The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a summary report on “Identification of National Work Zone Safety Objectives and Activities.”

The report includes 11 strategic objectives and notes work zone crash trends, providing another resource for ATSSA members.

ATSSA recently published its “Roadway Worker Protection Special Edition,” a supplement to the Fall issue of Roadway Safety magazine, which included articles on building a workplace safety culture, insights on situational awareness and information about the teen driver education program, which addresses navigation through work zones, an ATSS Foundation program.

With Congress yet to pass the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the federal government beyond the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, a government shutdown is becoming a real possibility.

While a federal shutdown is a rare occurrence, it can create uncertainty and have economic consequences. In the event of a federal government shutdown, essential functions funded with discretionary funds would continue but many of the federal employees providing these essential services would be doing so without pay until a funding resolution is reached.

Programs funded through the use of mandatory spending – such as Social Security, Medicare and certain federal trust funds like the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) – would continue to function at the start of the new fiscal year.

Get ready for enactment of the new Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) guidelines by attending ATSSA’s free virtual Town Hall on Sept. 7.

Speakers will address questions on the recently released guidance for the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA).

The virtual Town Hall panel will include ATSSA Director of Federal Government Relations Cameron Greene and Kathy Ruffalo, president of Ruffalo & Associates, a Washington-based advocacy and consulting firm. Ruffalo has significant transportation and infrastructure experience at both the federal and state levels.

Registration is now open.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Wednesday published the final guideline for the Build America, Buy America Act, starting a 60-day countdown to its enactment.

Included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), this expansion of the Buy America program led to the inclusion of a number of materials and products used and manufactured by ATSSA members.

ATSSA’s Government Relations Team provides a summary of the most important sections of the 162-page guidance and will continue to update ATSSA members as more information becomes available. ATSSA also will be holding a virtual town hall on this topic on Sept. 7.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released the final guidance related to the Build America, Buy America Act provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). 

This final guidance includes comparisons to the initial guidance from OMB from April of 2022 and responses to comments submitted to the OMB Request for Information from earlier this year. The IIJA expanded current Buy America requirements for infrastructure projects, including the addition of construction materials as a covered category.  

The final OMB guidance directly responds to specific concerns raised by ATSSA.