Author: agcnews

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…

Ends Secret Ballot in Union Organizing Elections (Card Check), Forced CBA Arbitration and More On February 4, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the AGC-opposed America COMPETES Act, a bill meant to improve American economic competitiveness against China. While previous iterations of the bill were bipartisan—including AGC-supported $52 billion in funding for the construction of new and modernizing existing semiconductor chip manufacturing plants—House Democrats also included several harmful construction policies, including those from the PRO Act—the greatest legislative threat to open-shop and union contractors. Specifically, the bill would threaten the use of secret ballot voting in union organizing elections and instead impose card…

Construction Official Says “Irresponsible” Proposal Won’t Address Root Causes of Higher Fuel Prices, But Will Blow a Huge Hole in the Federal Highway Trust Fund and Undermine Efforts to Fix Infrastructure The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement today in response to the introduction of a bill by several Democratic Senators to suspend the federal gas tax for the remainder of 2022 in response to rising fuel prices: “A recently introduced proposal to suspend the federal gas tax will likely have no impact on what motorists pay at the…

Agencies are working on the fourth and fifth versions in play since 2015 On Feb. 7, AGC responded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Army (Army Corps of Engineers) latest proposed definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS). This definition determines when an expensive federal permit is needed on projects that work in or near waters. AGC urged the agencies to abandon the proposal. For decades, the scope of federal regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act has been plagued by uncertainty and inconsistency. AGC seeks to protect waters and wetlands while preserving states’ traditional…

AGC of America released the February edition of its Construction Inflation Alert. This document is intended to inform project owners, government officials, and the public about the extreme cost increases and supply-chains disruptions affecting construction. The current version of the Alert can be accessed by visiting AGC Construction Inflation Alert | Associated General Contractors of America. For more information or questions, contact Ken Simonson at ken.simonson@agc.org or (202) 329-9671.

Contractors Association Prepares Updated Construction Inflation Alert as Tight Labor Market, Soaring Materials Costs, and Supply Chain Disruptions Threaten to Delay Projects and Undercut Further Job Gains Construction employment dipped by 5,000 jobs between December and January even though hourly pay rose at a record pace in the past year, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. Association officials said future job gains are at risk from several factors that are slowing projects, as detailed in the Construction Inflation Alert that it will post on February 7. “Contractors are struggling to fill positions…

Needless Executive Order Contradicts Viewpoints of Career Federal Procurement Officials, Who Saw No Benefit to PLAs in 99.4 Percent of Projects, Will Undermine Existing Collective Bargaining Agreements The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement today in response to President Biden’s new executive order seeking to impose project labor agreements on many federal construction projects: “It is hard to explain why the President would choose to impose government mandated project labor agreements to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Construction workers are among some of the highest paid workers in…