U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced today a proposal for a new pilot program that will explore new ways to make it easier for states and cities to hire local residents for transportation projects.
Federal contracting rules have traditionally prohibited the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) from allowing recipients to use contract provisions that do not directly relate to the performance of work but further social or economic goals, functionally prohibiting local hire provisions. The pilot program announced today will allow both agencies to test and evaluate the merits of such provisions and whether the existing competitive bidding process can be improved.
The year-long pilot is proposed as an experiment under FHWA’s “Special Experimental Project No. 14 (SEP-14) and FTA experimental authorities, provisions made possible by Congress to allow the agencies leeway in finding new and more effective means of building, maintaining and managing federal transportation projects.
The Department published a related proposal in the Federal Register to modify the “common grant” rule geographic preference provision applied to USDOT programs. The public is encouraged to review it and submit comments to the Comment Docket. The comment period will close 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.