to fund critical ‘must-do’ priorities, like human health, public safety, and treaty obligations and responsibilities, we’ve had to reduce and even terminate some programs that are popular with both Members of Congress and the American people.”

ACEC is working with key Senators to restore both the SRF funding levels and brownfields grants.

In an interview in The New York Times this week, President Obama downplayed potential job creation from the ACEC-backed Keystone XL pipeline, saying it would generate "maybe 2,000 jobs" during the construction phase. Yet the State Department’s Draft Supplemental EIS, released in March, stated “the proposed project would potentially support approximately 42,100 average annual jobs across the United States over a one- to two-year construction period.” 

Keystone XL Pipeline owner TransCanada has estimated that building the pipeline will directly add 9,000 skilled construction and 7,000 manufacturing jobs.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) jointly issued a statement refuting the President’s comments, saying that “approval and construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will mean thousands of jobs and economic growth for workers in the United States.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said: “Unions and manufacturers are desperate for the president to say yes to the Keystone pipeline because it will get thousands of workers off of unemployment and back on the job. The president should listen to these American workers looking for a job and embrace the opportunity to realize the benefits of $7 billion in private investment.”

Asked about the contradictory information coming from the Administration, State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki acknowledged “some confusion on this issue,” but was unable to explain the differing jobs estimates.

ACEC/Florida recently won a major legislative victory with the passage of a new law shielding individual design professionals from personal liability for professional negligence when working for a business entity. Prior to the law’s passage, contractual limitation of liability clauses in Florida did not apply to the individual practitioner.

The new law provides liability protection to the design professional if they are working within their scope of employment and if specific wording mandated in the statute is included in the business entity’s contracts with clients. As a result, contracts that pre-date the statute may not be sufficient to protect individual design professionals from liability.

For more information on the Minuteman Fund, click here.

Kim Willson will succeed Mike Karia as the executive director of ACEC/Delaware on August 1.

She most recently worked as a lobbyist for ACEC/DE through Rhett Ruggerio Government Relations. She also worked in government relations for Valero Energy Corporation and served on the staff of Senator Tom Carper (D-DE).

To contact Willson, click here.

Find your next project partner at the upcoming ACEC Fall Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, October 27-30.

Firms attending the Conference are responsible for more than $400 billion in public and private works annually. More than 70 percent of attendees are key decision-makers within their firms.

Numerous Conference programs will focus on markets, business development, and project management, including Trends in Private Client Markets, Improving Alternative Delivery Projects from Cradle to Grave, and Opportunities and Challenges in the Built Environment: What Will Shape the Industry's Future?

For more information on the Fall Conference and to register, click here.

ACEC will feature four Member Firms and their anti-drought and supplemental water supply innovations in the November/December 2013 issue of Engineering Inc.

To submit one ongoing or recently completed project for consideration, e-mail the following information to Andrea Keeney, by August 2, 2013: Project name and location; brief project overview highlighting unique aspects; and the name, title and phone number of the Member Firm executive to be interviewed for the project profile.

If you have questions, please contact Andrea Keeney at akeeney@acec.org. 

ACEC is soliciting proposals for educational presentations at the 2014 ACEC Annual Convention and Legislative Summit, April 27-30, in Washington, D.C.

Presentations will be 75-minutes long and must focus on business management and ethics; firm operations and administration; leadership; contracts, legal issues and risk management; business development; or project management and project delivery.

Proposals must be submitted by August 16.

To view and download the call for presentations, click here.

August 1, 1:30-3:00 pm

Capital partners can help firms accelerate their growth. Learn whether this business strategy is right for your firm.

In 7 Ways a Capital Partner Can Help You Increase the Value of Your Business, Will Burnett, managing director, Owner Resource Group, will explore the pros and cons of various types of capital partners, describe what to look for in a capital partner, and set expectations.

For more information and to register, click here.

August 6, 1:30-3:00 pm

Stop waiting for the economy to improve. In The Pathway to Success, Scott Hunter, president of The Hunter Partnership Alliance, will demonstrate how firms can avoid being dependent on the economy for their success and will lay out four steps that firms can take to start building business today.

For more information and to register, click here.

August 13, 1:30-3:00 pm

Engineering firms use design thinking every day to solve their clients' most pressing and complex design problems. In Using Design Thinking to Build Business and Break the Commodity Trap, find out how to use this core competency in your business planning.

Joseph Rei of MORF Consulting will demonstrate how firms can use design thinking to gain market share, strengthen their position with clients, and solve the ongoing problem of "engineering commoditization."

For more information and to register, click here.

August 20, 1:30-3:00 pm

Utilizing simple strategies to understand your clients' expectations and perceptions allows your firm to catch and solve problems before they grow.

In Finding Client Problems to Reduce Risk & Liability, Mike Phillips of Phillips Architecture provides a method for identifying and tracking clients' priorities and preferences. You can use this data to reduce project liability and wasted time and increase profitability, referrals and both staff and client satisfaction.

