FUNDING The stopgap that funds the government through Dec. 11 leaves out the infrastructure law’s advance appropriations. The House passed the continuing resolution 370 to 48 on Sept. 1, after the Senate cleared it 90 to 6 on Aug. 8, and the president signed it into law, averting an Oct. 1 shutdown. The measure prorates highway and transit contract authority to 2026 levels but excludes the $36.8 billion in annual advance appropriations the 2021 infrastructure law provided, the money behind Mega grants, Safe Streets and Roads for All, Capital Investment Grants, the Bridge Formula Program, and intercity passenger rail. Public transit investment drops 20 percent and passenger rail 83 percent, with some discretionary grant programs cut 50 to 100 percent. Paul Skoutelas, president of the American Public Transportation Association, said the loss would “immediately disrupt and delay ongoing planning, engineering, and construction.” The reprieve runs only to Dec. 11, when the same fight returns.
Sources: Government Executive, Sept. 1; The Bond Buyer, Sept. 2
POLICY A tariff on imported drones takes effect today. A Section 232 proclamation signed Aug. 13 imposes a 100 percent duty on higher-risk unmanned aircraft - those over 25 kilograms, thermal-imaging models, docking stations, and specified critical components such as motors, electronic speed controllers, and lithium-ion batteries - and a 25 percent duty on drones of 25 kilograms or less, consumer or commercial, finished or unfinished. A further component list carrying the 25 percent rate is deferred to Feb. 9, 2027. Aircraft and parts from the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein are capped at 15 percent, and those from the United Kingdom at 10 percent. The Commerce Department based the action on a finding that the country relies too heavily on Chinese sources and faces data-security risks. Firms operating drones already on the Defense Department’s Blue UAS Cleared List or the FCC’s conditional-approval list as of Sept. 2 get a 180-day grace period. Construction and engineering firms mostly fly the sub-25-kilogram consumer and commercial aircraft the 25 percent duty covers, and the thermal-imaging units used for building-envelope and electrical inspections draw the full 100 percent.
Sources: Troutman Pepper Locke client alert; Mohawk Global, Aug. 20
BIZ The grid-equipment order is landing hardest on battery storage. BloombergNEF projects that the Aug. 26 executive order restricting foreign-made bulk-power equipment, paired with the Treasury Department’s foreign-entity-of-concern rules, will disrupt battery and inverter supply chains more than most sectors, forcing deployment delays and, where cheaper imports are ruled out, cancellations. Chinese companies hold 80 percent of global lithium-ion battery capacity, and Chinese-brand inverters made up 40 percent of U.S. volumes in 2025. Analyst Zoe Zakrzewska said the order could shut those manufacturers out of the U.S. market for good. The squeeze reaches the standalone-storage projects moving through Minnesota permitting, where equipment cost and schedule now carry added risk for the firms that design them.
Source: Utility Dive, Sept. 1
ENG State regulators issued a draft permit for a Cottage Grove battery project. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission issued an order and draft site permit on Sept. 1 for LSP CG Storage’s standalone energy-storage facility in Cottage Grove, Washington County, a project of up to 80 megawatts and 320 megawatt-hours. The action follows a June application, public and scoping meetings in July, and an Aug. 20 agenda meeting. Standalone storage, decoupled from a paired solar or wind project, is a growing share of the commission’s energy-permitting docket, and each project carries siting, interconnection, geotechnical, and environmental scope for the firms that design and permit it.
Source: Minnesota PUC, Energy Infrastructure Permitting (docket 26-184)
WORKFORCE A study put numbers on cross-training construction crews. The Simplar Foundation, funded by Associated Builders and Contractors, observed 644 workers across 60 multiskilled crews on 36 projects in 24 states, defining multiskilling as training in tasks beyond a worker’s core craft. Those workers spent 36 percent of observed time on work outside their primary trade. Direct-work time rose 13 percentage points and idle time fell 31 points, and the output of 10 multiskilled workers matched what 14 to 17 single-skilled workers would produce. The gains ran largest where trades had interdependent scopes and frequent handoffs, the sequencing common on the data centers and other megaprojects straining the labor pool.
Source: Engineering News-Record, Sept. 2
Entries are open for ACEC Minnesota’s 60th annual Engineering Excellence Awards, with winning projects advancing to the national ACEC competition and recognized at the Feb. 18, 2027 gala, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November. Sign up before spots fill!
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.