Archive for March 2022

ASA Calls Upon Congress Not to Suspend the Federal Gasoline Tax ASA, along with the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC), called upon congressional leadership to not suspend the federal gasoline tax in the name of “economic relief,” which is misguided and could undermine the recently enacted and bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Per their…

Critical Communications Survey: Please Respond! We’re Listening. Raise Your Voice Nothing beats one-on-one conversation to spur ideas and connections. That was reinforced at SUBExcel a couple weeks ago as we talked with a lot of our members about how to make YOUR association better. Only problem is that we spoke to a tiny fraction of…

ASA Supports Building Resilient Supply Chains Act On October 5, 2021, Reps. Malinowski (D-NJ), Kinzinger (R-IL), and Rochester (D-DE) introduced the Building Resilient Supply Chains Act, H.R. 5495 to establish the Supply Chain Resiliency and Crisis Response Office in the Commerce Department and authorizes $41 billion for the Office to make grants and loans to…

FAR Updates: Buy American Act Requirements On March 7, 2022, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) for Buy American Act Requirements” was updated as follows: An important issue that was not finalized in the rule, but will be an important issue on the Buy American horizon is the designation of “critical” items and components. For “critical”…

ASA Honors the Life of Jesse Pickett Jr. It is with sadness that we share that Jesse Malcolm Pickett Jr, ASA President from 1986-1987, passed away on February 13th, 2022 at his home in Dallas, TX.  He lived to the beautiful age of 96 years, and his family shares that he passed peacefully and without…

This Week in Congress This week, the Senate held nomination votes and the House voted on legislation banning mandatory arbitration agreements and banning discrimination based on hair style or texture.  Mandatory arbitration agreements are common in both employment and consumer agreements, and the FAIR Act (H.R. 963) would ban their enforcement and would nullify all…

ASA Supports the Employee Tax Credit Reinstatement Act ASA supports the Employee Retention Tax Credit Reinstatement Act (ERTC), which would reinstate the ETRC through the end of 2021, as it was originally written, to help struggling small businesses that were counting on the ERTC to help pay their employees through the end of the year. …

ASA Supports Small Business Innovation and Technology Grant Funding ASA urged congressional leadership to pass an extension of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs on an upcoming legislative vehicle that will be enacted soon.  The SBIR/STTR programs are currently set to expire on September 30, 2022. While we…

Three Phased Plan Reopening the U.S. Capitol The Capitol will open in three phases beginning March 28th. Phase one -March 28: Capitol authorities will increase the “official visitor” limit to 15 from the current nine Staff-led tours will resume with a limit of 15 people per tour School groups will be allowed back in the…

President Biden Signs FY22 Omnibus Appropriations Bill On Tuesday, March 15, 2022, President Biden signed the $1.5 trillion FY22 Omnibus Appropriations Package.  Included in the package were earmarks (congressionally directed spending) in which retiring Sen. Shelby (R-AL), the top Republican appropriator, secured more than $548 million in home-state projects.  He was followed by fellow appropriators…