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This Week in Congress The House and Senate were in session this week while confronting a February 18th deadline to either pass the FY22 Appropriations Bills or adopt another short-term continuing resolution to fund the government beyond that deadline. Return to the ASAToday page to read more articles.

Infrastructure Guidebook The White House has released a guidebook to the bipartisan infrastructure law for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.  The guidebook provides a summary of the programs funded in the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill.  The book can be found here:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/build/ Return to the ASAToday page to read more articles.

FY22 Appropriations Bills House and Senate negotiators continued to reach a deal on the FY22 Appropriations Bills. Last week Republicans sent a proposal to Democrats with their recommendation on how to divide the defense and non-defense spending.  The White House is expected to send a request for additional pandemic aid for hospitals, restaurants and other…

Update: Build Back Better? It is unclear how the Build Back Better would be amended to satisfy Sens. Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ) with Sen. Manchin suggesting to “start from scratch,” but Democrats would rather work on the existing bill.  President Biden said he’s “confident” some pieces of the existing package will become law before…

Prequalification Technology Built For and By Subcontractors As we operate during uncertain times, Subcontractor risk management has been instrumental in maintaining the integrity of the construction supply chain. Over the next few months, the majority of the market will be requested to renew their prequalification as 2021 financial statements become available, known as The Great…

America COMPETES Act Last week House Democrats released the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which was debated this week in the House. The legislation would provide subsidies to manufacture semiconductors in the U.S., boost science and technology research and address China’s anti-competitive trade practices. Return to the ASAToday page to read more articles.

PREVENT Pandemics Act Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr of the Senate HELP Committee released a discussion draft of the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act (PREVENT Pandemics Act), a bipartisan bill focused on strengthening the nation’s public health and medical preparedness and response systems due to the…

Speaker Pelosi Announces 18th Term House Speaker Pelosi has announced her bid for an 18th term and after reclaiming the speaker’s gavel in 2018, Speaker Pelosi stated that she would step down from the post at the end of this year. If Speaker Pelosi wins re-election in November, she could resign the Speaker’s post shortly…

This Week in Congress Congress is not in session this week. Return to the ASAToday page to read more articles.

OSHA Withdraws Employee Vaccine ETS On Wednesday, January 26, 2022, per the Federal Register, OSHA withdrew the November 5, 2021, emergency temporary standard (ETS) for large employers (100 or more employees).  The withdrawal makes clear that they are now treating the ETS as merely a proposed rule and will review the comments they received on…