SMACNA Government & Political Affairs Federal Announcements

Learn more about what has been going on in the federal sector over the period ranging from Saturday, August 29, 2026 to Friday, September 4, 2026.

In Brief
The President signed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, on September 2, funding federal agencies through December 11 and extending authorities for a range of programs including surface transportation. That date now governs both the federal construction appropriations picture and highway and transit program authority. Four days earlier, on September 1, the Cost Accounting Standards Board published two final rules that take effect October 1 and reshape who is covered by CAS at all: the applicability threshold rises from $2.5 million to $35 million, full coverage and the Disclosure Statement obligation both move from $50 million to $100 million, and CAS 407 is removed and reserved outright. Mid-size federal construction contractors sitting between the old lines and the new ones drop out of coverage entirely at the start of the fiscal year.
The week was heavy on contract awards and grant releases. The Air Force awarded an eight-firm, $900 million restoration and modernization vehicle whose stated scope names mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and controls work through 2034; NAVFAC Southwest set a $200 million roofing multiple-award contract with five holders running the same length; and the FAA released $481 million across 191 airport grants, with terminal reconstruction money at Atlanta, Louisville and San Diego. GSA sent Congress 103 prospectus-level capital projects representing $10 billion in federal building repair and modernization needs, together with a request to raise the prospectus threshold from $3.96 million to $75 million. And the Department of Energy reported that construction apprenticeship enrollment reached 112,000 new apprentices in 2025, a nine percent increase over the prior year.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Continuing Resolution Funds Agencies Through December 11 and Extends Surface Transportation Authorities
September 2, 2026   • Source
The President signed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, on September 2. The measure provides fiscal year 2027 appropriations for continuing projects and activities of the federal government through December 11, 2026, and extends authorities for a broad range of programs including surface transportation and veterans programs. The signing statement does not itemize which surface transportation authorities are carried forward or on what terms; that detail sits in the enrolled bill text rather than in the announcement. OMB had issued a Statement of Administration Policy on the Senate amendment to H.R. 6500 on August 3.
December 11 is the operative date for both federal construction appropriations continuity and highway and transit program authority. Agencies operating under a continuing resolution are generally constrained from starting new construction projects or increasing production rates, which historically slows solicitation releases through the first quarter of the fiscal year.

August Payrolls Add 162,000 Jobs, With Construction Up 22,000
September 4, 2026 • Source
The White House readout of the August employment report puts total nonfarm payroll growth at 162,000, with construction adding 22,000 jobs and manufacturing adding 16,000 in the month and 58,000 year to date. Private-sector average weekly earnings were up 3.7 percent over the year, and labor force participation stood at 61.6 percent in August. The release also claims more than 1 million private-sector jobs created in the President's second term and nearly 100,000 factory construction jobs over that period.
Construction added 22,000 jobs in August. That figure pairs with the Department of Energy apprenticeship data reported below.

Michigan Investment Roundup Names a $7 Billion Data Center Campus and a Slate of Plant Expansions
August 31, 2026 • Source
A state investment roundup catalogues a large slate of industrial and data center construction in Michigan. The headline project is a hyperscale data center campus in Saline Township by OpenAI, Oracle and Related Digital, valued at more than $7 billion and described as generating thousands of construction jobs. Also named: General Motors at $6 billion, including an Orion Township plant expansion and a third shift at Flint Assembly; Ford at $3 billion, including BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall with 1,700 new jobs and a third shift at Dearborn Truck Plant; Stellantis at $628 million across Van Buren Township, Detroit and Warren; Corning at $1.5 billion for a Saginaw County solar wafer plant with more than 400 jobs; Pratt Industries at $5 billion; Chobani and La Colombe at $567 million in Norton Shores; GE Aerospace at $60 million; Saginaw Control & Engineering at $50 million; Adrian Steel at $43.4 million; and American Rheinmetall at $31.7 million.
Data center and battery plant work is among the most mechanically intensive construction in the market, carrying heavy process piping, specialized ventilation, and cooling and controls scope.

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Administration Backs Adding Mining and Mineral Processing to FAST-41 Permitting
September 2, 2026 • Source
OMB issued a Statement of Administration Policy on September 2 strongly supporting H.R. 1501, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025, and stating that the President's advisors would recommend he sign it. The bill would add mining and mineral processing as an eligible sector for accelerated federal environmental review under FAST-41, coordinated by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, and would bar the council from implementing a 2023 proposal that would have narrowed FAST-41 coverage of the mining sector. The bill is sponsored by Representative Shreve of Indiana with two cosponsors. The statement carries no docket number, no Federal Register citation and no effective date.

