ABC recommends every contractor take all precautions in the hiring process to verify each potential employee is eligible to work legally in the United States, including using the E-Verify system. ABC’s goal is to work with the administration and Congress to create a market-based merit visa system that allows people who want to contribute to society and work legally in the construction industry to do so. There is no place in our country for lawbreakers here to cause harm, and ABC opposes violence, coercion and intimidation of every kind. ABC supports the portion of the administration’s immigration strategy that focuses on lawbreakers.

Following the laws of supply and demand, mass deportations could constrain the availability of labor, which could stifle the ability of the industry to build the construction projects demanded by the marketplace. In other words, the supply of labor may not meet the demand, which could drive up costs, or consumer demand would adjust. And if the worker supply is constrained, employers would most likely adjust their employee value proposition to enhance their position in the marketplace. This is an important reason why we need a market-based merit visa system.

Refer to the following resources from ABC and ABC general counsel Littler Mendelson for more information on immigration policy and enforcement actions.

• Littler Lounge: Raids, Records and Red Flags—Inside Immigration Enforcement
• An ICE Q&A With Answers to Your Top 25 Questions
• An Immigration Compliance and Enforcement Checklist That Outlines Key Areas That May Require Your Attention and Action
• PowerPoint Presentation: Learn About President Trump’s Actions on Immigration and DEI and How To Be Proactive in Compliance Efforts
• Trump Administration Day 1 Immigration Agenda: How Are Employers Impacted?
• The First 100 Days: Increased Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (Podcast)

Temporary Protected Status

ABC believes in protections for TPS recipients, many of whom have been members of the U.S. construction industry workforce for years. Currently, it is estimated that between 70,000 and 100,000 individuals work in the construction industry through both TPS and DACA.

Maintaining TPS

Once an immigrant is granted TPS, they must re-register during each re-registration period to maintain TPS benefits. This applies to all TPS beneficiaries, including those who were initially granted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals. Follow the instructions here to apply for re-registration.

Venezuela

The following alert has been posted on the TPS website: On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a convincing 8-1 decision, granted the government’s emergency stay of Judge Edward Chen’s order. See National TPS Alliance, et al., v. Kristi Noem et al., No. 3:25-cv-01766 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 31, 2025). Previously, on Feb. 3, 2025, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s vacatur of the Jan. 17, 2025, notice that extended a TPS designation for Venezuela was published in the Federal Register, and on Feb. 5, 2025, the secretary’s decision to terminate TPS under the 2023 designation for Venezuela was published. Based on the Supreme Court’s May 19 order, the erroneous March 31, 2025, district court order in case No. 3:25-cv-1766 is stayed pending the disposition of the government’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Further updates regarding TPS Venezuela will be posted on the TPS website. Separately, TPS under the 2021 designation for Venezuela remains in effect through Sept. 10, 2025. Learn more.

To learn more, read an analysis provided by Littler, US Supreme Court Allows Recission of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans.

Haiti

On Feb. 20, Secretary Noem partially vacated the July 1, 2024, notice that extended and redesignated Haiti for TPS. The announcement amends the period of extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS from 18 months to 12 months, with a new end date of Aug. 3, 2025, and makes a corresponding change to the initial registration period for new applicants under the redesignation, which will now remain in effect through Aug. 3, 2025. For additional information, please see the Federal Register Notice.

TPS has also issued alerts for Afghanistan and South Sudan.

 Visit the TPS webpage for status alerts. 

ABC members are encouraged to reach out to counsel with any questions regarding the recent immigration actions.

In a significant victory for permitting reform, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 29 issued an opinion in the case Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, establishing that federal environmental reviews must be reasonable in scope.

This decision will help ensure that federal agencies properly consider important environmental protections without causing unnecessary delays and increased costs for critical infrastructure projects.

ABC played an important role in this outcome by joining industry partners in filing a Sept. 4, 2024, amicus brief in support of properly focused environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.

In the case, the court considered whether NEPA requires that agencies consider environmental impacts beyond the immediate effects of their regulatory decision.

The Supreme Court’s opinion, in alignment with ABC’s amicus brief, ruled that, under NEPA, the Surface Transportation Board was not required to consider distant environmental effects in approving construction of a new rail line.

