Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3354, the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018, which provides $1.1 trillion in discretionary funding for the federal government through 12 individual appropriations bills.

ABC is encouraging all members to take action and submit comments to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division on its Request for Information (RFI) on the 2016 overtime final rule, officially named the Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees. The final rule, had it gone into effect,  would have changed the federal exemptions to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act for "white collar" workers by doubling the current minimum salary level for exemption from $23,660 to $47,476 per year and automatically increasing it every three years. The public has the opportunity to s

Enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s silica standard as it applies to the construction industry will begin on Sept. 23. The silica rule lowers the permissible exposure limit from the current standard of 250 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour day, and an action level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter of air. In addition, the final rule requires contractors to follow several ancillary provisions, such as housekeeping and written exposure plans.

On Sept. 19, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing for two nominees to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Janet Dhillon and Daniel Gade, Ph.D. Dhillon, who was nominated by President Trump on June 29, has served in executive and legal roles for several Fortune 500 companies, most recently as executive vice president of Burlington Coat Factory Investment Holdings.

On Sept. 16, President Trump nominated labor attorney Peter B. Robb to serve as General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Robb, who currently serves as the director of labor and employment at the law firm Downs Rachlin and Marin, previously served as chief counsel to former NLRB Member Robert Hunter (R) and as special labor counsel to the law firm Proskauer Rose from 1985 to 1995.

On Aug. 29, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is initiating a review and immediate stay of the effectiveness of the pay data collection aspects of the Employer Information Report or EEO-1 form that was revised on Sept. 29, 2016, under the Obama administration.  

On Aug. 31, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted a motion for summary judgment against the U.S. Department of Labor’s burdensome and costly overtime rule and converted his earlier preliminary injunction (issued Nov. 22, 2016) to a permanent injunction. ABC participated in the business coalition that achieved this outcome, and ABC General Counsel Maury Baskin of Littler Mendelson P.C. filed the successful motion for summary judgment.  

Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a schedule of meetings that will offer the public the chance to discuss the definition of “Waters of the United States (WOTUS).” Following a proposal to rescind the Obama-era WOTUS rule in July, EPA and the Corps published a notice in the Federal Register on Aug. 28.

On Aug. 1, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched the Injury Tracking Application, which is the web-based form employers can use to submit their injury and illness data. The launch comes right after OSHA closed the comment period on delaying the electronic reporting portion of the final rule, “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses,” from July 1 to Dec. 1, 2017.

In a live interview on Fox News on Aug. 20, ABC President and CEO Bellaman praised President Trump’s recent executive order streamlining infrastructure permitting, saying it goes a long way towards eliminating construction delays and sets the table for when legislation is passed. But we have “a whole lot to do” before infrastructure rebuilding can begin.