Message from Linda Bauer Darr, ACEC National President & CEO on 3/15/2022
Congress Appropriates IIJA Funding; New Study Underlines Value of QBS
To the ACEC Community:
On Saturday, President Biden signed into law the $1.5 trillion omnibus bill to fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2022. The law unlocks the full 2022 increases that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) authorized for highway and transit programs.
With the FY22 Appropriations law in place, state DOTs, transit agencies, water utilities and other client sectors now have the confidence to move forward on both short-term and long-term infrastructure projects.
With the IIJA funds flowing, our industry can look forward to some very busy years ahead, and not just in the infrastructure space. Because of its size and breadth, the impact of the IIJA will extend into every sector of the economy.
We will continue to work with Congress and the Administration to ensure that the IIJA is implemented properly.
A cornerstone of our industry’s work with federal agencies and many state and local governments is the Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) procurement process.
ACEC has always been the country’s most determined and vocal QBS champion, asserting strongly that design services should be selected on the basis of qualifications and competence. We believe that QBS assures the acquisition of the most capable professional at a “fair and reasonable” price for the client. And we have argued that only QBS allows the design professional and the client to work in a collaborative spirit to maximize the quality, value, cost effectiveness, and usefulness of the final product.
And now we have comprehensive research to support our stance.
Last week, the ACEC Research Institute released a new report “An Analysis of QBS in the Procurement Process,” which definitively found that federal and state projects using QBS had lower project costs and better on-time delivery versus those selecting firms based on the cheapest bid.
Key findings in the report include:
- QBS saves money—Projects where QBS was used to procure engineering services experienced less cost growth (3 percent) versus the national average (6 percent).
- QBS saves time—QBS projects perform better in terms of project delivery time, experiencing less schedule growth versus the national average (7 percent with QBS versus 10 percent without).
- QBS produces higher levels of client satisfaction—89% of QBS projects received “high” or “very high” satisfaction ratings from project owners.
- QBS promotes innovation—Projects incorporating QBS have a greater likelihood of producing innovative solutions.
QBS is already the mandated procurement process in federal agencies and in almost all states, and this report will be a valuable tool for ACEC National, Member Organizations, and Member Firms in our drive to further expand its reach.
Click here to access the Institute’s QBS Resource Portal and download the free report.
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