The decision directed courts to give “substantial deference” to federal agency determinations regarding which information must be included in environmental reviews and stated that NEPA does not require agencies to consider the impact of activities and projects “separate in time or place” from the project before the agency.

On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its budget reconciliation bill, H.R. 1, the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” in a 215-214-1 vote.

Ahead of the vote, ABC sent a Key Vote letter expressing strong support for the bill that provides critical tax relief to contractors. Among the many essential reforms in the package, ABC particularly supports:

• Making the Small Business Deduction Permanent and Stronger: The bill provides the pass-through sector crucial relief via introduction of a boosted 23% deduction for qualified business income. Locking in the higher deduction under Section 199A will not only prevent a significant tax hike in 2026, but it will also ensure that ABC members—most of whom are pass-through businesses—can reinvest in their companies, expand their workforce and take on new projects without fear of future tax hikes.

• Permanent Estate Tax Relief: The bill preserves and protects family businesses from destructive estate taxes and keeps jobs, skills and ownership here at home, allowing contractors to pass on the businesses they built to the next generation.

• Restoration of 100% Bonus Depreciation: Renewing previously expired immediate expensing via 100% bonus depreciation is a powerful incentive for businesses to invest in new equipment and technologies. This policy was based on the understanding that allowing immediate expensing of capital investments would encourage businesses to modernize their operations, increase productivity and, ultimately, drive economic growth. It was particularly aimed at capital-intensive industries like construction, where equipment investments can be substantial.

• Revived Expensing of R&D Costs: This provision permanently allows taxpayers to immediately deduct domestic research or experimental expenditures paid or incurred in taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2024. Additionally, small business taxpayers with average annual gross receipts of $31 million or less will generally be permitted to apply this change retroactively to taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2021. Furthermore, all taxpayers that made domestic research or experimental expenditures after Dec. 31, 2021, and before Jan. 1, 2025, will be permitted to elect to accelerate the remaining deductions for such expenditures over a one- or two-year period.

• Continuation of Simplified Tax Code: The bill permanently extends the larger standard deduction and the alternative minimum tax threshold that were set to expire. These two provisions have greatly simplified the tax code for millions of taxpayers, including construction workers and job creators.

• No Tax on Overtime for American Workers: By exempting overtime pay from federal income tax, the bill delivers direct, meaningful tax relief to the hardworking men and women in the merit shop construction trades—rewarding those who put in the extra hours to get the job done, support their families and keep America building.

• Expanded 529 Accounts for Skilled Trades Training: By expanding 529 savings accounts to cover training programs and credentials in the skilled trades, the bill supports the next generation of craft professionals—ensuring more young Americans can pursue rewarding careers in construction without crushing debt.

• Relief From Overregulation and Red Tape: From the inclusion of the ABC-supported REINS Act to reducing 1099 reporting burdens to improving Opportunity Zones, this bill cuts unnecessary red tape and unlocks new growth in communities that need it most.

• Expedited Environmental Reviews: By paying 125% of the estimated cost to prepare or supervise the preparation of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement, a project sponsor would receive a deadline of six months for completing an EA and 12 months for completing an EIS along with protection from judicial and administrative reviews.

The House leadership’s Managers Amendment added last-minute changes to the legislation ahead of floor consideration, including:

• Lifting of the state and local tax deduction cap to $40,000 for individuals making under $500,000.
• The accelerated phasing out of certain IRA clean energy credits by 2028.

The House-passed bill now heads to the U.S. Senate, where it is likely to be amended. Given the bill’s privilege under reconciliation rules, the Senate will only need a simple majority to approve their version bill. Both chambers will have to pass the same bill in order to send it to the president’s desk.

On May 20, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began accepting 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 reports. The deadline to submit is Tuesday, June 24. EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas issued this bulletin about the opening of the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection process.

According to the EEOC, after June 24 (the “Published Due Date”), no additional 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 reports will be accepted, and eligible employers will be out of compliance with their mandatory 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 filing obligations.

Under current EEOC regulations, private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees, who also meet certain criteria, are required to report annually the number of individuals they employ by job category and by sex and race or ethnicity.

