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 funded by local governments. 

Gov. Branstad has long supported government neutrality toward PLAs, issuing Executive Order 69 in January 2011, which prevented state and local governments procuring state and state-assisted construction projects from encouraging or prohibiting PLAs in contract solicitations. Signing SF 438 into law allows all qualified contractors to compete for construction contracts funded by Iowa taxpayers on a level playing field and ensures that future governors cannot mandate discriminatory PLAs on public construction projects through an executive action.

“Iowa’s law supporting fair and open competition boosts national momentum against government-mandated PLAs and guarantees that Iowans will continue to receive the best quality product at the best possible price for taxpayer-funded schools, hospitals, roads and other public construction projects,” said ABC Vice President of Regulatory, Labor and State Affairs Ben Brubeck. “Governor Branstad and the Iowa legislature sent a message that they are serious about generating value for taxpayers and creating jobs and opportunities for all of Iowa’s construction workers and businesses. Associated Builders and Contractors is hopeful that similar policy addressing anti-competitive and costly government-mandated PLAs, which steer construction contracts to unionized firms and discriminate against 86 percent of the U.S. private construction workforce, will be implemented on federal and federally assisted construction projects through executive action by President Trump and legislation recently proposed in Congress.”

“On behalf of the merit shop contractors we represent, Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa thanks Governor Terry Branstad for signing this legislation that sets a fair standard and rewards free enterprise,” said ABC of Iowa President and CEO Greg Spenner. “We also appreciate the hard work from legislators who pushed the bill forward. By restricting the use of discriminatory project labor agreements, more local companies are now better positioned to bid on public projects. This will ultimately increase competition and lower costs. The real winners today are Iowa’s taxpayers.”

When mandated by a government agency on a taxpayer-funded project, PLAs drive up the cost of construction projects between 12 percent and 18 percent, according to a series of academic studies. PLAs typically ensure construction contracts are awarded only to companies that agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job; use the union hiring hall to obtain workers at the expense of existing qualified employees; obtain apprentices through union apprenticeship programs; follow inefficient union work rules; pay into union benefit and multi-employer pension plans workers will never benefit from unless they meet vesting requirements; and force workers to pay union dues and/or join a union as a condition of employment.

In 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13502, which strongly encourages, on a case-by-case basis, government-mandated PLAs on federal construction projects and permits state and local governments procuring federally-assisted construction contracts to mandate PLAs. In January 2017, ABC and a coalition of construction and industry stakeholders asked President Trump to issue an executive order similar to President Bush’s Executive Orders 13202 and 13208, which prohibited government-mandated PLAs on $147.1 billion worth of federal construction contracts and hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of federally assisted projects.

A total of 22 states (20 since 2011, including Iowa) have adopted similar legislation or executive action ensuring fair and open competition on state and local projects. This year, a number of states may pass similar bills, such as Wisconsin’s SB3, which was sent to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk on March 9. In 2015, West Virginia became the 22nd state to ban government-mandated PLAs when Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed the bipartisan Establishing Fair and Open Competition in Governmental Construction Act (SB 409). Gov. Tomblin is the first Democratic governor to sign a bill prohibiting PLA mandates. Also in 2015, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law SB 426, a bipartisan bill prohibiting PLA mandates that had previously passed the state Senate and House of Representatives in unanimous votes. All legal challenges to similar state and federal laws executive orders have failed.

On March 28, a U.S. House of Representatives committee favorably reported the ABC-supported Fair and Open Competition Act (H.R. 1552) out of committee. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.), would extend the same neutrality towards the use of PLAs adopted in Iowa to federal and federally assisted construction contracts. The bill was also introduced in the U.S. Senate (S. 622) by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).