Engineering Inc. - January/February 2006 - 11

MAKES AUDIT SWITCH; SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES AHP BILL legislation signed
into law, says ACEC Life/Health Insurance Trust firm errors and omissions
were insufficient. The IG's office cited the President Derrell Johnson. We
commend Chairman Enzi for his lack of a clear problem, although it did
point out some inconsisten- commitment to this issue, and we look forward
to working with the cies with state DOT cost-recovery practices, which the
IG believes committee in moving this bill forward. could best be addressed
by FHWA. In response to the audit, and t h e fact that many state DOTs
were revising their policies in ACEC-Supported Water response to the IG's
actions, ACEC mobilized a task force, which Trust Fund Bill Introduced
produced a model cost-recovery policy. While dropping the errors and
omissions audit, the IG will Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee
Chairman Jim expand a second audit on the accuracy of overhead rates and
the Duncan R-Tenn. introduced the ACEC-supported Clean Water treatment of
executive compensation by engineering firms. The IG's Trust Act of 2005 in
December, setting office is concerned that unallowable costs are being
included in the stage for consideration of the legisla- overhead rates, as
well as compensation rates that do not meet the tion in the second session
of the 109th reasonableness standard under federal procurement rules. The
IG Congress. also has expressed concerns over state DOT oversight, as well
as a ACEC worked with the Water Infra- lack of understanding on the part of
independent accounting firms str ucture Network WIN to draft this
conducting overhead audits. legislation, which authorizes nearly $37 The
IG intends to contact up to 100 additional firms for infor- billion over
five years for wastewater infra- mation and conduct site visits with as
many as 12 firms. A task structure. The measure creates a dedicated force
involving ACEC members and staff has met with the IG's revenue stream
similar to the highway and a i r p o r t trust funds to address the esti-
Chairman Jim Duncan office to discuss the audit. mated $23 billion annual
water infrastruc- R-Tenn. Senate Committee Approves Association ture
funding gap. Health Plan Legislation Because money from the new trust fund
will be distributed through the Environmental Protection Agency's Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee HELP State Revolving Loan
Fund SRF program, the bill does not create Chairman Mike Enzi R-Wyo. has
introduced legislation, which any new administrative bureaucracy. At
present, the bill is silent on seeks to help businesses obtain affordable
health insurance through the funding mechanism in order to allow for open
consideration by national trade associations. Congressional tax writing
committees. The Health Insurance Marketplace Mod- ACEC was successful in
including QBS language in the package, ernization and Affordability Act of
2005 S. clarifying that engineering work for projects funded under the SRF
1955 represents the first serious effort to program must be procured using
QBS. pass an Association Health Plan AHP bill ACEC currently is working to
build support for the package, in the Senate in many years. preparing for
a major industry grassroots push in 2006. While the House has passed
similar legis- lation on many occasions, including pas- sage of an AHP
bill last July, the Senate has failed to act until now. As chairman of the
Senator Mike Enzi H E L P committee, Enzi has jurisdiction R-Wyo. over AHPs
and other health-related issues, and his leadership is seen as critical to
mov- ing legislation through the Senate and to conference with the House.
ACEC is one of a few national associations that offers members FOR MORE
NEWS the benefit of a fully insured AHP. Enzi's legislation aims to reduce
the administrative burden on plans like ACEC's, and open access to For
weekly legislative news, firms, particularly smaller firms, in states that
cannot currently par- visit ACEC's Last Word online at www.acec.org.
ticipate in ACEC's AHP. Senate action is critical to realizing our
objective of having AHP January l February 2006 ENGINEERING INC. 1 1
http://www.acec.org
Engineering Inc. - January/February 2006

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - January/February 2006