The mandatory annual data collection is conducted through the EEO-1 Component 1 Online Filing System.

To ensure compliance with the EEOC’s substantive filing requirements, the EEOC advises filers to read the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 Instruction Booklet. Additional EEOC resources include:

• Fact Sheets
• FAQs
• Data File Specs
• Job Classifications
• OFS Users Guide
• OFS

All updates about the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection, including supplementary resource materials, will be posted to www.eeocdata.org/eeo1 as they become available.

Contact the EEO-1 Component 1 online Filer Support Message Center (i.e., filer help desk) with any questions regarding the 2024 collection.

On May 19, ABC participated in a listening session focused on the impact on small businesses of revising the definition of “waters of the United States” subject to Clean Water Act regulation and permitting.

The listening session was jointly hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy to help them understand the real-world impacts of WOTUS and CWA as the EPA and USACE consider how to provide clear and consistent rules for the regulated community.

During the session, ABC shared with agency leadership the unnecessary cost increases and delays imposed on small businesses in the construction industry by unclear WOTUS regulations, emphasizing the following points:

• Sensible environmental rules to protect water quality are important, but confusing and constantly changing rules make compliance unnecessarily difficult.
• ABC’s small business members have seen projects significantly delayed by CWA permitting processes.
• Small businesses lack the resources of larger contractors to absorb increased compliance costs.
• Unnecessary permitting delays mean less opportunity for the small businesses and construction workers that rely on these projects for their livelihood.

Previously, ABC joined the Waters Advocacy Coalition in submitting written comments to the EPA and USACE expressing support for a clear and consistent definition of “waters of the United States” that fully complies with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency.

On May 16, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ request for a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Defense and General Services Administration’s orders seeking to exempt certain federal construction contracts from the Biden administration’s PLA mandate.

ABC issued a statement disagreeing with the decision and calling on President Donald Trump to rescind former President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14063 and subsequent final rule, Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects, mandating project labor agreements on federal construction projects worth $35 million or more. 

Prior to the May 16 injunction, the DOD had exempted all the agency’s contracts from the PLA mandate and the GSA had exempted all land port of entry projects.

While the DOD and GSA have not yet issued any public guidance in response to the injunction, the order means that the PLA mandate will be back in effect for all federal construction contracts over $35 million.

Contracts that have already been awarded should not be affected but ongoing solicitations may be amended to reincorporate the PLA mandate.

 Agencies should still have the option to seek case-by-case exceptions to the mandate.

Take Action: Tell President Trump to put an end to the PLA mandate by signing an executive order supporting fair and open competition through ABC’s action alert.

ABC urges President Trump to rescind the Biden-era policy and replace it with a new executive order that promotes fair and open competition and protects federal and federally assisted construction contracts from government-mandated PLAs, allowing merit shop contractors to have a fair chance to win work.

ABC will continue to fight against the Biden administration’s illegal and costly PLA mandate and will keep ABC members updated on further developments.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that it will pause enforcement of the 2024 Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule in current enforcement matters while the agency reviews this regulation. ABC, its Southeast Texas chapter, the Coalition for Workforce Innovation and five other organizations are currently challenging the 2024 final rule in federal court.

ABC is pleased that the DOL will not apply the Biden administration’s 2024 final rule’s analysis in current enforcement matters. This is welcome news for the many construction employers who depend on legitimate independent contractors to provide specialized skills, entrepreneurial opportunities and stability during fluctuations of work common to the industry, ABC said in a statement.

The Biden administration’s 2024 final independent contractor rule is confusing, vague and unworkable, and harms construction workers classified as independent contractors because they will lose crucial opportunities for work.ABC continues to support reinstatement of the Trump administration’s 2021 final rule, which simplified and clarified the factors for determining when a worker is an independent contractor versus an employee.

Following the DOL’s announcement, ABC’s general counsel Littler Mendelson issued an article, “DOL Hits Pause on Enforcement of Biden-Era Independent Contractor Rule, Suggests New or Changed Rule Forthcoming,” which includes the following information: 

What's the DOL's New Guidepost?

