On Oct. 28, ABC submitted comments to the U.S. Departments of Defense, General Services Administration and National Aeronautics and Space Administration to urge the agencies to clarify several aspects of the proposal and provided recommendations to reduce the burden and costs for federal contractors to comply with the Buy American Act.

On Oct. 21, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force posted new Vaccination and Safety Protocols frequently asked questions for federal contractors, whose covered employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Dec. 8 unless the contractor is legally required to provide an accommodation for medical or religious reasons.

ABC has developed a resource and guidance document for ABC chapters and members to learn about the latest updates and ABC actions on the new federal vaccination mandates. The document, which will be updated frequently, includes federal guidance, ABC advocacy letters, Newsline articles, press releases, ABC earned media coverage and more.

On Oct. 26, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced that it will be issuing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings, which will begin the process to consider a heat-specific workplace rule. The ANPRM was officially published in the federal register on Oct. 27.

The construction industry continues to feel the strain of ongoing supply chain disruptions, ABC said in a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Regulations, which held a hearing on global supply chains and small business trade challenges on Oct. 10.

On Oct. 20, ABC met with the Office of Management and Budget to express its concerns about the forthcoming U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, which will apply to employers with 100 or more employees as required by President Biden’s Path Out of the Pandemic COVID-19 Action Plan.

On Oct. 12, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration sent a COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard rulemaking to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget for review, which will apply to employers with 100 or more employees as required by President Biden’s Path Out of the Pandemic COVID-19 Action Plan. The review at OIRA is usually the final step in the process before a rule is officially

Congress passed a 30-day extension of the highway funding bill, just hours before surface transportation authorization lapsed. The extension came at the end of a weekslong negotiation and interparty disagreement on a trillion-dollar-plus budget reconciliation package and the bipartisan Senate-passed infrastructure bill, H.R.3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force posted new information for federal contactors, whose covered employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Dec. 8 unless the covered contractor is legally required to provide an accommodation for medical or religious reasons.

On Sept. 29, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued Memorandum GC 21-08 to all Field offices asserting that student-athletes receiving scholarships at private colleges and universities are employees under the National Labor Relations Act.