Congress is moving closer to passing an estimated $1.2 trillion spending package that includes funding for various construction and infrastructure programs, including federal buildings and embassy construction.
The measure moved one step closer to enactment on March 22, when the House passed it by a vote of 286 to 134. It is the second, and largest, of two appropriations packages that Congress has taken up during the in recent weeks, to bring federal agencies through to Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2024. The bill still requires Senate approval.
Each of the two packages funds a group of federal departments and agencies.
Most major construction and infrastructure programs were covered by the first package, including programs overseen by departments. of Transportation and Energy, as well as the civil works of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and almost all military construction accounts.
This bill, estimated at $432.9 billion, won final approval from Congress on March 6; President Joe Biden signed it three days later.
The most recent package funds several construction programs, including federal buildings at the General Services Administration, State Department embassies and Department of Defense environmental restoration.
The measure cuts GSA’s building construction and acquisition account by 68 percent from the 2023 enacted level to $260 million. Of that total, $200 million will go toward a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
An FBI official, testifying before a Senate committee hearing in 2017, said the building was “outdated, inefficient and faces a number of security vulnerabilities.”
GSA announced in November that the FBI facility would be located in suburban Greenbelt, Maryland, but GSA’s inspector general has launched a review of the agency’s selection process to choose the Maryland site instead of one in Springfield, Virginia. Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation have criticized the GSA process.
The spending package also included $212 million for GSA’s major repairs and alterations account, 14 percent less than the approved fiscal year 2023 total.
Major renovation projects funded in the bill include Tacoma, Washington’s Union Station, which will receive $79 million, and the William J. Holloway, Jr., federal courthouse and post office in Oklahoma City, which will receive $66 million. dollars
The State Department’s embassy repair, construction and operations account was flat at $903 million.
DOD’s environmental restoration program was cut 21% to $1.3 billion. All other DOD construction programs are included in the first spending package.
Also in the new measure is the Department of Labor, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, another important agency for construction companies. OSHA’s 2024 budget was frozen at $632 million.
