On June 22, the U.S. Senate issued the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, a substitute to the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would repeal and replace several provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The Senate bill was slated for a vote this week; however, on June 27 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delayed the vote until after the July 4 recess due to a lack of support for passage. 

ABC and the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the two organizations to work jointly to ensure that all contractors have a fair and equal opportunity to compete for and win contracts to build federal, state and locally funded construction projects. The agreement was signed by Chuck Goodrich, ABC 2017 chair, and CEOs Mike Bellaman and Susan Au Allen, respectively, during ABC’s board of directors meeting on June 21.

Speaking to a sell-out crowd, Vice President of the United States Mike Pence thanked the “Marine Corps of American politics—the first on the beach for freedom in the workplace—the Associated Builders and Contractors of America” for their service to the nation and the communities where they live and work. Pence headlined the association’s annual Legislative Day in Washington, D.C., June 22, addressing more than 400 members before they swarmed Capitol Hill to tell members of Congress the merit shop story.

On May 24, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released an interpretation letter in response to a question on whether a supervisor’s advice to continue participating in daily stretching exercises constitutes medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes.

On June 27, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it was proposing to delay the electronic reporting portion of the final rule, “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses,” from July 1, 2017 to Dec. 1, 2017. 

Industry executives, suppliers and stakeholders joined ABC members for the third annual ABC Diversity & Inclusion Summit in Washington, D.C., on June 19-20. The program was headlined by Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson and included sessions on diversity and inclusion success stories, the Tuskegee University architecture and construction science program and the impact of ABC’s Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP) on MBE companies.

On June 20, President Trump nominated Marvin Kaplan to fill one of two vacant seats on the five member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Kaplan serves as counsel to the commissioner of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent organization designed to decide workplace safety and health disputes between the Department of Labor and employers. 

ABC applauded President Trump’s executive action on apprenticeships, which is an important step toward building new career opportunities for all Americans. If fully implemented, the order will allow industries to build innovative workforce development systems that address glaring skills gaps in our workforce.  With the construction industry currently facing a workforce shortage of as many as 500,000 jobs, this order is an important first step to allow more entryways into becoming a construction professional.     

In the waning days of the Obama administration, the Treasury Department released proposed regulations under Section 2704 that could have a profound impact on the valuation and therefore taxation of family businesses. The regulations as written would institute back-door “family attribution,” a standard that has been rejected by the courts for decades, and that would jeopardize traditional discounts for minority ownership stakes, inflating tax bases by as much as 40 percent.  As the regulations were not finalized by the time President Obama left office, there is no effective date, but the rule remains pending.

On June 9, ABC joined more than 50 organizations to send a letter to the U.S. Senate in support of maintaining a stable employer-sponsored health care system as the body works on legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  “Chief among the threats to employer-sponsored coverage are proposals to tax workers’ health coverage, whether by preserving the ACA’s 40 percent ‘Cadillac’ tax or imposing new taxes on employee health care benefits,” according to the letter.