The bill reaches construction through limestone. The 2023 proposal it would block would have stripped covered-project status from gold and limestone operations, and limestone is an input to cement and aggregate production.


DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Acting Secretary Cites Three Straight Months of Construction and Manufacturing Job Growth
September 4, 2026 • Source
Acting Secretary Keith Sonderling, in release 26-1501-NAT, put August job creation at 162,000, described as the second-largest monthly gain of the current term, with 643,000 jobs added year to date and more than 1 million new private-sector jobs over the term. The line most relevant to members is his statement that manufacturing and construction have now added jobs for three consecutive months.

Initial Jobless Claims Rise to 206,000 as the Insured Unemployment Rate Holds at 1.2 Percent
September 3, 2026 • Source
For the week ending August 29, seasonally adjusted initial claims were 206,000, up 2,000, with the four-week moving average at 207,250. Unadjusted initial claims were 170,626. For the week ending August 22, insured unemployment was 1,779,000 seasonally adjusted, up 8,000, holding the insured unemployment rate at 1.2 percent. The highest insured unemployment rates were in New Jersey and Puerto Rico at 2.6 percent, Rhode Island at 2.2 percent, Massachusetts at 2.1 percent, and Minnesota and Oregon at 2.0 percent. The largest state increases in initial claims were Illinois at 631, New York at 514 and Texas at 258; the largest decreases were California at 1,049 and Kentucky at 583.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Energy Employment Report Puts Construction Apprenticeship Enrollment at 112,000, Up Nine Percent
September 3, 2026 • Source
The department released findings from the 2026 U.S. Energy and Employment Report, built on a survey of roughly 42,000 establishments. Construction apprenticeship enrollments reached 112,000 new apprentices in 2025, a nine percent increase over 103,000 in 2024. Median energy-sector salary was $63,000, 24 percent above the national median of $51,000. Sector employment growth included electric power transmission and distribution at 17,900 jobs, or 2 percent; natural gas transmission and distribution at 12,500, or 5 percent; coal power generation at 2,800, or 5 percent; and nuclear power at 2,300, or 4 percent. The full USEER data hub carries the state and technology breakouts.

The report is the federal government's own count of construction trades apprenticeship growth. Electric power and natural gas transmission and distribution together added more than 30,000 jobs, the two categories carrying the heaviest mechanical and electrical content.

Three Emergency Grid Orders in Three Days Keep Generation Online in PJM, the Carolinas and Florida
September 1 to September 3, 2026 • Source
The department issued three emergency orders under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act in a three-day span. Order No. 202-26-41, issued September 1 on PJM Interconnection's same-day application, directs PJM to dispatch specified units and authorizes it to call on backup generation as a last resort before or during an Energy Emergency Alert Level 3, effective September 1 through September 8. Order No. 202-26-43, issued September 3 on Duke Energy Carolinas' application, does the same for the Carolinas through September 8. Order No. 202-26-42 runs considerably longer, from September 2 through November 30, and directs the Orlando Utilities Commission to keep Unit 1 at the Stanton Energy Center available after it had been slated for premature extended cold shutdown in June 2026.

The department states that more than 35 gigawatts of unused backup generation remain available nationwide and that more than 17 gigawatts of coal-fired generation were kept from going offline in 2025, citing its Resource Adequacy Report and its warning about outage frequency in 2030.

Three orders in one week is a pattern rather than an incident. The Stanton order reaches furthest: a unit held available through November 30 rather than shut down in June continues to require boiler, ductwork, emissions equipment and balance-of-plant maintenance that had been programmed out.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
G20 Innovation Ministerial Names Skilled Technical Workforce as One of Six Pillars
September 2, 2026 • Source
A two-day ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, hosted by the department and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, concluded September 2 with a consensus statement organized around six pillars, two of which reach member interests: skilled technical workforce development, and industrial innovation and investment in supply chains. The remaining pillars cover pro-innovation policy frameworks, technology for opportunity and prosperity, intellectual property policies for artificial intelligence, and AI for standards. Ministers also adopted the Carolina Principles for Emerging Technologies and a set of AI Prosperity Objectives. Twenty delegations participated, including the African Union and the European Union.
Nothing in the statement is operative. The workforce development and supply chain pillars are the two that touch construction labor and materials.

