truth about plas

ABOUT GOVERNMENT-MANDATED PROJECT LABOR AGREEMENTS ON PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS:

Hardworking taxpayers deserve efficient and effective policies that will encourage all qualified contractors to compete to build long-lasting, quality projects at the best price. Government-mandated project labor agreements discourage quality contractors and the more than 89% of the U.S. construction workforce who are not members of a union from bidding and working on projects in their own communities funded by their tax dollars.

Anti-competitive and costly PLAs are schemes that end open, fair and competitive bidding on public works projects. By preventing more efficient, effective local businesses from bidding on contracts to build roads, bridges, schools and other structures simply because they are unable to abide by the problematic and inflationary terms of the PLA, that guarantees that taxpayers pay 12% to 20% more and the local community benefits less.

infographic plas

Action Center

On March 14, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. introduced H.R.2126/S.1064 the Fair and Open Competition Act. The Fair and Open Competition Act protects federal and federally assisted construction contracts from government-mandated PLAs. FOCA is ABC’s top priority and key to ensuring that ABC contractors are able to build America’s infrastructure through fair and open competition. Tell Congress to support FOCA and oppose the Biden administration's costly policies pushing PLA mandates and preferences today!

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Project Labor Agreements
Not What We Need, Not What We Deserve
Learn more about project labor agreements (PLAs) by clicking on the video or viewing the PLA fact sheet.

ABC Opposes Government-Mandated PLAs and PLA Preferences on Federal and Federally Assisted Construction Projects

Hardworking taxpayers deserve efficient and effective policies that will encourage all qualified contractors to compete to build long-lasting, quality projects at the best price. Government-mandated project labor agreements discourage quality contractors and the more than 89% of the U.S. construction industry workforce who do not belong to a union from bidding and working on projects in their own communities paid for by their tax dollars.

Visit abc.org/BidenPLAFAQs to learn more about the ABC-opposed Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s Dec. 22, 2023, final rule––and the related Dec. 18, 2023, White House Office of Management and Budget Memo––implementing President Biden’s Feb. 4, 2022, Executive Order 14063, which requires PLAs on federal contracts of $35 million or more

On March 28, 2024, ABC and its Florida First Coast chapter filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Jacksonville against the final rule. April 26, ABC filed a motion for preliminary injunction, and expects the courts to rule as early as June on the merits of the case.

On Jan. 20, 2025, ABC celebrated a decision from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that rules in favor of ABC members that filed bid protests challenging the final rule. Judge Ryan T. Holte’s Jan. 19 ruling responds to 12 bid protests filed by experienced ABC member federal contractors against three federal agencies that mandated PLAs in solicitations for construction services. The decision required the agencies to remove the PLA mandate from the relevant decisions, but left the final rule in place. As a result of this decision, ABC federal contractors should continue to file bid protests against individual federal agency PLA mandates on a case-by-case basis and expect similar outcomes. Further analysis of the decision is available in ABC’s Newsline article on the ruling.

On June 27, ABC National staff and an ABC member testified at the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s subcommittee hearing on President Biden’s controversial policies promoting and mandating PLAs on federal and federally assisted projects. The hearing gave ABC an important platform to shed light on the Biden administration’s anti-competitive pro-PLA policies.

Prior to the lawsuit and hearing, ABC attacked the FAR Council's Dec. 18 final rule in this Fox Business op-ed and ABC press release.

Likewise, ABC slammed the Biden executive order in a Feb. 3, 2022, statement picked up in dozens of publications nationwide:

“This anti-competitive and costly executive order rewards well-connected special interests at the expense of hardworking taxpayers and small businesses who benefit from fair and open competition on taxpayer-funded construction projects.”

A Feb. 9, 2022, ABC op-ed in The Wall Street Journal laid out arguments against the Biden administration’s policy and concluded:

“Taxpayers would be best served by the adoption of inclusive, win-win policies that help America’s construction realize the potential of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. We can’t rebuild our nation’scrumbling infrastructure effectively, increase accountability and reduce waste with PLAs.

On Oct. 18, 2022, ABC filed extensive formal comments in response to the FAR Council’s ABC-opposed Aug. 19, 2022, proposal.

ABC’s opposition to the FAR Council’s proposed rule was shared by more than 50 members of the U.S. House and Senate, 19 Republican governors and a diverse coalition of construction industry, small business and taxpayer advocates urging the administration to withdraw its proposed rule and other Biden administration schemes pushing government-mandated PLAs on state and local government construction projects receiving federal assistance via $260 billion via federal agency infrastructure grant programs (visit abc.org/PLAGrants to learn more). Learn more about government-mandated PLAs and Biden administration pro-PLA policies via a federal coalition website at BuildAmericaLocal.com.

According to a September 2022 survey of ABC contractor members (learn more) , 98% oppose this proposed rule. Additionally, 97% said a construction contract that required a PLA would be more expensive compared to a contract procured via fair and open competition, 99% said they were less likely to bid on a taxpayer-funded construction contract if the bid specifications required the winning firm to sign a PLA with labor unions and 97% of respondents said that government-mandated PLAs decrease economy and efficiency in government contracting.

Fight these discriminatory and costly policies by urging lawmakers via this ABC grassroots campaign to cosponsor federal legislation, the Fair and Open Competition Act (H.R.1209/S.537introduced in the 118th Congress by Rep. James Comer, R-KY., and Sen. Todd Young R-Ind, which prohibits government-mandated PLAs on federal and federally assisted projects and helps taxpayers get the best possible product at the best possible price.

Effective Jan. 22, 2024, the Biden final rule replaced President Obama’s Feb. 2, 2009, Executive Order 13502, which encouraged federal agencies to mandate PLAs on large-scale federal construction projects exceeding $25 million in total value on a case-by-case basis, and permits states and localities to mandate PLAs on federally assisted projects. 

According to government data, of the nearly 3,200 large-scale federal construction contracts $25 million or more procured from FY 2009 to FY 2023 subject to President Obama’s pro-PLA policy, valued at more than $238 billion, federal agency contracting officers chose to require PLAs on just 12 large-scale federal construction contracts. There were no reports of widespread cost overruns, delays, labor unrest or poor-quality construction on $237.2 billion worth of non-PLA projects during this time period, indicating that PLA mandates are not needed to ensure economy and efficiency in government contracting. On an annual basis, ABC estimates the final Biden proposal will affect as many as 180 federal contracts valued at $16 billion, which is approximately 40% of the value of federal construction put in place in FY 2023.

ABC supports fair and open competition and opposes government-mandated PLAs on federal and federally assisted projects because taxpayers deserve more. We need more accountability, not less. We need more competition, not less. We need more value for the dollar, not less.

Learn how ABC has been successfully fighting federal government-mandated PLAs since 2009

However, the fight against PLA mandates and PLA preferences on direct federal contracts is a costly endeavor negatively impacting taxpayers, federal agencies and the contracting community. Unfortunately, when state and local recipients of federal money and assistance mandate PLAs on projects in your community, taxpayers are getting less construction projects for more money and qualified contractors and their skilled employees are the victims of discrimination if they cannot compete under a typical PLA.

It is important for lawmakers to support the Fair and Open Competition Act (H.R. 1209/S.537), which would prevent the federal government from mandating PLAs as a condition of winning federal or federally assisted construction contracts. ABC members are encouraged to visit the ABC Action Center and urge their members of Congress to support FOCA.

ABC’s priority issue brief on Government-Mandated Project Labor Agreements.