ACEC OKLAHOMA members we hope you've had a prosperous and busy month. Despite a few snow days, our legislative session has moved at a record pace. Additionally, we have substantial updates regarding PPP and Federal activities related to ACEC.

As mentioned previously, ACEC National has been circulating a bipartisan bill providing a PPP credit fix. We would like to thank Congresswoman Stephanie Bice for signing on in support of the bi-partisan legislation by Representatives Anthony Brown (D-MD) and John Katko (R-NY). I am working with our delegation to ask about signing up. We are hopeful we will add a few additional co-authors from the Oklahoma delegation. ACEC National also shared a series of webinars from the White House for the IIJA projects, information below:

In other news, OTA has put together a very informative website, ACCESS OKLAHOMA detailing turnpike improvements scheduled for the future. You can view the website which details the $5 billion, 15-year project here.

The US Department of Treasury has provided us a helpful list for tracking ARPA funding for state and local government. You can view the listing here. Scroll down about halfway for information on cities, counties and towns.

Early in the legislative session there was misinformation about QBS for construction management projects. Our board took swift action and unanimously voted to support QBS and provide important information about QBS and any clear up any misrepresentation. Our request bills, also approved unanimously by our board, HB3484 INT.PDF (state.ok.us) is scheduled to be heard in the House General Government Committee on Wednesday, March 2nd 3pm Commitee members with contact information and SB1463 INT.PDF (state.ok.us) is scheduled to be heard in Senate Business and Commerce on Thursday, March 3rd Senate committee members. We will be vigorously lobbying this week to get the bills passed respectively. If you would like to look up your legislator, please click here Oklahoma Legislature (oklegislature.gov). This Friday is the deadline for "body of origin" committee work. There will be a significant number of bills not heard and our tracking list will shrink.

TRUST will host its annual "day at the capitol" on March 9th. To register please click here Events | Restore T.R.U.S.T. (restoretrust.org) and the Construction and Industries Coalition (CIC) is planning on hosting a dinner at the Capitol March 22nd at 5pm (tentative date and time). We are members of CIC and I will send out a sign up once OMES confirms the event if anyone would like to attend.

With the announcing of Senator Inhofe retiring in January, it has set off a firestorm of political maneuvering. Congressman Mullin has announced his candidacy which will open up his Congressional Seat and Senator Inhofe's former Chief of Staff Luke Holland has also announced. Congressman Hern is looking at the race closely as well as former House Speaker and Transportation Commissioner TW Shannon. The political dominos will be falling soon and what seemed to be a rather boring election year is now a significant change for Oklahoma's political landscape. We will be monitoring the changes very closely.