On July 21, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued its Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule, which will undo the ABC-supported provisions of the 2019 final rule promulgated under the Trump adm

The U.S. Department of the Treasury plans to release a proposed rule implementing provisions of the ABC-opposed Inflation Reduction Act. The law provides over $270 billion in tax credits for the construction of solar, wind, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, electric vehicle charging stations and other clean energy projects, conditioned on requirements that project contractors meet prevailing wage and appr

Three proposed rules of concern to ABC members promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor are currently at the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and are expected to be issued imminently. The Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process and Overtime proposed rules are being reviewed by OIRA, and review of the Form LM-10 Employer Report final rule has concluded.

On June 22, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it will be holding Small Business Advocacy Review panel (also known as a SBREFA panel) meetings this summer to gather input on a possible Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings rule.

On June 13, the Biden administration released its Spring 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The agenda lists upcoming rulemakings and other regulatory actions from each agency that the administration expects to publish in 2023. ABC has prepared a summary of the actions of interest to ABC members by agency. 

On May 25, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency case, narrowing the scope of “waters of the United States” that may be regulated under the Clean Water Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 1 that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters can be sued, after a lawsuit alleged that a 2017 drivers’ strike in Washington state damaged a concrete supplier’s product.

On May 25, ABC joined the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, urging Acting Secretary Julie Su to abandon or at least postpone issuance of its anticipated proposed rulemaking that would alter overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The letter includes signatures from over 100 organizations.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently published a study evaluating the effects of state prevailing wage policy on road construction and maintenance costs. Prevailing wage requirements undermine nonunion contractors’ competitiveness for public works contracts by standardizing the payment of union wage rates via methodologically defective surveys.

On May 1, 2023, President Joe Biden’s administration announced its intent to end certain COVID-19 vaccination requirements, including the mandate on federal contractors. According to the announcement, President Biden will soon issue an executive order rescinding vaccine requirements and COVID-19 safety protocols for federal contractors, effective at 12:01 a.m. on May 12.