A stopgap moving through the Senate would keep highways whole while squeezing transit and passenger rail. Senators cleared an early procedural vote on Aug. 3, 89 to 4, to take up a bipartisan measure that would fund the government and extend surface transportation programs through Dec. 11 at fiscal 2026 levels. Majority Leader John Thune wants a bill within days, though the final shape is unsettled and a deal may slip into September. The settled part is the trade. The measure would let the infrastructure law’s advance appropriations lapse, so public transit would fall 20 percent and passenger rail 83 percent, while highway programs, funded through the Highway Trust Fund’s contract authority, would hold. The American Public Transportation Association warns the cut would “immediately disrupt and delay ongoing planning, engineering, and construction,” and the Associated General Contractors calls the extension “no substitute for a multi-year bill.” Current surface authority and those advance appropriations expire Sept. 30.
Sources: Roll Call, Aug. 3; Engineering News-Record, Aug. 5; Construction Dive, Aug. 5
FUNDING Hennepin County locked in its share of the Blue Line Extension. The County Board voted Aug. 4 to commit $2.254 billion to the METRO Blue Line Extension, $1.896 billion from the county transportation sales tax and $358 million from the regional railroad authority, covering 52.9 percent of the now-$3.58 billion project at 90 percent design. The Metropolitan Council will file a Full Funding Grant Agreement later this year seeking $752 million from the Federal Transit Administration. That federal ask is Capital Investment Grant money, the same transit funding today’s lead puts at risk, so the local commitment moves the metro’s largest transit program forward while its federal piece hangs on the Sept. 30 outcome.
Source: Hennepin County, Aug. 4
POLICY MnDOT wants to lower its DBE participation goals. The department has proposed revised, lower three-year Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goals for the remainder of federal fiscal years 2025 through 2027: 6.2 percent on FHWA-funded contracts, down from 15.3 percent, and 2.8 percent on FTA-funded contracts, down from 8.7 percent. The public comment period runs from Aug. 5 to Sept. 7, 2026, with comments going to MnDOT’s Office of Civil Rights.
Source: MnDOT Office of Civil Rights, proposed three-year DBE goals
ENG $8 million for safety work at 39 Minnesota airports. MnDOT's aeronautics office is distributing the money across 57 projects at fields from Duluth International and Rochester International to Mankato and Bemidji, plus smaller municipal airports. The work covers runway and taxiway improvements, crack repair, obstruction removal, stormwater pollution-prevention planning, fuel-system and lighting upgrades, and turf rehabilitation. The grants come from the state Aeronautics Capital Grant Fund, drawn from aviation fuel taxes and aircraft registration and property taxes, which has backed more than 260 safety projects since 2022.
Source: MnDOT news release, Aug. 3
BIZ A 25-state coalition is now suing to kill the new forced-labor tariffs. The attorneys general of 25 states, including Minnesota, filed suit on Aug. 4 at the U.S. Court of International Trade, seeking to have the administration’s Section 301 tariffs declared unlawful and to win refunds. The duties, in effect since July 24, add 10 or 12.5 percent on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European Union, China, Canada, and Mexico. The states argue the U.S. Trade Representative used forced-labor concerns as a pretext to reimpose broad tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the emergency-powers version in February, and that there is “no rational fit” between forced labor and blanket global duties. Two importers filed a parallel challenge the day the tariffs took effect. The case does not change today’s prices, since the duties stay in force while it proceeds, but a ruling months out could move the cost of imported construction inputs either way.
Source: Supply Chain Dive, Aug. 4
BIZ The A/E majors’ backlogs hit records, but the growth is lopsided. Jacobs reported fiscal third-quarter results on Aug. 4 with a record $28.9 billion backlog, up 27 percent, and raised its full-year guidance. It said its data-center backlog has doubled and the pipeline has tripled, stretching revenue visibility from six to nine months out to two to three years, while its water and environmental segment grew just 1.5 percent. WSP and AtkinsRéalis posted the same record-backlog picture this week. Design demand is bifurcating toward data-center and advanced-manufacturing work while traditional water and environmental flattens.
WORKFORCE Job openings cooled again in June. Employers posted 7.36 million openings in June, down from 7.54 million in May, the Labor Department reported Aug. 4. Openings rose in warehouse, transportation, utility work, and at federal agencies, even as they slipped among manufacturers. Layoffs held steady at 1.8 million and gross hiring stayed soft at 5.3 million, below the 6-million-plus months of the post-pandemic boom. The economy has added 92,000 jobs a month this year, up sharply from under 10,000 a month in 2025. With slower immigration and baby-boomer retirements shrinking the labor force, some economists now put the “break-even” hiring pace that keeps unemployment steady near zero. The demographic squeeze is now showing up in market data rather than a forecast. A softer demand signal may ease wage pressure at the margin, but the structural shortage of engineers and skilled staff is not loosening. The July jobs report lands tomorrow, with forecasters expecting 100,000 new jobs and 4.2 percent unemployment.
Source: Associated Press, Aug. 4 (Labor Department JOLTS, June)
Close out the summer on the field: ACEC Minnesota’s Foundation Softball Tournament brings 16 member-firm teams together on Saturday, September 19 to support the next generation of engineers, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November. Sign up for both before spots fill up!
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.