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
$150 Million in Tribal Housing Construction Awards, With an Interior Agreement to Speed Trust Land Reviews
September 3, 2026 • Source
HUD announced $150 million in Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive Program awards to 31 tribal communities for construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of housing, made under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 and the Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2025. The award log carries the full distribution. Projects singled out include 66 single-family duplexes by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation achieving a 70 percent energy reduction, a $51 million Anchorage renewal project by Cook Inlet Housing Authority producing roughly 150 affordable rental units, and a 45-youth campus by the Tohono O'odham Ki:Ki Association. Separately, HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing and Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate Title Status Report processing and align federal leasing reviews on tribal trust lands.

The memorandum matters more than the money. Construction starts on trust land have long been held up by title and leasing review rather than by funding, so an agreement between HUD and Interior to move those reviews faster is what turns awarded grants into live solicitations. The 70 percent energy reduction target on the Citizen Potawatomi project implies envelope and mechanical specifications above prevailing residential code.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Paint Manufacturer Pleads Guilty in Explosion That Killed a Worker, With OSHA Investigative Support
September 4, 2026 • Source
Yenkin Majestic Paint Corporation of Columbus, Ohio, a coatings and resin manufacturer, pleaded guilty to negligent endangerment arising from an April 8, 2021 explosion during resin production. One employee was killed, several others were severely injured, and plant structures were damaged. The failure chain is ordinary pressure equipment practice: the company installed a new manway door in December 2020 without pressure testing it, despite prior high-pressure incidents on the vessel; the manway leaked and was used anyway with an incorrect gasket material; when the agitator was restarted following electrical work, internal pressure released hot resin and flammable solvent vapor, which ignited. OSHA provided investigative support alongside the EPA Special Investigations Unit, the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Ohio EPA. The announcement states no fine amount or sentencing date.
The department continues to charge workplace fatality cases criminally, and the release itself points to comparable prosecutions including a New York construction supervisor sentenced for concealing his role in a fatal excavation collapse. The failure sequence was an untested modification, a substituted gasket, and a restart after maintenance without reverification.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
$481 Million Across 191 Airport Grants, With Terminal Reconstruction at Atlanta, Louisville and San Diego
September 3, 2026 • Source
The FAA released $481 million through the Airport Infrastructure Grants program, covering 191 grants to airports in 36 states and two territories. Named awards include $100 million to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International for runway, taxiway and terminal reconstruction plus runway safety area improvements; $32.5 million to Louisville Muhammad Ali International for terminal reconstruction; $30.3 million to San Diego International for terminal construction; $14.2 million to Milwaukee Mitchell International for taxiway construction and rehabilitation; $8.7 million to El Paso International for apron rehabilitation; and $2.5 million to Wisconsin general aviation airports for terminal reconstruction, runway and taxiway rehabilitation and snow removal equipment building reconstruction.
Terminal reconstruction is the line item with mechanical content. Airport terminal work carries HVAC, ductwork, controls, plumbing and specialty ventilation scope; apron, runway and taxiway work does not. The terminal awards named in the release are at Atlanta, Louisville and San Diego.

Blatnik Bridge Breaks Ground on a $1.06 Billion Federal Obligation, With a Project Labor Agreement in Place
August 31, 2026 • Source
Construction began on replacement of the I-535 Blatnik Bridge linking Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. The department obligated $1,058,398,200 in March 2026 to replace the 65-year-old span, roughly a mile and a half long and carrying 33,000 vehicles daily. The release states that project labor agreements secured union labor for the construction work.

The release does not state a completion timeline or a construction jobs figure. The project labor agreement reference appears in the release itself and is reproduced here as stated.

Interagency Crackdown on Commercial Driver Fraud Includes a Single-Day Worksite Sweep Across 23 States
August 31, 2026 • Source
The Transportation and Homeland Security departments, the White House Fraud Task Force and a group of U.S. Attorneys announced a joint effort targeting commercial driver license fraud and unlawful employment. The Transportation Department removed more than 110 Entry-Level Driver Training providers from the Training Provider Registry on an emergency basis, opened a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers and launched a 40-state investigation of training schools. Cumulative figures cited over 18 months include 28,000 drivers removed for failing English proficiency testing, more than 30,000 illegally issued licenses cancelled and more than 8,000 unqualified training schools purged. Homeland Security conducted a single-day synchronized sweep of more than 200 training schools across 23 states, investigating unauthorized employment, identity document fraud and money laundering under operations named ICE Wall, Guardrail and Freightliner. The Justice Department stood up Joint Task Force Crossroads of America covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
The operation combines three features: a synchronized single-day sweep across 23 states, an employer-side unauthorized employment theory rather than a focus on individual status, and the pairing of immigration enforcement with document fraud and money laundering charges. The announcement describes the model as applicable across sectors.

