The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently canceled its solicitation for the construction of a $500 million to $1 billion federal currency printing plant in Beltsville, Maryland, on behalf of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing. 

According to its Jan. 13, 2025, notice canceling the solicitation, the USACE Baltimore District cited “budgetary constraints and a reduction in the project’s required scope.”

The project had five qualified bidders in phase one of the two-step procurement process. All but one firm dropped out after a project labor agreement was mandated following the Jan. 22, 2024, effective date of former President Joe Biden’s rule mandating PLAs on federal construction projects of $35 million or more.

The USACE was unable to receive a PLA exception on this project from its senior procurement officials despite market research and real-world evidence indicating a PLA mandate would reduce competition, increase costs and trigger needless delays.

The fate of this project is unclear. 

The Washington Business Journal referenced ABC’s concerns about President Biden’s anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreement policies in its Jan. 30 reporting on the project.

“In construction, time is money,” ABC Vice President of Regulatory, Labor and State Affairs Ben Brubeck was quoted in the WBJ article. “So, this project is going to probably have to be rebid if they have the money for it, and that’s going to make the project more expensive.”

Last month, ABC celebrated U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Ryan T. Holte’s Jan. 19 ruling in favor of 12 bid protests filed by experienced ABC and AGC member federal contractors against three federal agencies (USACE, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command and General Services Administration) that mandated PLAs in solicitations for construction services as a result of a Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council rule implementing Biden’s Executive Order 14063.

The judge extended his deadline by seven days to Feb. 10 for the U.S. Justice Department and the federal agency defendants to comply with his decision.

“Damning evidence procured through market research conducted by several federal agencies was raised in the case’s Jan. 16 oral argument and corroborated plaintiffs’ complaints and ABC’s long-standing concerns,” said Brubeck. “The findings of federal agencies illustrate how Biden’s controversial policy mandating union-favoring project labor agreements stifles competition and raises costs on federal construction contracts nationwide.”

According to Judge Holte’s ruling, the Biden FAR Council rule mandating PLAs violates congressional requirements for full and open competition:

“The agencies’ 2024 implementation of the mandate—ignoring the agencies’ own market research concluding project labor agreements would be anticompetitive—relying solely on executive order presidential policy is arbitrary and capricious. Specifically, the functionality of the mandate as applied to the individual contracts in this case stifles competition and violates the statutory directive that agencies must promote “full and open competition” in federal procurements unless a statutory justification is properly invoked.”

“President Biden’s anti-competitive and costly pro-PLA policies on federal and federally assisted construction projects need to be rescinded for many compelling reasons, including the fact that it would save taxpayers $10 billion annually,” said Brubeck. “The evidence presented in this bid protest case—the cancelation of the USACE’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing project due to a lack of competitors, ABC’s congressional testimony and the affidavits of prominent ABC federal contractors filed in ABC’s March 28, 2024, suit in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida—clearly demonstrate why fair and open competition benefits all Americans and taxpayers.”

ABC advises ABC and industry federal contractors to continue to file bid protests against individual federal agency PLA mandates on a case-by-case basis.  This is the best solution to defeat the Biden rule on federal contracts until a court issues an injunction against the rule or the Trump administration rescinds it via executive action.

Bid protests must be filed by experienced prime federal contractors in advance of the bid due date on an active federal agency solicitation. Please reach out to ABC if you would like to learn more.