BILL NUMBER: AB 1097	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 25, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 7, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Skinner

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2011

   An act to add Section 13985 to the Government Code, relating to
transit.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1097, as amended, Skinner. Transit projects: domestic content.
   Existing law creates the Business, Transportation and Housing
Agency with various departments of state government that report to
the agency secretary. Existing law provides various sources of
funding for transit projects.
   This bill would require the Secretary of Business, Transportation
and Housing to specifically authorize a state or local agency
receiving  state   federal  funds for
transit purposes to provide a bidding preference to a bidder if the
bidder meets or exceeds Buy America requirements applicable to
federally funded transit projects.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:  
   (a) American manufacturing has been declining over the past
several years with jobs going overseas due to tax and other policies,
with predictable economic consequences. The federal "Buy America"
laws were passed as one means to address this concern.  
   (b) Public transit agencies in the state and nation continue to
provide critical transportation services to citizens, and remain
critical components for state and national goals to alleviate highway
gridlock, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.  
   (c) Funding for public transit has continued to decline in
difficult economic times, and it remains difficult to keep public
transit systems in good repair, including maintaining and replacing
rail vehicles.  
   (d) Federal "Buy America" laws applicable to rolling stock,
including rail vehicles, require that the cost of components and
subcomponents produced in the United States total at least 60 percent
of the cost of all components in the rolling stock, and that final
assembly of the rolling stock occur in the United States (49 U.S.C.
Sec. 5323(j)(2)(C)).  
   (e) Federal "Buy America" regulations allow states to impose
contracting preference provisions based on more stringent domestic
content requirements than those set forth in the federal law, but the
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will not participate in the
funding of state and local contracts with those preference provisions
if they are not explicitly set out under state law (49 C.F.R.
661.21). The State of California currently has no such preference
law.  
   (f) It is in the best interests of the State of California, as
well as the manufacturers across the nation, to authorize state and
local agencies to give preferences to bidders on rolling stock
contracts that provide domestic content above the minimum
requirements set forth in federal "Buy America" laws. Each state and
local agency should have the discretion to apply those preferences.

   SECTION 1.   SEC. 2.   Section 13985 is
added to the Government Code, to read:
   13985.  The Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing
shall authorize a state or local agency receiving  state
  federal  funds for transit purposes to provide a
bidding preference to a bidder if the bidder meets or exceeds Buy
America requirements applicable to federally funded transit projects.