SEPTA Commuter Railcar Program Draws $13.3 Million in Federal Funds
September 3, 2026 • Source
The department announced $13.3 million to upgrade Silverliner IV commuter railcars at SEPTA's Philadelphia maintenance facility, replacing vehicles roughly 50 years old. Pennsylvania has allocated nearly $108 million for upgrades and a further $112 million for electrical system upgrades and propulsion motor overhauls on Silverliner IV and V cars. The regulatory backdrop includes an October 2025 Federal Railroad Administration emergency order following thermal events and November 2025 Federal Transit Administration special directives to PennDOT and SEPTA; 30 FRA inspectors reviewed 223 Silverliner IV cars and replaced thermal sensors.
The federal share is modest against roughly $220 million in companion state work, concentrated at a single maintenance facility. Vehicle overhaul programs of this size typically carry facility work with them, including ventilation and exhaust, compressed air and shop mechanical systems.

DEPARTMENT OF WAR
Air Force Awards a $900 Million Restoration and Modernization Vehicle Naming Mechanical, Electrical and Controls Work
September 4, 2026 • Source
Eight firms will share Facilities Acquisitions for Restoration and Modernization III, awarded as firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery contracts FA9101-26-D-B008 through FA9101-26-D-B015 with a $900 million ceiling. The awardees are Healtheon Inc. of New Orleans; Edgewater Technical Associates of Los Alamos; exp Federal of Chicago; Burns & McDonnell Engineering of Kansas City; Amentum Technology of Tullahoma; Shimmick Construction of Irvine; Turner Construction of Huntsville; and Sea Pac Engineering of Los Angeles. The stated scope covers mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, data systems and controls, together with design-build projects for military ground testing facilities. Places of performance are Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee, Holloman and Kirtland Air Force Bases and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Mountain View in California and White Oak in Maryland. Work runs to September 4, 2034. Eight offers were received and $8,000 was obligated at award from fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds. The contracting activity is the Air Force Test Center at Arnold Air Force Base.

The vehicle runs eight years, and its stated scope is unusually explicit about mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and controls content. Military ground testing facilities carry process piping, high-volume ventilation, and instrumentation and controls integration. Task order competition runs among the eight awardees.

NAVFAC Southwest Sets a $200 Million Roofing Vehicle Running to 2034
September 3, 2026 • Source
Five firms will share a $200 million firm-fixed-price multiple-award construction contract for new construction, renovation and repair of roofing projects: Artisan Consulting Engineers of Chapin, Illinois, under N62473-26-D-0025; TABCON of Queen Creek, Arizona, under N62473-26-D-0027; J. Davis Construction Management of Oxnard, California, under N62473-26-D-0028; Southwest Construction & Property Management of San Bruno, California, under N62473-26-D-0029; and Souza Construction of Farmersville, California, under N62473-26-D-0030. Work is distributed 95 percent to California, with Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico at 1 percent each. The vehicle runs to September 2034. Sixteen offers were received, and $5,000 was obligated per awardee from fiscal 2026 Navy operation and maintenance funds. The contracting activity is NAVFAC Southwest in San Diego.

Roofing work on Navy installations typically carries sheet metal scope: flashing, edge metal, gutters and downspouts, equipment curbs, and the reset and support of rooftop mechanical units. The ceiling runs eight years across five holders, with 95 percent of the work in California.

Corps of Engineers Louisville District Awards a $160 Million Design-Bid-Build Vehicle to Seven Firms
August 31, 2026 • Source
Seven firms will compete for orders under a $160 million firm-fixed-price multiple-award task order contract for design-bid-build construction services: AAECON General Contracting of Louisville under W912QR-26-D-A044; Amerifield of Berlin, Connecticut, under A045; Huot Construction and Services of South Saint Paul, Minnesota, under A046; Red Eagle 3 JV of Coweta, Oklahoma, under A047; Semper Tek of Lexington, Kentucky, under A048; Valiant Construction of Louisville under A049; and Tri Coast-Pac Tech JV 2 of Kelso, Washington, under A050. Places of performance are determined with each order and work runs to February 29, 2032. Nineteen bids were received.

General construction task orders from the Louisville District routinely carry mechanical, sheet metal and controls subcontracts. The vehicle runs six years with seven competing holders.

