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Energy & Water (U.S. Army Corps Civil Works) On June 18, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development approved a funding bill for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works construction program. The bill provides a mixed bag of results for construction accounts when compared to the previous fiscal year (FY) in which Corps sequestration cuts amounted to $263 million. On one hand, the operations and maintenance (O&M) account would see a $395 million – or 17 percent – increase from FY 2013 post-sequestration levels. On the other hand, the construction account would experience a $331 million – or 20 percent – cut compared to FY 2013 pre-sequestration figures. The Mississippi River and Tributary (MR&T) account would face a $30 million – or 11 percent – cut when compared to the president’s FY 2014 budget request. For a complete line-by-line analysis of all Civil Works’ accounts, . ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ continues to maintain that through regularly investing adequate funding to maintain our nation’s inland waterways, ports and coastlines and to protect cities from floods and storm damage, our economy will grow, jobs will be created , the need for large disaster assistance aid will be diminished, and more lives will be saved with improved construction precautionary measures.   For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at (703) 837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org. Department of Housing & Urban Development For the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the House appropriations bill would fund the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program at $1.637 billion for FY 2014. This would represent a $1.311 billion—or 45 percent—reduction from FY 2012 levels.  The CDBG program provides annual grants on a formula basis to cities, urban counties and states to develop housing for low- and moderate-income persons. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at (703) 837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org. Transportation This week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) passed their funding bill for FY 2014.Ìý The bill included MAP-21 funding levels for federal highway and transit programs supported by ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and its transportation stakeholders.Ìý In total, the bill provides over $40 billion for the highway program and $10 billion for the transit program.Ìý ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ members who participated in April’s Federal Contractors Conference and this month’s Transportation Construction Coalition Fly-In lobbied their members on the hill to ensure the THUD bill included MAP-21 funding levels. In addition, the Airport Improvement Program saw a slight increase in funding from FY 2013 to $3.35 billion from $3.1 billion.Ìý The subcommittee faced a tight discretionary spending cap of $44.1 billion (the Highway Trust Fund and Airport Improvement Program are not subject to this spending cap), forcing them to make cuts to several programs, including zeroing out the TIGER grant programs for next year and rescinding $237 million previously appropriated in FY 2013.Ìý The bill does not include the $50 billion in . The bill will be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee on June 27.Ìý ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ will continue to advocate for full funding for the major infrastructure programs in the final FY 2014 transportation funding bill. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.Ìý