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The White House rolled out its tax proposal, which aides have billed as “the biggest individual and business tax cut in American history” on April 26. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and National Economic Council Chair Gary Cohn laid out President Trump’s principles for reform from behind the podium, and a one-page document was distributed to the press.

Construction Executive (CE) is proud to announce its latest editorial award, a Silver Azbee from the Association of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) for Individual Profile – Mid-Atlantic Region. The article, authored by Managing Editor Lauren Pinch, details the career trajectory and management philosophy of ABC 2016 Chair, David Chapin. The full article can be viewed here. 

A new report released by the Empire Center for Public Policy on April 24 found that prevailing wage requirements inflate the cost of publicly funded construction projects in New York by between 13 percent and 25 percent. The varying percentages are based on the area or region of the state. Taxpayers can expect to pay billions in extra costs, given the tens of billions the state plans to spend on public projects over the next five to 10 years.  

On April 7, Arkansas Gov.Asa Hutchinson signed a bill repealing the state’s prevailing wage law. The legislation, SB 601 (Act 1068), was approved by the Arkansas House of Representatives on March 30 by a vote of 70-24; the Arkansas Senate passed the bill on March 21 by a bipartisan vote of 28-5. Arkansas is now the 22nd state without a prevailing wage and the second state to take significant action on the issue this year. Kentucky signed a prevailing wage repeal bill into law in January. In 2015, Nevada made significant reforms to its prevailing wage law, while Indiana and West Virginia joined the list of states without a prevailing wage. 

ABC thanked Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad for signing legislation into law to ensure the government cannot mandate PLAs on public construction projects. The bill, SF 438, codifies Gov. Branstad’s previous executive order, which prevented state and local governments procuring state and state-assisted construction projects from encouraging or prohibiting PLAs in contract solicitations, preventing a future governor from mandating PLAs through executive order. It also extends government neutrality toward PLAs to projects

ABC applauded Gov. Scott Walker for signing Act 3, which will promote fair and open competition on contracts for construction services funded by Wisconsin taxpayers, at event at an ABC member jobsite. The act will ensure that the government cannot mandate controversial project labor agreements (PLAs) on state, state-assisted and local

Since taking office President Trump has made reforming our broken regulatory system a top priority. Through the use of executive orders, he has asked federal agencies to review and evaluate existing regulations and make recommendations on which regulations to repeal, replace or modify. The agencies will be putting out requests for comment from the public on certain federal regulations. ABC needs input from members on which regulations they would like to see repealed, replaced or modified. 

2017 ABC National Chair Chuck Goodrich’s op-ed calling on Congress to pass the Fair and Open Competition Act (H.R. 1552/S. 622) was published in The Hill on April 10. This ABC-priority legislation would allow America's entire construction workforce—including the 86 percent of the private construction workforce that has chosen not to join a labor union—to compete on a level playing field by ensuring that taxpayer-funded construction cannot be subjected to costly and discriminatory government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs). 

On April 10, Judge Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after being confirmed by a vote of 54 – 45 in the U.S. Senate. ABC supported his confirmation. The vote was along party lines; however, three Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.V.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.), voted with the Republican majority to confirm Judge Gorsuch.