Facilities, MILCON and Design Awards Across the Week
August 31 to September 4, 2026 • Source
Beyond the three vehicles above, the week's contract announcements carried a heavy run of single-award facilities and military construction work:
  • Clark Construction Group of Bethesda, Maryland, $121,787,000 firm-fixed-price under W912DR-26-C-A019, for construction of a cybersecurity operations facility at Fort Meade, Maryland. Completion September 2, 2029; three bids received; funded from fiscal 2024 defense-wide military construction. Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District.
  • Environmental Chemical Corp. of Burlingame, California, $128,363,354 firm-fixed-price under N40085-26-C-0020, for the NATO Joint Force Command Norfolk Facilities Phase II interim modular facility at Naval Support Activity Norfolk. Completion July 2028; four offers; maximum cumulative value with 13 options $174,443,268; NATO Security Investment Program funds. NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic.
  • Garney Federal of Kansas City, Missouri, $141,268,687 firm-fixed-price under W91236-26-C-A015, for construction of a new river water intake and pump house facility at Kingsport, Tennessee. Completion January 29, 2029; one bid received. Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District.
  • Aleut Construction of Reston, Virginia, a $52,525,333 modification to FA8501-25-C-0005 for a narrow body paint booth at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. Completion March 15, 2028; cumulative face value $56,116,956. Air Force Materiel Command. A September 1 correction notice confirms the $52,525,333 figure.
  • Global Go of Birmingham, Alabama, $37,850,000 firm-fixed-price under W912HN-26-C-A030, for repair of failed and failing facility components including hazardous material, lead-based paint and asbestos abatement at Fort Benning, Georgia. Completion December 22, 2028; seven bids. Corps of Engineers, Savannah District.
  • Paligen Aerospace & Defense of Tampa, Florida, a $30,840,628 modification to W519TC-25-F-0015 for design, construction and commissioning of a trinitrotoluene production facility. Cumulative face value $435,000,000; completion February 15, 2029. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island.
  • Grose Construction of Aberdeen, Maryland, $24,500,000 firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery under W912GY-26-D-A001, for small construction, repair and modernization projects on depot buildings and facilities at Aberdeen. Completion September 14, 2031; one offer. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal.
  • 381 Constructors of Omaha, Nebraska, a $16,765,241 modification to N40085-21-C-0077 for schedule changes to Multi-Mission Dry Dock No. 1 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. Completion May 2029; cumulative contract value now $1,959,501,523. NAVFAC Atlantic.
Four design and engineering vehicles also landed. Ten firms share a $145 million petroleum, oil and lubricants engineering and design multiple-award contract, N39430-26-D-2011 through N39430-26-D-2020, covering Navy and Marine Corps installations worldwide through August 2031, awarded by the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center at Port Hueneme on 14 offers. Jacobs and Architects Hawaii JV of Honolulu took a $75 million architect-engineering vehicle, N62478-26-D-5041, for design services across NAVFAC Hawaii through August 2031 on four offers. Six firms share a $49,902,262 navigation and civil works data analysis and system support vehicle, W912HQ-26-D-A008 through A013, from the Corps of Engineers Humphreys Engineer Center Support Activity at Fort Belvoir on 13 offers. And three firms share a $400 million civil engineering services vehicle for the Pacific theater, covering Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Andersen, Kadena, Yokota, Misawa, Eielson, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Wake Island, with a five-year ordering period running to September 1, 2031.

Two items stand out from the list. The Aleut award at Robins is a paint booth, which is a ventilation and sheet metal project. And the Pacific civil engineering services vehicle and the NAVFAC Hawaii design contract, both awarded in the same week, typically precede construction task orders in a theater by two to three years.

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
GSA Sends Congress 103 Capital Projects Worth $10 Billion and Asks to Raise the Prospectus Threshold to $75 Million
September 3, 2026 • Source
GSA transmitted 103 prospectus-level capital project fact sheets to Congress, covering $10 billion in critical repair and modernization needs across fiscal years 2028 through 2034, and asked Congress to raise the prospectus threshold from $3.96 million to $75 million for routine and emergency maintenance. Administrator Edward C. Forst called the current framework outdated, unworkable and actively impeding building maintenance. The agency cites an average approval timeline of 426 days, cost escalation of up to 436 percent on pending projects, prospectuses that have been pending since fiscal 2016, and a deferred maintenance backlog of roughly $50 billion against a portfolio of 360 million rentable square feet. The authority cited is subsection 2302(d)(3) of the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024, and the funding vehicle is the Federal Buildings Fund. Letters went to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the respective public buildings subcommittees, following a May 21, 2026 letter signed by 22 departments and agencies.

