AGC San Diego CONSTRUCTOR Magazine 2018 - Volume 1 AGCSD CONSTRUCTOR 2018 Volume 1 | Page 16

GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
AGC Leaders meet with NAVFAC leadership in
San Diego and Washington, D.C.
By Brad Barnum, AGC Executive Vice President
We have a nation we need to defend together.
– Rear Admiral Bret J. Muilenburg
Over the course of nine days, members of AGC’s leadership met with the Commander of the Naval
Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) and Chief of Civil Engineers, Rear Admiral Bret Muilenburg,
and Captain Mark Edelson, Commander of NAVFAC Southwest. Needless to say, keeping America
safe by investing in the nation’s military infrastructure was the main topic of discussion.
AGC San Diego has a decades-long
relationship with NAVFAC Southwest, and
the 90-minute meeting on April 23 with
Captain Edelson in San Diego provided a
great opportunity to discuss some of the
issues facing contractors on the job site. With
the military construction program shifting to
the Pacific, the timing couldn’t have been
better to address the increased workload on
its way, particularly at Naval Base San Diego.
“The amount of work coming is scary,” stated
Captain Edelson.
Rear Admiral Muilenburg’s opening comments
during the three-hour NAVFAC Committee meeting
provided a glimpse of the teamwork he expects
from his personnel and the contracting community.
After emphasizing the importance of reading the
11-page 2018 National Defense Strategy of the
United States of America, he stated, “We have a
nation we need to defend together.” He then high-
lighted some of his strategic priorities:
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Need for quality work
Better execution
Collapse acquisition time-line
Timely issuance of contract modifications
Relief from policies and regulations
More infrastructure for more ships
Increase personnel
Increase in operations and maintenance
funding
Guam ramp-up
Jeff Harper, Carole Bionda, Matt Ferguson, Gita
Murthy, and Mac Caddell join Rear Admiral Bret
Muilenburg (third from the left) after the AGC
NAVFAC meeting at the Federal Contractors’
Conference
We applaud the Rear Admiral’ s commitment to
working with the construction industry, and we
look forward to partnering with Captain Edelson and his NAVFAC Southwest team to address these
and other issues. With the next AGC NAVFAC meeting scheduled for July, the timing couldn’t be better!
The timing of the San Diego meeting was
perfect, as it set the stage to address some
of the same issues at AGC of America’s
annual Federal Contractors’ Conference in
Washington, D.C. on May 1-3. Current AGC
NAVFAC Committee Chair Matt Ferguson
Jeff Harper, Matt Ferguson, Steve Thompson, and
of Straub Construction, Inc., past chairs
Mike Williamson outside NAVFAC Southwest
George Rogers of RQ Construction, LLC,
headquarters with Captain Mark Edelson and
and Jeff Harper of Harper Construction
Operations Officer Dan Cook (far right).
Company, Inc., and about 12 others from
San Diego joined over 200 AGC members
from throughout the country to meet with the leadership of 20 federal agencies. Jeff Harper also served
as Chair of AGC of America’s NAVFAC Committee from 2015-2017.
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