On Oct. 17, the Trump Administration released its Fall 2018 Regulatory Plan and 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 through the end of the year and in 2019.

On Oct. 11, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a memorandum clarifying its position on workplace safety incentive programs and post-incident drug testing included in the 2016 final rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (also known as the Electronic Injury Reporting and Anti-Retaliation final rule), issued under the Obama administration.  

On Sept. 28, ABC submitted comments to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on its recent proposal to remove certain provisions of the 2016 Electronic Injury Reporting and Anti-Retaliation final rule, officially titled Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses. ABC also commented as a member of the Coalition for Workplace Safety.

On Sept. 27 and 28, the U.S. House of Representatives passed three bills (H.R. 6757, H.R. 6756 and H.R. 6760) that comprise the Tax Reform 2.0 package. ABC key voted these three bills and appreciates the important work of the House in moving these bills forward and building on the successes of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. These bills now move to the Senate, where their fate will likely be determined after the November elections by whichever party is in control of the Congress in 2019. 

On Sept. 14, the National Labor Relations Board published a proposed rule that would establish an updated standard for determining joint-employer liability under the National Labor Relations Act. The proposal aims to foster predictability, consistency and stability in the determination of joint-employer status, and therefore clarifies the standard in a way that promotes meaningful collective bargaining and advances the purposes of the NLRB.

On Aug. 28, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta announced the Department of Labor’s new Office of Compliance Initiatives, which aims to promote greater understanding of federal laws and regulations and provide innovative approaches to compliance assistance and enforcement.      

In February 2017, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review the 2015 final Clean Water Rule: Definition of "Waters of the United States," also known as the WOTUS final rule, and accordingly revise or rescind it through public comment.

On Sept. 4, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a notice to announce that the minimum wage for federal contractors will increase to $10.60 from the current $10.35 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2019. 

On Aug. 24, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published an announcement of public hearings on the joint proposal “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021-2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks” in the Federal Register. The SAFE Vehicles proposed rule would amend certain existing Corporate Average Fuel Economy and tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks and establish new standards for model years 2021 through 2026.

On Aug. 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s power plants, the Affordable Clean Energy proposed rule. It would roll back President Obama’s 2015 regulation, known as the Clean Power Plan, which would have imposed strict regulations on coal-fired power plants and was widely opposed by the construction industry. The CPP was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court and has never been in effect.