On July 21, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a proposed rule that would require federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage to workers  on or in connection with a federal government contract. The public has until Aug. 23 to comment on the proposal.  

On July 15, ABC submitted comments in response to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s interim final rule encouraging project labor agreements and other anti-competitive and costly labor policies

On July 9, President Biden issued a far-reaching, unprecedented Executive Order on Promoting Competition in America. The executive order covers a wide variety of issues, including lowering prescription drug prices, allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter at drug stores, banning excessive early termination fees regarding

ABC can confirm recent media reports that President Joe Biden is circulating a draft executive order to federal agencies that will modify and expand President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, which encourages federal agencies to require project labor agreements on a case-by-case basis on federal construction projects exceeding $25 million in total value and permits states and localities to mandate PLAs on federal

On June 10, Annie Mecias-Murphy, co-owner and president of Associated Builders and Contractors member JA&M Developing Corp., headquartered in Pembroke Pines, Florida, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure on the negative impacts that the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan would have on small business contractors.

On June 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Army announced their intent to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” that are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act and replace the definition under the Trump administration’s 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which provided four clear categories of waters under the CWA that businesses and landowners could easily understand.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the long-awaited COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard on June 10. The Construction Industry Safety Coalition, which ABC is a steering committee member, said that it is pleased that the Biden administration and OSHA listened to the concerns and recommendations of the construction industry in formulating the ETS.

On June 11, the Biden administration released its Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.  The agenda lists upcoming rulemakings and other regulatory actions from each agency that the administration expects to publish through the end of the year and into 2022. ABC has prepared a summary of the actions of interest to ABC members by agency.   

The Biden administration and U.S. Department of Treasury have taken another unfortunate step promoting controversial, anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements, local hire and Davis-Bacon/prevailing wage policies on federally assisted taxpayer-funded construction projects.

On May 14, the Coalition for Workforce Innovation, ABC, ABC Southeast Texas Chapter and the Financial Services Institute filed an amended complaint challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s unlawful withdrawal of the independent contractor rule. The Department’s hasty and unjustified action violates the Administrative Procedure Act, compounding a violation that began when the department improperly delayed the effective date of the rule in March.