Author: Nahee Rosso

The survey will be closing December 13, so the time is now to provide your feedback on how the construction demand, labor shortages and high interest rates are impacting the construction industry. Take a few minutes to complete the survey here. The results from the survey will inform expected market conditions for the coming year in addition to challenges contractors faced in 2024. We are collecting responses between November 6th and December 13th. Results will be posted in early January.  

Before the Congress left for their August recess, House lawmakers passed its first appropriations bill of twelve total that funds the federal government. The House passed (219 – 211) the Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, H.R. 4366. The bill provides $17.47 billion for military construction and $1.6 billion for major and minor VA construction. Meanwhile, the Senate has finished voting the bills out of committee but has yet to pass any appropriations bills on the floor. The Senate is considered more bipartisan in spending levels and policies. Lawmakers will need to pass all twelve appropriations bills by September 30th, or else pass a continuing resolution, a stopgap measure that buys time. Given the short amount of time left, Congress will end up…

On June 17, President Biden signed into law legislation recognizing Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19, as a legal public holiday. Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. and commemorates the date in 1865 when the Union army arrived in Galveston, TX, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation two years after issuance. The new law deems Juneteenth the eleventh “federal holiday” in the nation. The law does not directly impose any obligations on private employers. Rather, the law governs the obligations of the federal government to its own employees. No federal wage-and-hour statute requires purely private employers to give…

Short Answer: It’s Not Clear Congress passed on March 10 and the president signed into law on March 11 the $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill, which provides $350 billion for state and local governments, $168 billion for K-12 schools and higher education, $30.5 billion for public transit and $8 billion for airports. The bill, however, appears to dedicate little, if any, funding to new public or private construction investment projects—infrastructure or buildings. Generally speaking, the entities receiving these funds have broad discretion to use them however they see fit. It is unclear, consequently, how the vast majority of these funds will…