I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2014
To amend title 23, United States Code, and the Federal Transit Act to
provide an increased Federal share for projects which have a cost of
$2,000,000 or more and to which value engineering is applied and
results in a certain minimum project cost savings.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 6, 1993
Ms. BYRNE (for herself, Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. FINGERHUT, and Mr. MORAN)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Public Works and Transportation
A BILL
To amend title 23, United States Code, and the Federal
Transit Act to provide an increased Federal share for
projects which have a cost of $2,000,000 or more and
to which value engineering is applied and results in a
certain minimum project cost savings.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Value Engineering
Better Transportation Act of 1993’’.
made in the project or activity design as a
result of such value engineering; and
‘‘(v) if the Secretary determines that
application of value engineering to the
project or activity reduces the cost of the
project or activity by 5 percent or more;
and
‘‘(B) by an additional 5 percentage points
if the determination made by the Secretary
under subparagraph (A)(v) is that application
of value engineering reduces the cost of the
project or activity by 15 percent or more.
‘‘(2) LIMITATIONS.—
‘‘(A) MAXIMUM FEDERAL PERCENTAGE.—
Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Federal
share payable for any project or activity carried
out under this title shall not exceed 100 percent
of project or activity cost.
‘‘(B) MAXIMUM FEDERAL DOLLARS.—Not-
withstanding paragraph (1) and subparagraph
(A), the amount of Federal funds payable on
account of a project or activity under this title
as a result of application of this subsection to
the project or activity shall not exceed the
amount of Federal funds which would have
been payable on account of the project or activ-
ity under this title but for this subsection.
‘‘(3) PROHIBITION ON TRAINING.—No Federal
funds may be used to provide training for carrying
out value engineering under this title.
‘‘(4) VALUE ENGINEERING DEFINED.—For pur-
poses of this subsection, the term ‘value engineering’
means a systematic process of review and analysis of
a project or activity during its design phase by a
multidisciplined team of persons not originally in-
volved in the project or activity in order to provide
suggestions for reducing the total cost of the project
or activity and providing a project or activity of
equal or better quality. Such suggestions may in-
clude a combination or elimination of inefficient or
expensive parts of the original proposed design for
the project or activity and total redesign of the pro-
posed project or activity using different technologies,
materials, or methods so as to accomplish the origi-
nal purpose of the project or activity.’’.
SEC. 3. FEDERAL TRANSIT ACT.
Section 12 of the Federal Transit Act (49 U.S.C.
App. 1608) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(n) INCREASED FEDERAL SHARE FOR VALUE ENGI-
NEERING.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal grant for any
project to be assisted under this Act shall be in-
creased—
‘‘(A) by 5 percent of the net project cost—
‘‘(i) if the project has an estimated
cost of $2,000,000 or more;
‘‘(ii) if, before 35 percent completion
of project design, value engineering is ap-
plied to the project;
‘‘(iii) if the grant recipient in carrying
out the project complies with parts 48 and
52 of title 48 of the Code of Federal Regu-
lations, relating to Federal acquisition reg-
ulations;
‘‘(iv) if the grant recipient submits to
the Secretary for approval a completed
value engineering analysis, signed by a cer-
tified value specialist, of the savings result-
ing from application of value engineering
to the project design, including changes
made in the project as a result of such
value engineering; and
‘‘(v) if the Secretary determines that
application of value engineering to the
project reduces net project cost by 5 per-
cent or more; and
‘‘(B) by an additional 5 percent of the net
project cost if the determination made by the
Secretary under subparagraph (A)(v) is that
application of value engineering reduces net
project cost by 15 percent or more.
‘‘(2) LIMITATIONS.—
‘‘(A) MAXIMUM FEDERAL PERCENTAGE.—
Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Federal
grant for any project assisted under this Act
shall not exceed 100 percent of the net project
cost.
‘‘(B) MAXIMUM FEDERAL DOLLARS.—Not-
withstanding paragraph (1) and subparagraph
(A), the amount of Federal funds which may be
expended under a Federal grant under this Act
for a project as a result of application of this
subsection to the project shall not exceed the
amount of Federal funds which would have
been available for expenditure under such a
grant for the project but for this subsection.
‘‘(3) PROHIBITION ON TRAINING.—No Federal
funds may be used to provide training for carrying
out value engineering under this Act.