Mission Statement
Our primary objective is to provide resources to our APWA membership regarding local, state, and national rules and legislation that affect public works.
Buy America
National APWA has joined the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) in opposing the application of Buy America requirements to construction projects based on federal funds used for preconstruction activities such as design,NEPA and right of way. This application creates an additional administrative burden to track and report on Buy America compliance at the local, state and federal levels. There currently are no mechanisms in place for oversight agencies to adequately track projects utilizing no federal funds in the construction phase. See the joint letter
HERE.
Latest News
The APWA Chapter voted to retain a part-time lobbyist to track and inform APWA of legislation at the state legislature. The APWA Board and GAC will re-evaluate the effectiveness of this pilot after this current legislative session. The APWA Board and GAC coordinated with APWA National and hire Michael Shaw to be our voice in Olympia. The GAC subcommittee working with him consists of Jim Rioux, Chuck Hinson, Glenn Akramoff and Scott Sawyer.
The subcommittee holds a weekly conference call to review Legislative activity for the past and upcoming weeks. If you wish to participate in these weekly conference calls please contact Jim Rioux (contact information above)
Parallel and related activities include: 1) creating a membership database of expertise and listserv for updates, issues or bill review and testifying to the legislature (led by Scott Sawyer) and 2) build and maintain relationships with other organizations (led by Jennifer Barnes). If you would like to assist with this efforts, please contact them (contact information above, see Members).
2013 Legislative Activities
The state budget proposals moving through the 2013 Legislature include significant reductions to the Public Works Trust Fund. APWA submitted two letters as these proposals emerged highlighting the importance of maintaining funding for public works. Use the following links to see those letters.
Funding Letter 1 and
Funding Letter 2
The Government Affairs Committee is committed to identifying and engaging with other organizations to effectively work with State Legislature. As part of our efforts to identify partner organizations we complied information about other organization that work actively with the State Legislature. A matrix that contains that information can be viewed using the following link
Partner Spreadsheet.pdf