ABC recommends every contractor take all precautions in the hiring process to verify each potential employee is eligible to work legally in the United States, including using the E-Verify system. ABC’s goal is to work with the administration and Congress to create a market-based merit visa system that allows people who want to contribute to society and work legally in the construction industry to do so.

In a significant victory for permitting reform, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 29 issued an opinion in the case Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, establishing that federal environmental reviews must be reasonable in scope.

On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its budget reconciliation bill, H.R. 1, the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” in a 215-214-1 vote.

On May 20, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began accepting 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 reports. The deadline to submit is Tuesday, June 24. EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas issued this bulletin about the opening of the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection process.

On May 19, ABC participated in a listening session focused on the impact on small businesses of revising the definition of “waters of the United States” subject to Clean Water Act regulation and permitting.

On May 16, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ request for a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Defense and General Services Administration’s orders seeking to exempt certain federal construction contracts from the Biden administration’s PLA mandate.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it will pause enforcement of the 2024 Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule in current enforcement matters while the agency reviews this regulation.

On May 5, as a part of the America at Work tour, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., visited an ABC member jobsite and participated in an Arizona Builders Alliance-led roundtable discussion in Tucson, Arizona.

ABC’s Free Enterprise Alliance has launched an issue advocacy campaign in Missouri, Kansas, Ohio and the Washington, D.C. metro area to educate elected officials and the public on Sen. Josh Hawley’s, R-Mo., Pro-Worker Framework for the 119th Congress that includes sections of the ABC-opposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act and the Warehouse Worker Protection Act.

The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, the watchdog for small businesses in the regulatory process, recently launched the Red Tape Hotline.