The Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (H.R. 1671/S. 71) aims to protect federal and federally-assisted construction contracts from union-favoring project labor agreements (PLAs) mandated by government agencies. If passed, this legislation will allow merit shop contractors to have a fair chance at competing to rebuild America's infrastructure.

A diverse coalition of construction industry associations and employer groups led by ABC sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives April 13 opposing government-mandated project labor agreements and anti-competitive PLA preferences used by federal agencies as a result of President Obama’s pro-PLA Executive Order 13502 and related regulations. The letter asks lawmakers to cosponsor the Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (H.R. 1671) which was introduced by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and has been referred to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

President Obama March 31 signed a memorandum of disapproval effectively vetoing the joint resolution to block the NLRB’s ambush election rule, which will shorten the amount of time between when a union files a representation petition and an election takes place to as few as 14 calendar days beginning on April 14. ABC is continuing their legal challenge to this rule.

ABC sent a letter to the U.S. Senate March 25 in support of an amendment being offered by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) to the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 11), which would prohibit construction contracts from being awarded based on whether or not companies enter into agreements with labor organizations. Due to this amendment’s immediate impact on the merit shop construction industry, ABC will consider this a Key Vote for the 114th congressional scorecard.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a joint resolution March 19 to block the NLRB’s ambush election rule which will take a big step toward protecting both the due process rights of employers and the privacy rights of employees.  ABC is fully supportive of the resolution, which now moves on to the president, and has urged President Obama to sign it.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) March 6 signed S.B. 119, which will exempt K-12 and higher education school construction from state prevailing wage requirements beginning immediately.

On March 9, Wisconsin became the 25th state to enact a Right to Work law, allowing all workers in the state to have a job without paying dues or fees to a labor union.

Lawmakers in a number of states have made reforming outdated prevailing wage laws a major priority so far in 2015. In the past month, legislators in West Virginia, Nevada and Indiana have advanced legislation that attempts to narrow the types of construction projects affected by prevailing wage, and in some cases, to remove the law entirely. 

On Feb. 13, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) introduced the Jobs and Premium Protection Act (H.R. 928), which would fully repeal the health insurance tax (HIT) provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ABC-supported coalition, Stop the HIT, sent a letter commending Boustany and Sinema for coming together to repeal the burdensome tax.

The U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 8 voted 252-172 to pass the ABC-supported Save American Workers Act (H.R. 30), which would replace the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) definition of “full time” as 30 hours or more per week with the traditional definition of 40 hours. Before the vote, ABC sent a letter urging Congress to support the bill and markedit as “Key Vote” for their 114th Congressional Scorecard because under the ACA’s current 30-hour rule, many employers will be forced to reduce employee work hours and wages.