NASHTU Legislative Priorities

NASHTU Legislative Priorities

NASHTU is seeking to include the provisions of two legislative proposals in the next federal transportation authorization. The first proposal is found within H.R. 328 (Filner – D-CA). This legislation can be condensed and included in the authorization as follows: “public employees shall carry out the construction inspection functions for all surface transportation projects receiving Federal funding.” NASHTU’s second proposal would require that state and local transportation departments perform a cost comparison analysis prior to outsourcing work. These common sense provisions would protect public safety and safeguard transportation dollars.

NASHTU’s members should also request that the Senate Environment and Public Works and the House Transportation and Infrastructure committees include these important provisions in the reauthorization. Please customize the letters below and e-mail/fax them in today.

Senate Letter
Chair Barbara Boxer
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
E-mail: david_napoliello@epw.senate.gov or andrew_dohrmann@epw.senate.gov
Fax: 202-224-1273

House Letter
Chair John Mica
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
E-mail: geoffrey.strobeck@mail.house.gov
Fax: 202-225-6782

H.R. 328 (Filner): Public Inspection on Transportation Projects

To ensure that public safety is protected, transportation funds are not wasted and projects are delivered in a timely manner, NASHTU-sponsored H.R. 328 (Filner) requires public employees to perform the inspection on all federally funded state and local transportation projects.

On transportation projects, construction inspectors are the eyes, ears and voice of the public. Inspectors ensure that construction standards are met, that projects meet safety requirements and that materials used will stand the test of time. Construction Inspection is an inherently governmental task that should not be outsourced.

Bill Summary and Status from Library of Congress Website.

Cost Comparison: Cost-Effective Use of Transportation Dollars

Increasingly state and local transportation agencies are spending hundreds of millions of federal dollars on private contracts for architectural, engineering, construction inspection and related transportation services without determining whether these contracts are cost-effective, result in safe construction projects, or in any way serve the public interest.

NASHTU’s cost comparison proposal will ensure the taxpayers receive safe, high quality transportation services at the best possible price by requiring state and local transportation agencies to perform a cost comparison prior to outsourcing federally-funded transportation services.

Cost Comparison Proposal Fact Sheet

So-called Public-Private Partnerships

Despite major public-private partnership disasters across the nation, foreign, multi-national companies and Wall Street investment houses continue to push for private toll roads. This would allow them to suck huge profits out of the transportation system while inflicting outrageous tolls on motorists through contracts that forbid improvements to parallel public roads, increasing traffic congestion.

If policy makers determine that toll roads are necessary:

Prohibit the use of no-bid design build contracts and require public oversight and inspection to ensure road safety and construction cost controls.

Public agencies should use tax-exempt financing, which is up to 35 percent lower than private borrowing rates and greatly reduces project costs and tolls.

Toll revenues should be reinvested in our transportation system and not used to boost the profits of multi-national consortiums and Wall Street investment banks.

Prohibit non-compete clauses and cash payments that are designed to prevent improvements to competing public roads, increasing congestion.

Design-Build
Design-build lumps design, construction, and inspection of a highway project into a single contract that is awarded not through competitive bidding, but through a process that allows unspecified factors to be considered “significantly more important than cost.”

Design-build also allows the private contractor to inspect and sign off on their own work. The inspector’s role is to ensure the taxpayers get what they pay for and public safety and public interest is protected. This crucial function should not be performed by a private inspector whose primary obligation is to the success and profitability of his company or business partners – not public safety and project quality.

Federal Contracting Reform Should Also Apply to Federal Dollars

When President Obama took office in 2009, he called on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reign in the excessive cost, waste and abuse that has become all too common in government contracting. In July 2009, the OMB released a set of contracting reform guidelines that require federal agencies to use government employees to perform inherently governmental tasks and to perform cost comparisons prior to outsourcing government services. These common sense government contracting reforms should also be applied to state and local government federally funded programs, not just federal agencies and departments.

National Association of State Highway
and Transportation Unions
455 Capitol Mall, Suite 501
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-446-0584 | Fax: 916-446-0489