For more information and to register, click here.

August 27, 1:30-3:00 pm

What makes a few professionals highly successful communicators, but so many others not so good?

In The 10 Top Tips of Totally Terrific Communicators, John Doering unpacks simple, pragmatic, action-oriented techniques to engage, influence, and deliver to others.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 4, 1:30-3:00 pm

PowerPoint is an invaluable tool to communicate your ideas in presentations, but far too many interviews suffer from ‘Death by PowerPoint’ as presenters read from bullet point slides and interviewers doze off.

In Using PowerPoint Effectively in Presentations, David Stone of Stone & Company will show you how to use this powerful tool to create and deliver vibrant, dynamic and engaging slides that enhance your presentation and set you apart from all others.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 5, 1:30-3:00 pm

As alternative delivery methods become more popular, firms need to better understand how these processes work.

In Improving Alternative Delivery Projects from Cradle to Grave, Renee Hoekstra of Rha will examine approaches such as scoping, value engineering, and partnering and demonstrate how to employ them on every project.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 10, 1:30-3:00 pm

In Your Clients Talked, We Listened: Top Ten Research Findings Every Firm Should Know, Ray Kogan and Cara Bobcheck of Kogan & Company present their findings from hundreds of one-on-one interviews with municipal, institutional, and private clients over the past ten years.

Learn how clients view the competitive landscape for consulting engineering and how they differentiate one from another.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 11, 1:30-3:00 pm

Innovations in business development—including cloud-based customer relationship management, the role of individual vs. firm, and blogging—are changing the way engineering services are sold.

In Forget (Almost) Everything You Know About Business Development, Ken Tichacek, founder/principal, Think Like Your Clients, will introduce the power of these tools and discuss the new management/leadership issues that arise from their use.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 17, 1:30-3:00 pm

Negotiating Better Engineering Contracts will highlight the specific techniques that create contract negotiations that make both sides feel like winners.

Gary Bates of the Roenker Bates Group will describe the skills needed to be an effective negotiator and show the strategies and tactics for planning and conducting a negotiation session.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 18, 1:30-3:00 pm

Engineering firms of all sizes have been adopting cloud solutions to meet critical business needs.

In The Benefits of Cloud Computing for A&E Firms, Steve Titus, principal/president, Aerocoustics Engineering, and Pete Mann, vice president, SaaS and Cloud, Deltek, will analyze the factors that make cloud computing an attractive solution, including lower cost, rapid deployment, improved security, and remote access.

For more information and to register, click here.

Learn how to build leadership and manage your firm at the most effective level in the 2013 Business of Design Consulting (BDC) course in Chicago, September 18-21.

The 3½-day agenda is taught by an experienced faculty of industry practitioners and highlights winning strategies for planning and growth, finance, leadership, ownership transition, contracts and risk management, marketing, and more.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 24, 1:30-3:00 pm

How do successful firm leaders understand and interpret strategic options in an uncertain market?

In Strategic Decision-Making in Uncertain Times, Mick Morrissey, principal of Morrissey Goodale, will show how to link and leverage the clarity of vision, commitment of leadership, competency of management, and capitalization to rank your strategic options and make the best decisions for your firm.

For more information and to register, click here.

September 25, 1:30-3:00 pm

Propose less and win more.

In Playing the RFP Game to WIN, Frank Lippert of Go! Strategies will demonstrate how to uncover clients' real needs, put together an unbeatable team, track the competition, and win more proposals.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 2, 1:30-3:00 pm

Your website has become a critical part of a prospect's vetting process.

In Sell While You Sleep: Building a Website that Supports Referrals and Word of Mouth, find out how the newest generation of websites—with proper search engine optimization and relevant updated content—is a critical tool for business referrals.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 9, 1:30-3:00 pm

If you don't ask, you don't get! There's so much valuable information to gather from your clients, but few firms/individuals have the knowledge base and skill set to ask the right questions, of the right people, at the right time.

In Client Research: Debunking Myths and Maximizing ROI, Richard Friedman of Friedman & Partners will identify five key elements that should drive the questions you ask, and define three strategies for leveraging research in your project delivery and business development processes.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 10, 1:30-3:00 pm

Over the past 25 years, we have seen the shift in the definition of leadership from managing things to leading people. The definition is evolving again to "creativeship," which Bob Kelleher, president/founder of Employee Engagement Group, defines as the necessity to create a sustainable culture and business model to compete and thrive in today's market.

In "Creativeship:" The Evolution from Management to Leadership to Creativeship, Kelleher will outline the benefits to firms in embracing this new leadership paradigm.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 15, 1:30-3:00 pm

Learn how to hone your presentation and communication skills in The Engineered Interview: A Civil, Structured, Electrified Approach to Winning More Business.

Susan Murphy of Murphy Motivation and Training will demonstrate how to leverage your unique experience and personality to increase business and form more successful relationships.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 16, 1:30-3:00 pm

Taking the time to plan properly is an investment you cannot avoid—if you want to meet your goals and support your employees.

