Author: agcnews

Update as of August 1st, 2023: The Canadian softwood lumber tariffs have been lowered to 7.99%. Click here to find the latest rates. Read below for the original story from February 17, 2022. The Commerce Department made a preliminary determination to lower softwood lumber import tariffs from Canada from the current rate of 17.9 percent to 11.64 percent. The rate is set to take effect by August of 2022. In November of 2021, the tariff rate was doubled to 17.9 percent. Although it is difficult to quantify the impact of these tariffs on lumber prices, the price of lumber rose by 50 percent…

Allows Congress More Time to Negotiate Full-Year Bill, Including Funding for New Infrastructure Programs With funding for the federal government set to expire on February 18, the Senate is expected to pass a short-term funding agreement, also known as a “continuing resolution” (CR), this week. The CR would provide stopgap funding through March 11 and follows recent action by the House of Representatives to pass the CR on February 8. With the passage of this short-term funding agreement, Congress will have more time to strike a deal to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year. Important to those…

Construction Association Releases New Inflation Alert to Inform Owners, Officials of Cost, Supply, and Labor Challenges; Urges Federal Officials to Take Additional Steps to Ease Supply Change Disruptions Prices of construction materials jumped more than 20 percent from January 2021 to January 2022, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. The association recently posted a new edition of its Construction Inflation Alert, a report to inform project owners, officials, and others about the challenges volatile materials costs, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages posed for construction firms. “Unfortunately, there has been no letup early this year…

On February 7, AGC filed comments to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) regarding proposed regulations to implement legislation passed in 2020 called the Corporate Transparency Act. The legislation would require legal entities with fewer than 20 employees and less than $5 million in gross revenue to submit “beneficial ownership information” to FinCEN. Beneficial owners are defined in the statute as anyone who owns at least 25 percent of a company, or exercises “substantial control” over its operations. AGC opposed the Corporate Transparency Act when it was considered in Congress due to the potential for the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information—and any associated identity theft and/or cybercrime—and…

On February 10, Senators Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) introduced AGC-supported legislation to extend the employee retention tax credit (ERTC) through the end of 2021. The Senate bill mirrors AGC-supported legislation introduced in the House of Representatives last month by Reps. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) and Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.). The ERTC, created as part of the CARES Act in 2020, was extended and expanded through the end of 2021, but was subsequently ended early (on September 30, 2021) after passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which rolled back the…

Oppose Administration’s Push to Restrict New Highway Capacity In a letter from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) to governors, the duo expressed disappointment about the recent Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) policy memo on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), much like AGC did in its earlier feedback to FHWA on the guidance. The lawmakers remind governors that “the law does not include provisions that restrict or discourage certain types of projects, including projects that add highway capacity.” In addition, a group of governors also expressed their concern with the same…

Would Temporarily Eliminate the 18 Cents per Gallon Federal Gas Tax Senators Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) introduced legislation to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax through the end of the year. The bill’s sponsors claim it is to provide economic relief to families across the country. The legislation requires the U.S. Treasury to transfer from the General Fund into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) the lost tax revenues impacted by this legislation should it become law. AGC opposes this bill and similar efforts to eliminate user fees like the gas tax or the federal excise tax on…

Allows Congress More Time to Negotiate Full-Year Bill, Including Funding for New Infrastructure Programs On February 8, the House passed a three-week long extension of government funding as the current spending agreement in place expires on February 18. If passed by the Senate, this short-term funding bill will keep the government open through March 11 and give Congress more time to strike a deal to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year. Important to those negotiations include Congress fully funding new and increased funding for programs included in the November-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. As AGC…

On February 7, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment released its reporton encouraging the federal government to promote the value of labor unions and making government contractors’ employees aware of their rights to join a labor union. Many of the nearly 70 findings in the report are similar to policy recommendations and actions already being undertaken by the Biden Administration, such as efforts to enforce misclassification of independent contractors, preferences for government-mandated project labor agreements, local hire requirements on federal construction projects, and more. The publication of the report is further indication that the Biden Administration continues…

The recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allows states or localities to implement a local hiring preference on federal-aid highway and transit projects. Such was already the case prior to passage of IIJA through a U.S. DOT pilot program. However, as part of that pilot program, the grant recipient was forced to certify that there was: However, U.S. DOT is now claiming it does not have to abide by these requirements under long-standing law, claiming a loophole in the IIJA provision noted above. Rest assured, this direction by U.S. DOT will not supersede any state laws on local…