On June 3, Reps. Clay Higgins, R-La., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., hosted a briefing on the use of project labor agreements and the effects on the American construction workforce. Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs, joined other state and industry stakeholders to discuss the Biden administration’s final rule mandating PLAs on federal construction projects of $35 million or more that went into effect on Jan. 22.

ABC has sent 67 ABC chapter staff and members through the "VitalCog: Suicide Prevention in the Construction Industry’s Train the Trainer" program to become an instructor. Over that time, ABC instructors have provided 95 trainings and 1,617 ABC members and chapter staff have received this vital education.

ABC members made up 15 of the top 20 ranked by revenue on Engineering News-Record’s 2024 Top 400 Contractors list. ABC member Turner Construction Co. nabbed the top spot, while, overall, ABC members made up 59 of the top 100.

On May 24, ABC joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and more than 200 national associations and state and local chambers in urging the Federal Trade Commission to stay the effective date of its final rule to ban noncompete clauses in order to allow for judicial review. The effective date of the rule is Sept. 4.

On May 22, ABC joined a coalition of business groups in filing a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s controversial final rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees, which will change overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Read ABC’s news release announcing the lawsuit.

Lane Grigsby, chair emeritus of Cajun Industries, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was recently awarded ABC’s inaugural Legacy Medallion for Advocacy for his contributions to the merit shop construction industry over more than 50 years.

On May 17, ABC joined an industry coalition in submitting comments to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget in response to the OMB’s request for information on public participation in federal agency policymaking. The OMB issued the request ahead of plans to develop a governmentwide framework, common guidelines and leading practices for public participation and community engagement.

On May 21, 20 states led by Iowa and North Dakota joined in a lawsuit against the Council on Environmental Quality, seeking to overturn the ABC-opposed National Environmental Policy Act Phase 2 revisions. The complaint asserts that the CEQ’s new regulations impose unnecessarily burdensome and unworkable new rules that will delay critical projects across the country.

On April 4, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a proposed rule on Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act Reporting Requirements. The rule, in alignment with the CIRCIA Act (signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022), imposes new cyber incident and ransom payment reporting requirements for companies deemed to have responsibility for critical infrastructure.

ABC’s Massachusetts chapter and a coalition of merit shop contractors successfully blocked the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission’s plan for a project labor agreement mandate on a $325 million water filtration plant.