Engineering Inc. - November/December 2019 - 8

LEGISLATIVEACTION

Senate Transportation Spending Bill
Supplements Infrastructure Accounts

T

GUENTERGUNI / GETTY IMAGES

he Senate
approved
an annual
transportation
funding bill
that increases
investment levels
for most federal infrastructure
programs in the coming fiscal
year. Lawmakers continued the
trend from the last two years
in supplementing traditional
trust funds with additional
investments under a new twoyear budget agreement.
The Senate bill fulfills FAST
Act funding levels for highway
programs at $46.4 billion from
the Highway Trust Fund and
adds an additional $2.7 billion
from the General Fund for
surface transportation block
grants, railway-highway crossing safety improvement, and
bridge repairs.
A total of $13 billion is provided for Federal Transit
Administration programs, fully funding FAST Act
commitments and adding $560 million for transit infrastructure
grants. The bill allocates nearly $2 billion for Capital
Investment Grants, which is $547 million less than 2019 but
still sufficient to satisfy existing project funding agreements and
advance new projects meeting eligibility requirements. ACEC
successfully supported an amendment that would prevent a 12
percent across-the-board cut to transit programs, which was
triggered by a Treasury rule due to a shortfall of anticipated
receipts into the Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund.
The amendment preserved $1.2 billion in formula funding and
was approved 82-11.
Rail programs are funded at $2.8 billion, including

$255 million for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety
Improvements, $300 million for Federal-State Partnership for
State of Good Repair Program, and $2 billion for Amtrak.
For aviation, the bill maintains Airport Improvement
Program spending from the Airport & Airways Trust Fund at
$3.35 billion and adds $450 million in competitive airport
grant funding from the General Fund.
The bill appropriates $1 billion for multimodal project
grants (TIGER/BUILD), an increase of $100 million above
2019, and provides $3.3 billion for Community Development
Block Grants, consistent with the 2019 level.
The House approved an alternative transportation spending
bill earlier in the summer. House and Senate negotiators will
need to reconcile the differences in their respective proposals,
likely combining several appropriations bills into one
legislative package.

Overtime Pay Rule Finalized

T

he Department of
Labor (DOL) finalized
a new overtime pay
rule under the Fair
Labor Standards Act. The
agency periodically updates
the salary threshold below
which employees who work
more than 40 hours in a week

8

ENGINEERING INC.

must be paid time and a half
overtime.
The existing salary threshold
of $455 weekly/$23,660
annually was set by a DOL
rulemaking in 2004. An
increased salary threshold
of $913 weekly/$47,476
annually, as well as automatic

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019

updates every three years,
were scheduled to take effect
on Dec. 1, 2016, before being
overturned by a federal judge.
The new overtime pay
salary threshold is $684
weekly/$35,568 annually. DOL
did not make changes to the
duties test for determining

whether an employee who
earns more than the salary
threshold is exempt from
overtime pay. ACEC submitted
comments in May in support
of these moderate revisions.
The updated salary
threshold will take effect on
Jan. 1, 2020.
Engineering Inc. - November/December 2019

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