BILL NUMBER: AB 1097 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 29, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 17, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 13, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 25, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 7, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Skinner
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Dickinson and Wieckowski)
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to add Section 13986 14031.1
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 the state or a local agency
receiving , relati ve to
the use of federal funds for transit purposes
, to provide a bidding preference to a bidder if the
bidder exceeds Buy America requirements applicable to federally
funded transit projects , as specified .
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 interest 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.
SEC. 2. Section 13986 14031.1 is
added to the Government Code, to read:
13986. The Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing
shall authorize a state or local agency receiving
14031.1. In accordance with federal regulation
(49 C.F.R. 661.21), the state or a local agency, relative to the use
of federal funds for transit purposes , shall be
authorized to provide a bidding preference to a bidder if the
bidder exceeds Buy America requirements applicable to federally
funded transit projects. The state and each local agency shall
have the discretion to apply those preferences. The Department of
General Services shall have the sole authority to establish policies
and procedures for use of this section by state agencies, as defined
in Section 11000.