Home
About NASHTU
Press Room

Membership

Links of Importance

Annual Conferences

Legislation

Surface Transportation Authorization

Committee Testimony

Member Reports

Issues

Studies and Reports
Legislative Archives

Contact Us

NASHTU E-mail Archives

Get the Highway Robbery II Report

To Join NASHTU, Click Here
Find Us on Facebook


 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the NASHTU website

 

The National Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions (NASHTU) is dedicated to ensuring that federal transportation dollars are spent on cost-effective, safe projects that serve the public interest.  NASHTU is comprised of 38 unions and associations representing hundreds of thousands of state and locally employed transportation engineers, construction managers and inspectors, technical workers and related public servants from throughout the United States.

 

 

Save the Date!

NASHTU Conference 2012

May 21-23, 2012

 

 

House Taking Action on the Surface Transportation Authorization 

 

Rumor has it that the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be marking up its surface transportation authorization (STA) bill on Thursday, February 2, 2012. If that schedule holds, look for a draft of the bill to be publicly released as soon as this Friday. 

The House did release a new summary of their proposed STA bill. The 14-page document is long on words but short on details. As expected, the House plans to introduce a five-year bill at “current funding levels” paid for by expanded oil and gas drilling leases. The bill also looks to consolidate duplicative federal programs, streamline environmental reviews, and increase wasteful public-private partnerships in all modes of transportation. The full summary can be found at NASHTU’s website.

 

Consulting Engineers Show Their Cards 

 

As reported, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee passed a new two-year, $109 million Surface Transportation Authorization (STA), but not before consulting engineer interests attempted to insert an amendment to encourage State DOTs to “utilize private engineering firms to the maximum extent possible.” Senator John Boozman (R-AR) actually claimed that using private sector engineering firms will save money and create “private sector” jobs. Since this amendment will likely surface again, please contact your United State Senators immediately and share with them the excessive cost of outsourcing engineering services. NASHTU has drafted a letter that you can customize and e-mail or fax to your senator.

Also, outsourcing advocates certainly didn’t stop with the Senate – look for similar amendments to surface during the House debate. The House is expected to move on their own version of the Surface Transportation Authorization in December. 

 

Senate Panel Advances Surface Transportation Authorization 

 

At long last, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee published its version of a new Surface Transportation Authorization (STA) that preserves current funding levels plus inflation. Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) passed unanimously out of the EPW committee yesterday with 18 amendments that were previously agreed to by committee leadership. For more details, click on the links below. 

 

NASHTU's Statement on President Obama’s Joint Session Speech 

The National Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions (NASHTU) released the following statement on President Obama’s Joint Session Speech:


NASHTU applauds the President’s commitment to transportation and other infrastructure outlined in his jobs and growth plan. Investing in public works such as highways and bridges is a surefire way to create jobs and spur economic recovery. We call on the President and Congress to ensure that the transportation investments outlined in his plan are not wasted on no-bid, design-build contracts, overpriced public-private partnerships or other forms of outsourcing that do not serve taxpayers. 


 

 

News Stories

 

 

 

 

OMB Cracks Down on Wasteful Outsourcing

 

February 4, 2011

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a status report on their efforts to curb wasteful government contracting.  In FY 2010, federal agencies spent nearly $80 billion less than they would have if contract spending continued to grow at the same rate it had under the prior Administration.  NASHTU applauds the Obama Administration’s success in contracting reform for federal agencies, but to make government spending even more efficient, these efforts should be expanded to target federally-funded programs as well. 

 

June 14, 2010

Read Representative Judy Chu’s (D-CA) letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) asking that the federal contracting reforms be expanded to apply to all state and local projects that use federal funds. 

 

March 31, 2010

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) released its draft policy letter defining inherently governmental functions that should be performed only by government employees.  Read the Federal Register Notice

 

 

October 27, 2009

WASHINGTON, October 27 – In an attempt to crack down on mismanaged and wasteful federal contracting practices while strengthening oversight and accountability capacity across the government, the Obama Administration has issued guidance today that requires federal agencies to increase the capability and capacity of the civilian agency acquisition workforce to ensure sufficient management and oversight of acquisition dollars.

 

The guidance also provides specific instructions for agencies to avoid high-risk contracts that can result in excessive costs being passed on to taxpayers.

 

July 29, 2009

WASHINGTON, July 29 — President Obama in conjunction with the OMB formally unveiled contracting and workforce reforms that are designed to save the taxpayers at least $40 billion a year. The reforms, released today, focuses on three areas: improving acquisition, managing the multi-sector workforce, and contractor performance information.

 

"Today’s guidance is a major step forward in providing the federal government with the capacity to carry out robust and thorough management and oversight of its contracts in order to achieve programmatic goals, avoid significant overcharges, and stop wasteful spending," said OMB Director Peter Orszag.

 

 

 

March 4, 2009

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the U.S. government was paying too much for things it did not need and ordered a crackdown on spending he declared "plagued by massive cost overruns and outright fraud."

 

The Democrat, under fire from Republicans for the $3.5 trillion price tag for his 2010 budget plan, also took aim at predecessor George W. Bush and noted the cost of government contracts had doubled to more than half a trillion dollars over the past eight years. 

 

Click here to read the Presidential Memorandum

 

NASHTU 12th Annual Conference

Click here for the 12th Annual Conference Highlights

 

 

NASHTU would like to thank U.S. DOT Undersecretary for Policy Roy Kienitz and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) for addressing the 12th Annual Conference of the National Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions (NASHTU) in Washington D.C.

 

Please call 916-446-0584 or email nashtu@nashtu.us if you have any questions.