3 Percent Withholding Final RegulationsThe IRS issued final regulations for the implementation of the 3% withholding law.
Highway Trust Fund UpdateChapter Execs: Thanks to the many of you who have already sent out alerts to your members asking them to contact Republican members of the House concerning the rules change that could seriously undermine highway and transit funding in the future and for your own contacts. The vote on the rules change is scheduled for tomorrow. A compromise is in the works but is not assured. AGC supports the compromise and we need additional support to ensure that it is adopted. If you have not yet contacted Republican House members in your state please do so. If you have not yet contacted your member companies and asked them to contact House Republicans please do so. Attached are talking points which will help you and your members in contacting House Republicans. The last bullet point calls for support of the Mica/LaTourette amendment to the proposed rule change. Brian Deery House Rules Change Will Undermine Highway Trust Fund Spending – Urgent Action NecessaryOne of the first actions of the incoming House Republican majority this week will be to adopt revised rules for operating the chamber in 2011 and 2012. Among the proposed rules is a repeal of the guaranteed funding requirement for annual federal highway investment and the House point of order that enforces the guarantee. These guaranteed investment levels are based on user fee revenue flowing into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Please ask your Member of Congress to oppose the rule change for the following reasons:
Republicans will vote on this package of rule changes on Tuesday, January 4, 2011.
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Associated Cotnractors New MexicoACNM Action AlertCall Your U.S. Representative –
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ACNM Board & ACNM MembershipD’Auna Wood (ACNM President), Dan Silva (ACNM Legislative Consultant) and I were on a conference call this morning (March 2, 2010) with NMDOT executive staff, All of the NM Congressional staffers and the NM District Engineers regarding last week’s political impasse on legislative approval of the Highway Authorization extension and its impact on the industry. As you know, last Friday Congress failed to pass the Federal Highway Authorization extension which has caused the FHWA to withhold reimbursement of funding to the NMDOT and all state DOT’s. The NMDOT has stated that they have arranged for the local road fund to pick up the slack on the federal funding reimbursement issue and stated that contractors will continue to receive payments on existing contracts for the next three weeks. After that period NMDOT stated that it would be difficult to meet its payment obligations. NMDOT stated that all existing ARRA contracts would not be affected as to contractors being paid (this funding was earmarked and not affected by this legislative impasse). NM Congressional staff stated that they believed that this political impasse on the legislation to extend the Federal Highway Authorization bill would be settled by the end of the week and that the provisions by the NMDOT to address payment to contractors would only be needed for this week. Each NM Congressional staffer committed to keeping ACNM and NMDOT updated on the progress on extending the Highway Authorization Bill. In summary, it appears that there will be NO DELAYS in payments to any contractors on existing contracts, ARRA or non-ARRA, and that this Congressional impasse would be resolved within the week. Should you have any questions or if your firm experiences anything contrary to the information in this email, please call me at 505-553-1324. Thank you. Mike Gibson |
House Passes Amended Senate “Jobs” Bill
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Recap of the 2010 Legislative Session.Should you have any questions please call me at 505-553-1324. Mike Gibson |
Updated summary of legislative bills that we are tracking.Unfortunately over the weekend (late Sunday afternoon) we lost a House Floor debate and vote on HB 271 (Excess tax), all Republicans and several conservative Democrats (who were concerned about their fall elections) decided not to support this bill. The good news is that the bill and the need for revenue got a lot of attention and stirred up a lot of other discussions by policy makers about the financial challenges within DOT. ACNM joined in with several other groups to defeat on the House Floor (HB 271 – Air Quality) by a vote of 32-33. This bill still may be placed on the calendar this week but time is running out. Please call Dan Silva or myself with your comments or questions. Thanks. Mike Gibson |



