UPDATE: The DOL webinar has been postponed to a later date. On Jan. 30, 2024, from 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET, ABC is offering an ABC members-only webinar on the proposed rule where you will learn about the problematic and beneficial provisions of the rule and hear how you can best participate in regulatory and advocacy efforts to help improve this extensive regulation. Encourage ABC member and chapter education professionals, human resources, management professionals and other stakeholders to register to attend the webinar. In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration is sponsoring a webinar on Jan. 11, 2024, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET.

On Jan. 9, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced the final rule on Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which rescinds the ABC-supported 2021 final rule and replaces it with a confusing multifactor analysis to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The final rule takes effect on March 11, 2024.

On Jan. 4, ABC authored a coalition letter to Congress signed by 23 organizations opposing the final rule and urging members to co-sponsor the ABC-backed Fair and Open Competition Act. In addition, Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs, authored a Fox Business op-ed on the Biden PLA rule, which ran on Jan. 4.

In December 2023, ABC submitted comments as a steering committee member of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition and the Coalition for Workplace Safety in response to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s potential standard for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings following its review of the Small Business Advocacy Review Panel materials and the SBAR Panel’s final report.

On Dec. 14, 2023, the Biden administration announced a U.S. Department of Labor proposed rule that would make significant and controversial revisions to the National Apprenticeship System. On Dec. 18, ABC issued a press release in response to the ABC-opposed proposal.

On Dec. 22, 2023, the Biden administration published the long-awaited Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s final rule, Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects, implementing President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14063, which requires federal construction contracts of $35 million or more to be subjected to controversial project labor agreements.

On Dec. 26, 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense released a proposed rule and guidance documents implementing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 Program. As proposed, CMMC 2.0 would require federal contractors and subcontractors competing for DOD contracts to demonstrate continued compliance with a range of cybersecurity measures to maintain eligibility for performing and winning new federal awards.

Throughout 2023, the Biden administration has pushed to roll back Trump-era initiatives and institute new, pro-union policies that challenge ABC members’ ability to win work. ABC continues to fight against these proposed rules and regulations affecting merit shop contractors and advocate for open competition and free enterprise.

Reports indicate that not a single electric vehicle charging station has been constructed with the $7.5 billion in federal investment available through the Federal Highway Administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, threatening the Biden administration’s goal to build 500,000 EV chargers by 2030. The final rule implementing the NEVI Formula Program contained a number of ABC-opposed, union-favoring labor requirements that may be contributing to the program’s stagnation.

FHWA Releases Final Rule on Greenhouse Gas Emissions On Nov. 22, the Federal Highway Administration released its Greenhouse Gas Performance Measure final rule. The final rule requires that state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations—the state entities responsible for transportation infrastructure construction and maintenance—must measure and report GHG emissions associated with transportation. Further, state DOTs and MPOs must set targets for reducing carbon dioxide emission and report on progress toward these targets.