JGAC Report 3

—by Laurence Socci

This is the third Joint Government Affairs Committee report, covering issues worked on during the first half of 2008.
Retainage issue in FAR—Discussed at the COFPAES Staff Meeting recently was the issue of Federal contract payment retainage for A/E contracts. The issue regards language in Part 52 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) which allows contracting officers to withhold 10% of payments to the contractor in A/E contracts until the contract is complete. There appears to be no language in any other part of the FAR or other statutory authority to allow this retainage. An effort is being led by AIA to get this clause overturned.

COFPAES news—The next COFPAES Delegate meeting was held on April 29 at the American Institute of Architects in Washington, DC. We had an insightful morning session with attendees hearing from a number of speakers about A/E issues in the federal government. The afternoon delegate session was chaired by ACSM’s own Rick Allen, who is the COFPAES Chairman for 2008.

NGAC meeting—Much of the discussion at the April meeting of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee centered on OMB Circular A-16, which addresses the coordination of mapping and geospatial activities by the federal government. The consensus was that Circular A-16 needed to be reviewed and updated. Two categories of pressing issues were identified: Structural foundation issues and programs. Among the former are: National Spatial Data Infrastructure, investment strategy, OMB Circular A-16, and standards/interoperability. The Programs issues include: Imagery for the Nation, National Map, national land parcel data, revitalizing the U.S. mapping function, and climate change.
The NGAC’s priorities are, not necessarily as listed here: landscape change description, data content standards, a transition plan in the form of a GIS position paper, designing a NSDI or National GIS, Data initiative, (including the National Map, Imagery
for the Nation, Lidar for the Nation), investment strategy (including leveraging public/private/stakeholder partnerships), and OMB A-16 organizational structure, roles, and responsibilities.

Senate votes to reauthorize the Flood Insurance Program—The Senate recently passed a measure to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program and reauthorize it for five years. The legislation, which passed 92-6, reestablishes the Technical Mapping Advisory Council. ACSM worked to include language in the bill for not only the reestablishment of the TMAC, but also the requirement that a member of the committee represent a professional surveyor association and another member of the committee be from a professional mapping association. The bill also removes state contributions for updating flood maps. A similar bill passed the House and the legislation is expected to go to President Bush for his signature soon.

National Surveyor’s Week Resolution update—The National Surveyor’s Week Resolution, H. Con. Res. 223, currently has 26 co-sponsors. We need 50 co-sponsors to bring it to the House floor for a vote. If you have not already done so, please ask your Representative to co-sponsor H. Con. Res. 223. The current co-sponsors are:
3% Withholding Tax Issue update—The House proposed a one-year delay on the implementation of the tax; the Government Withholding Relief Coalition is working to make sure the Senate accepts the proposal. The coalition has learned that Senators Baucus and Grassley of the Senate Finance Committee may be willing to propose legislation to drop the withholding tax amount from 3% to 1% or 2%. Legislation in the House to repeal the imposition of the withholding tax, H.R. 1023, currently has 250 co-sponsors, while the Senate version of the bill, S. 777, only has 13 co-sponsors. The coalition is working to add more co-sponsors to the Senate bill.

Abandoned Railroad Monumentation issue moving forward—This issue is moving forward in the House of Representatives. The language we developed was accepted and reviewed by staff from the House Transportation Committee. An ACSM committee developed a white paper which gives a background on the issue and discusses reasons for preserving railroad markers even after the railroads are abandoned. Congressional staff are reviewing the white paper. The next step will be to obtain the position of the Surface Transportation Board on the issue.