Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3547, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, by a vote of . This evening the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 72-26. The bill comes after Congress failed to pass any of the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2014. ѻý advocated for the passage of the bill to ensure predictability for FY 2014 federal construction programs.
The legislation – which ends four years of Congress funding government agencies through a series of stopgap spending bills and funding extensions – sets overall discretionary spending levels of $1.1 trillion as agreed to in the budget conference agreement. These levels are $45 billion over levels that had been scheduled under automatic sequester spending cuts.
ѻý has done an in the bill. The following is a summary of the appropriations bill and the federal construction programs that ѻý closely monitors:
Federal Construction
Overall, federal construction funding accounts generally see either slightly increasing or relatively flat funding in FY 2014, with more optimistic signs for federal contractors than not. While the hard numbers show that military construction accounts in total see a slight decrease, they do not account for sequestration cuts in FY 2013. As a result, contractors should actually expect a slight increase in overall military construction spending. On the U.S. Army Corps Civil Works side, contractors should expect a small spike—$723 million—in funding, representing a positive development. Also, and perhaps most notably, the General Services Administration increases to over $1.5 billion, which is more than what the agency has received for construction over the last three fiscal years.
Military Construction
Despite the small decrease in total military construction accounts in FY 2014 compared to FY 2013, contractors should expect slightly more—roughly 3 percent—overall dollars flowing to military construction projects, as the FY 2013 figures do not include sequestration cuts. As the figures in the chart below indicate, the Department of Defense will significantly more construction dollars into the Air Force construction accounts in FY 2014, after a significant draw-back in FY 2013.
The , after page 13, lists all of the projects included in the final bill by state and country. In addition, it should be noted that:
- None of the funds from the Air Force Military Construction Account earmarked for military construction projects in Saipan or for Pacific Air-power Resiliency in Guam, Joint Region Marianas may be obligated or expended until the Department of Defense completes a Pacific Air Resiliency Study;
- Funds in the BRAC 1990 and BRAC 2005 accounts have been merged into one account, under BRAC 1990; and
- The bill includes $150 million for DoD’s Energy Conservation Investment Program, which promotes green building initiatives, among other things.
- San Ysidro, CA—US Land Port of Entry, $128,300,000
- Lakewood, CO—Denver Federal Center, $13,938,000
- Washington, DC—DHS Consolidation at St. Elizabeth’s, $155,000,000
- San Yuan, PR—Federal Bureau of Investigation, $85,301,000
- Laredo, TX—US Land Port of Entry, $25,786,000
- Winchester, VA—FBI Central Record Complex, $97,853,000; and
- The housing requirements of the Judiciary’s Southern District in Mobile, AL Provides $69,500,000 to meet.
- Provides $85 million for the construction of state extended care facilities;
- Provides $46 million for grants for construction of veterans cemeteries; and
- Allows proceeds or revenues derived from enhanced-use leasing activities to be deposited into the construction major and minor accounts.