In If You Haven't Planned It, You Can't Control It, Gary Bates, Roenker Bates Group, demonstrates the relationship between "planning" and "controlling," maps out everything that needs planning and controlling in an engineering firm, and outlines the seven basic steps required to plan and control all facets of running a successful firm.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 17, 1:30-3:00 pm

Nothing happens in a consulting engineering firm until a project is sold and the contract is signed. Until then, everyone is overhead.

Ready/AIM/Fire: Achieving Record Sales and Profits teaches effective business development skills to marketers and technical professionals who come into contact with clients and potential clients.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 22, 1:30-3:00 pm

The idea of seeking out regular, reliable and candid feedback from clients is simultaneously exciting and terrifying.

In How Can You Exceed My Expectations if You Don't Know What They Are?, David Stone of Stone & Company will describe how to obtain honest client feedback and what to do with it.

For more information and to register, click here.

November 6, 1:30-3:00 pm

Properly drafted construction contract documents will reduce the contractual risk to consulting engineers and minimize the potential for exposure to costly litigation.

In Beware the Risks Posed by Non-Standard Construction Contract Documents, Gerald Cavaluzzi, vice president and general counsel, ARCADIS U.S., and Kevin O'Beirne, principal engineer and manager of standard construction documents, ARCADIS U.S., will demonstrate how to reduce the risk of becoming involved in a dispute or lawsuit arising from the use of non-standard construction contract documents; discuss why you should be concerned about using non-standard documents; identify provisions that commonly pose liability issues; and outline a program to limit these risks.

For more information and to register, click here.

October 31, 1:30-3:00 pm

Developing and maintaining a business continuity or disaser recovery plan can be a daunting task.

In Ten Keys to Business Continuity Planning, Bob Mellinger, president of Attainium, will simplify the process, focusing on the key concepts for developing, maintaining and implementing an effective business continuity management program.

For more information and to register, click here.

November 12, 1:30-3:00 pm

Your primary goal in a proposal is to persuade a client that your firm is perfectly suited to the project.

In Writing and Editing Readable Proposals, David Stone of Stone & Company will show you how to make the content of your proposal easily accessible and understood.

For more information and to register, click here.

November 13, 1:30-3:00 pm

The Negotiate with Confidence: Field-Tested Ways to Get the Value You Deserve webinar has been developed over 15 years and helps engineers bring the problem-solving talents to the negotiating process.

Presenter Steve Isaacs of FMI Corporation incorporates the principles of interest-based negotiation with the principles of design thinking to make negotiating a more familiar, comfortable, and executable skill for engineers.

For more information and to register, click here.

November 19, 1:30-3:00 pm

Project risk is becoming more and more of an issue with clients. As a result, firms need to develop and consistently update an effective risk mitigation strategy.

In Reducing Overall Construction Costs through Risk Assessments and Management, Renee Hoekstra of Rha will demonstrate how to integrate risk management into your current program/project management.

For more information and to register, click here.

November 20, 1:30-3:00 pm

Discover how to be a more accomplished communicator by utilizing a proven feedback process.

In How to Give and Receive Effective Feedback, Gary Bates, Roenker Bates Group, will describe the deficiencies in how we regularly communicate, explain the value of effective communication, and demonstrate the importance of giving and receiving meaningful feedback.

For more information and to register, click here.

December 4, 1:30-3:00 pm

Sick of coming in second?

In Proposals That Win, Wendy Nemitz of the Ingenuity Marketing Group explores proven methods for setting up a proposal process that actually gets new business.

For more information and to register, click here.

December 10, 1:30-3:00 pm

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.

In Critical Business Development Skills: Emotional Intelligence, David Stone of Stone & Company introduces the four elements of emotional intelligence and demonstrates how to leverage this skill in business development.

For more information and to register, click here.

January 14, 1:30-3:00 pm

Developing and maintaining a business continuity or disaser recovery plan can be a daunting task.

In Ten Keys to Business Continuity Planning, Bob Mellinger, president of Attainium, will simplify the process, focusing on the key concepts for developing, maintaining and implementing an effective business continuity management program.

For more information and to register, click here.

January 22, 1:30-3:00 pm

Project teams that struggle to effectively collaborate, communicate and make decisions often result in increased costs, schedule delays, and strained relationships.

In Sellwood Bridge: Team-Building to Drive Complex Project Delivery, Mike Baker, vice president, David Evans and Associates, Inc., will present a case study from an ongoing $308M multi-agency bridge/interchange replacement project to demonstrate how to build effective project teams and describe the dramatic benefits that can accrue.

For more information and to register, click here.

The American Council of Engineering Companies
1015 15th St., NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20005-2605
Phone: 202-347-7474 - Fax: 202-898-0068
www.acec.org - E-mail:acec@acec.org
Alan D. Crockett, Director, Communications
Gerry Donohue, Editor/Designer