The Council on Federal Procurement of Architectural & Engineering Services (COFPAES) is pleased to present this regular e-newsletter with news and information of interest to those in public service, private practice and non-profit employment involved in design, construction, transportation, infrastructure and Federal facilities management - including architects, engineers, constructors, surveyors, mappers, facilities managers, and DC representatives of organizations of these professionals.

  

 H.R. 1232 "Federal Information Technology Acquisition Act" by Mr. Issa (CA) - Amends titles 40, 41, and 44, United States Code, to eliminate duplication and waste in information technology acquisition and management; Calls for CIOs at civilian agency to be presidential appointees or designees and report directly to the head of their agency; Calls for GAO to review the effectiveness of the CIO Council; Calls for CIOs to track and report the costs and savings under the administration's data center consolidation initiative; Calls for OMB to house a CollaborationCenter, aimed at assisting agencies with challenging IT projects; Requires OMB to publish the status of 80 percent of the government's $80 billion IT portfolio on the Dashboard; Calls for CIOs to have greater flexibility to fund cloud projects through cloud service working capital funds at their agencies (3/18);

H.R. 1382 "Digital Coast Act of 2013" by Mr. Ruppersberger (MD) - Authorizes the Secretary of Commerce, through the NOAA, to establish a constituent-driven program that collects priority coastal geospatial data and supports an information platform capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with decision support tools, training, and best practices to inform and improve local, State, regional, and Federal capacities to manage the coastal region (3/21);

H.R. 1399 "Hydrographic Services Improvement Act (HSIA) Amendments of 2013" by Mr. Young (AK) - Furthers America's knowledge of the nation's coasts, shipping routes, and waterways - with an added emphasis on the Arctic through research and surveys;
Reauthorizes HSIA of 1998 at FY2012 funding levels, while requiring $7 million per year toward Arctic hydrographic work, while limiting the administrative costs on contracts to 5% (3/21);

H.R. 1604 "Map It Once, Use It Many Times Act" by Mr. Lamborn (CO) - Establishes the National Geospatial Technology Administration within the United States Geological Survey to enhance the use of geospatial data, products, technology, and services, to increase the economy and efficiency of Federal geospatial activities; Eliminates duplication and improves federal mapping and geospatial activities (4/17);

H.R. 1622 "Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2013" by Mr. Johnson (GA) - Amends the Small Business Act to ensure fairness and transparency in contracting with small business concerns; Modifies the definitions relating to whether a business concern qualifies as a small business concern to establish additional requirements that ensure that no publically traded business concern, subsidiary of a publically traded business concern, foreign-owned business concern, or subsidiary of a foreign-owned business concern is considered a small business concern for the purpose of Federal Government contracting and subcontracting, including for procurement goals (4/18);

S. 601 "Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2013" by Mrs. Boxer (CA) - Provides for the conservation and development of water and related resources, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to construct various projects for improvements to rivers and harbors of the United States; addresses the growing surplus of funds in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund by ensuring all revenues will be spent for port maintenance without impacting other important Corps of Engineers projects (3/18);