“While the DOL’s review and reconsideration of the rule continues, the Field Assistance Bulletin notes that, effective May 1, 2025, the DOL will enforce the FLSA in accordance with Fact Sheet #13 (from July 2008, not March 2024) and as further informed by the reinstated Opinion Letter FLSA2019-6, which addresses classification in the context of virtual marketplace platforms.”

What Now for Employers?

“Employers should carefully review Fact Sheet 13 (from July 2008) because it varies significantly from the 2024 rule that DOL investigators or others may have been considering as controlling. Employers should also recall the dozens of different standards for independent contractor status under other employment laws, including those at the state and sometimes local level, and remain vigilant in complying with those laws while the DOL continues its review and likely dramatic altering of independent contractor criteria under the FLSA. Experience shows that those other employment laws also have shifting regulations or even statutory changes, so employers should not wait for a ‘quiet time’ in the world of worker classification to evaluate their policies and practices because that time may never arrive.”

For additional guidance beyond the field assistance bulletin, workers and employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free helpline, 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). 

ABC members are encouraged to reach out to counsel with any questions regarding the DOL’s pause on enforcement of the 2024 independent contractor rule.

On May 5, as a part of the America at Work tour, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., visited an ABC member jobsite and participated in an Arizona Builders Alliance-led roundtable discussion in Tucson, Arizona.

The group toured ABC member Chasse Building Group’s project to build Pima Community College’s Building and Construction Technologies training center as well as Pima’s other programs that train students in automotive technology and advanced manufacturing.

Secretary Chavez-DeRemer and Rep. Ciscomani then joined the Arizona Builders Alliance in a roundtable discussion focused on workforce shortages in the construction industry and policies that reduce unnecessary red tape to empower workers and businesses. ABA members also emphasized ABA members’ commitment to safety and spoke about the importance of legal pathways for workers in the construction trades, such as expanding visa programs.

“With strong growth in the construction industry thanks to President Trump’s America First policies, it’s critical the DOL continues our mission to upskill American workers by partnering with local leaders to fill these in-demand jobs,” said Secretary Chavez-DeRemer. “I enjoyed learning firsthand how educators and businesses in Tucson have developed pathways to successful, good-paying careers in construction and building trades.

“I am incredibly grateful to my good friend, Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, for her leadership, commitment to empowering our workers, support for workforce development efforts and for taking the time to meet with educators, business leaders and employees in my district,” said Ciscomani. “Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is a fantastic partner, and I look forward to continuing working with her to deliver on our promise to America’s workforce.”

ABC’s Free Enterprise Alliance has launched an issue advocacy campaign in Missouri, Kansas, Ohio and the Washington, D.C. metro area to educate elected officials and the public on Sen. Josh Hawley’s, R-Mo., Pro-Worker Framework for the 119th Congress that includes sections of the ABC-opposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act and the Warehouse Worker Protection Act.

On March 4, Hawley, along with Sens. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, Corey Booker, D-N.J., Gray Peters, D-Mich., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced S. 844, the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which would impose unrealistic, arbitrary deadlines requiring employers to reach an agreement in first contract negotiations with newly elected unions or face “binding interest arbitration,” which eviscerates “voluntary agreement,” a primary tenet of U.S. labor law. Under mandatory arbitration, contracts would be imposed on workers, employers and unions with no vote on the final product. Mandatory arbitration would deprive both employers and employees of property rights without the requisite due-process safeguards.

ABC and the ABC-led Coalition Democratic Workplace released statements opposing the bill.

Watch the ad here.

The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, the watchdog for small businesses in the regulatory process, recently launched the Red Tape Hotline.

Small businesses can use the hotline to voice their concerns about federal regulations that negatively affect their operations. According to the Office of Advocacy, it has received and reviewed 96 submissions from small businesses since its inception.

On April 30, SBA issued a summary of its accomplishments during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, stating, “In the first 100 Days of the Trump-Vance Administration, Advocacy has prioritized cutting red tape for small businesses. Advocacy has already delivered significant accomplishments in these first 100 days.

“Since January 20, 2025, Advocacy has cut $48.1 billion in regulatory burden in the first 100 days, compared to $0 in President Biden’s first 100 days, $4.1 billion in the first 100 days of President Trump’s first administration, and $6.8 billion in President Obama’s first 100 days.”

Learn more about the SBA’s Office of Advocacy.