Deferred maintenance on a portfolio of that size is largely mechanical: HVAC replacement, chiller and boiler plants, building automation and controls, and the envelope and ventilation work that follows. The 103 fact sheets are a named, dated inventory of that work across a seven-year horizon. Moving the threshold from $3.96 million to $75 million would shift a large share of federal building repair out of congressional prospectus review and into GSA's direct award authority, shortening the path from identified need to solicitation and removing the advance visibility that published prospectuses now provide.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
$11.75 Million for Drinking Water System Resilience, Most of It Physical Plant Work
August 31, 2026 • Source
EPA awarded $11.75 million under the Midsize and Large Drinking Water System Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability grant program to public water systems serving more than 10,000 people. Despite the cybersecurity framing of the announcement, the funded scope is largely physical: water treatment plant repairs, backup and emergency generators, SCADA modernization, dam infrastructure upgrades, water tank replacement, transmission main upgrades, well facility construction and stormwater infrastructure upgrades. The awards sit under the agency's Strengthening Water Infrastructure for Tomorrow initiative. The notice of funding opportunity is closed and no new application deadline is stated.

Generator installation, SCADA and controls modernization, and treatment plant repair carry mechanical, piping and electrical scope. Grants of this size typically move to design within a year of award.

FAR COUNCIL AND FEDERAL ACQUISITION POLICY
Cost Accounting Standards Thresholds Jump on October 1, and CAS 407 Is Rescinded
September 1, 2026 • Source
The Cost Accounting Standards Board published two final rules in the Federal Register on September 1. Both take effect October 1, 2026, and the comment periods on both are closed.

The first, Increase of Monetary Thresholds and Other Matters Related to Cost Accounting Standards Program Requirements, at 91 FR 56056, Federal Register document 2026-17901, RIN 0348-AB85, amends 48 CFR Part 9903. The threshold at which CAS applies at all rises from $2.5 million to $35 million, driven by section 1806 of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which decoupled CAS from the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data statute and eliminated the $7.5 million trigger contract threshold. Full CAS coverage moves from $50 million to $100 million, the Disclosure Statement requirement moves from $50 million to $100 million, and agency head waiver authority moves from $15 million to $100 million. The rule also settles how CAS applies to indefinite-delivery contracts: for multiple-award vehicles, the exemption is determined order by order using each order's ceiling value, while for single-award vehicles applicability is determined once at award using the ceiling of the entire contract. The Board expressly rejected symmetrical treatment, citing vendor lock-in risk. The rulemaking record projects that the changes reduce the number of covered entities by roughly 30 percent while retaining about 99 percent of covered dollars.

The second rule, Conformance of Cost Accounting Standards to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for CAS 407, at 91 FR 56061, Federal Register document 2026-17903, RIN 0348-AB91, removes and reserves subpart 9904.407, eliminating 12 of CAS 407's 16 requirements. The surviving production unit and standard cost provisions move into CAS 418, at 9904.418-30(a)(5) and 9904.418-50(h), with a new illustration at 9904.418-60(j). Five definitions come out of 9903.301(a): labor cost at standard, labor-rate standard, material cost at standard, standard cost, and variance. The Board concluded that compliant CAS 407 practices already satisfy generally accepted accounting principles, so contractors should not need to change existing practice.
The practical effect falls on mid-size federal construction contractors. A firm whose covered federal work sits between $2.5 million and $35 million falls out of CAS coverage on October 1, and a firm between $50 million and $100 million moves from full to modified coverage and loses the Disclosure Statement obligation. Under the order-by-order rule, a contractor holding a seat on a multiple-award task order contract is measured against each individual order's ceiling rather than against the vehicle's total.
National Labor Relations Board

Board Reaches a Working Quorum as the General Counsel's Office Builds Out
September 3 to September 4, 2026 • Source
The board now sits with a working quorum: Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty, Scott A. Mayer and James R. Macy. On September 3 Dawn L. Goldstein was named Associate General Counsel for the Division of Legal Counsel, with Bobak Talebian as Deputy Associate General Counsel. The agency's September 4 Labor Day statement reaffirmed that reducing the case backlog and improving processing timeliness remain its operational priority.

A functioning quorum is the precondition for substantive Board decisions, and its return after an extended gap means precedent can move again.

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