WASHINGTON, Aug. 29—Associated Builders and Contractors today issued the following statement opposing the U.S. Department of Labor‘s proposed rulemaking that would alter overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The proposal increases the minimum salary level threshold to $55,068 annually for a full-year worker and automatically updates the threshold every three years.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29—Associated Builders and Contractors issued a statement from Vice President of Regulatory, Labor and State Affairs Ben Brubeck on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Aug. 29 final rule further revising the definition of “waters of the United States.”

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29—The U.S. Treasury Department’s Internal Revenue Service today released a proposed rule and FAQs on provisions of the ABC-opposed Inflation Reduction Act, which will affect the developers, contractors and workers that are building clean energy projects eligible for more than $270 billion in federal tax credits.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29—Associated Builders and Contractors today announced its opposition to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announcement of a proposed rule, Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process. The proposed rule would allow an employee to choose a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative, to accompany an OSHA inspector into nonunion facilities.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8—Associated Builders and Contractors issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Labor today issuing a final rule, Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations, which will make drastic revisions to the Davis-Bacon Act and Related Acts regulations that apply to federal and federally assisted construction projects funded by taxpayers.

Associated Builders and Contractors today applauded the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s passage of the Fair and Open Competition Act, H.R. 1209. FOCA would protect federal and federally assisted construction contracts from anti-competitive and inflationary government-mandated project labor agreements and allow merit shop contractors and their skilled employees to have a fair chance at competing to win government contracts to build taxpayer-funded construction projects.

WASHINGTON, May 30—ABC issued the following statement today in support of the recently announced bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

WASHINGTON, May 3—It would take 12 years for federal and state government-registered apprenticeship programs to educate the more than half a million workers the construction industry needs to hire in 2023, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of recently released U.S. Department of Labor data. ABC estimates that the construction industry’s federal and state government-registered apprenticeship system yielded just 45,000 completers of four-to-five-year apprenticeship programs in 2022.

WASHINGTON, April 19—Associated Builders and Contractors announced its strong support for the Employee Rights Act, which was introduced today in the 118th Congress by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga.

WASHINGTON, April 13—According to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of 2022 state union membership data published recently by UnionStats.com, at least 9 out of 10 construction workers in private industry do not belong to a union in 26 states, up from 24 states in 2021. Nationwide, a record 88.3% of construction workers do not belong to a union, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 87.4% in 2021.

WASHINGTON, March 30—Associated Builders and Contractors today released the following statement applauding the bipartisan U.S. House of Representative passage of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act.

WASHINGTON, March 28—Associated Builders and Contractors member Aric Dreher, assistant general manager, Cianbro, headquartered in Pittsfield, Maine, today testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit during the hearing “Reviewing the Implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.”

WASHINGTON, March 23—Associated Builders and Contractors today praised the Wyoming legislature and Gov. Mark Gordon for enacting SF 147, the Fair and Open Competition Act, which protects Wyoming taxpayers by ensuring all of the state’s skilled construction workforce can compete on a level playing field for contracts to build state, state-assisted and local public works projects. Once in effect on July 1, Wyoming will be the 25th state with an active policy restricting the use of government-mandated project labor agreements.

WASHINGTON, March 7—A diverse group of 17 construction and business associations today urged the U.S. Department of Commerce to ensure taxpayer investments in the semiconductor industry are not needlessly constrained by anti-competitive and inflationary project labor agreement schemes imposed through after-the-fact regulatory action by the Biden administration.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27—Associated Builders and Contractors today released the following statement ahead of congressional Democrats’ reintroduction of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which is set for Feb. 28. Among its many harmful provisions, the PRO Act would violate workers’ free choice and privacy rights, force unions on employees who have voted against such representation, cost millions of American jobs and threaten vital supply chains.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28—Associated Builders and Contractors today voiced its strong support for the Fair and Open Competition Act (H.R. 1209  / S. 537), which has been reintroduced in the 118th Congress by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., in the U.S. Senate, and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 27.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28—Associated Builders and Contractors member Roy Heim, president of Heim Construction Co. Inc., Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, today testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee during the hearing “From Nothing to Something: The Story of the American Dream.”

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7—Associated Builders and Contractors President and CEO Michael Bellaman released the following statement responding to President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19—Associated Builders and Contractors released the following remarks today regarding the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual Union Members Summary. According to 2022 data, the percent of construction industry wage and salary workers belonging to unions dropped to a record low of 11.7%, a decline from 12.6% in 2021.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30— Associated Builders and Contractors today issued the following statement from Vice President of Regulatory, Labor and State Affairs Ben Brubeck on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule revising the definition of “waters of the United States.”

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15—For the fourth time, Florida claimed the top spot in Associated Builders and Contractors’ eighth annual Merit Shop Scorecard, a ranking of all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on policies and programs that strengthen career pathways in construction, encourage workforce development and advocate for fair and open competition on taxpayer-funded construction projects.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29—Associated Builders and Contractors released the following statement responding to guidance released today by the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service regarding tax credits for private clean energy projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act conditioned on compliance with prevailing wage and government-registered apprenticeship requirements.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7—Associated Builders and Contractors has submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service regarding implementation of tax credits for clean energy construction projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, contingent upon new controversial prevailing wage, apprenticeship and domestic content requirements.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1—Today, Associated Builders and Contractors and ABC of Connecticut joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several other organizations in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court District of Connecticut challenging an unconstitutional labor law passed by the state of Connecticut.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19—Associated Builders and Contractors has submitted more than 40 pages of comments to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council calling on the Biden administration to withdraw a controversial proposed rule that would require anti-competitive and inflationary project labor agreements on federal construction contracts of $35 million or more.