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Politics & Policy
ABC’s October Regulatory Roundup—Learn About the Latest Developments Affecting the Construction Industry
ABC’s September Regulatory Roundup—Learn About the Latest Developments Affecting the Construction Industry
ABC Disappointed in NLRB’s Cemex Decision
Safety
ABC Expresses Serious Concerns to Congress About OSHA Worker Walkaround Rule
Build Health and Safety Engagement Through Leadership Commitment and Metrics Tied to Leading Indicators
Is Your PPE and Mobile Equipment as Safe as You Think It Is?
Events/Products/Programs
Nearly 350 ABC Leaders Gather in Washington for Annual Legislative Conference
ABC Members Rank Among ENR’s Top 400 Contractors
Trades Day: Industry Outreach Opportunity With Meaning
State/Local News
Ed Capodanno Honored by Delaware State Legislature
Election Update: ABC Staff and Members Elected in 2022
California Targets Workplace Cannabis Testing
Awards
Graham Roofing Earns the AQC Credential in September
ABC's Construction Executive Magazine Wins Silver in Publishing Competition
Legislation
ABC-Supported Legislation To Overturn the Northern Long-Eared Bat’s Endangered Species Listing Heads to President Biden’s Desk
ABC Advocates for Solutions to Workforce Shortage at U.S. House Committee Roundtable
Smucker Introduces the ABC-Supported Main Street Tax Certainty Act
Regulations
ABC Launches Resources for Contractors Competing for CHIPS Act Projects
Workforce Development
Register Now for ABC’s Construction Inclusion Week Webinar Series
DOL High Road Workforce Development Program Map Snubs Nonunion Programs
LISTEN: How to Design an Effective Technology Adoption Strategy
On Sept. 15, House Democrats released additional details on planned tax increases to pay for their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. The House Ways and Means Committee continues to mark up its portion of the budget reconciliation package, and some of the top-line tax provisions already revealed may affect ABC members.
* The proposed corporate rate does contain a lower rate of 18% for small businesses (income below $400,000). The 26.5% rate applies only to businesses with income in excess of $5,000,000 and remains at 21% for businesses below that threshold. The proposal does not currently include ABC-opposed provisions that would cap Section 1031 like-kind exchanges and change stepped-up basis for family-owned businesses.
ABC believes that these proposed tax increases would have a devastating impact on ABC members and the economy, making it tougher for many construction businesses to hire new workers and provide competitive pay and benefits for their employees. Last week, ABC sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee expressing concerns with the tax proposals and paid leave mandate ahead of the committee’s recent markup. ABC also joined coalitions in three additional letters addressing the Section 199A deduction, stepped-up basis and Section 1031 like-kind exchanges. The stepped-up basis and 1031 exchange proposals were not included in the Ways and Means package.
The Ways and Means Committee’s proposal also revisits areas of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which may cause heartburn for the bipartisan group of senators that orchestrated the infrastructure deal earlier this summer. The reconciliation package would impose prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements on clean energy and facility bonds for construction. Specifically, the bill applies Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements to all proceeds of exempt facility bonds used for the construction, alteration or repair of water furnishing facilities, sewage facilities, highway or surface freight transfer facilities and zero-emissions vehicle infrastructure facilities.
Further, the bill creates a “bonus rate” tax credit for contractors and subcontractors that provide prevailing wage rates to employees and provide 5% to 15% of labor hours on a project for “qualified apprenticeships.” ABC previously opposed a similar proposal in Sen. Ron Wyden’s, D-Ore., partisan Clean Energy for America Act (S. 1298), which was marked up in the Senate Finance Committee. ABC joined a coalition of organizations in highlighting these concerns in a letter to the committee.
Additionally, on Sept. 10, the House Committee on Education and Labor marked up and approved its $761 billion portion of the bill on a party-line vote. It contains provisions similar to policies included in the ABC-opposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act:
Of note, it is not yet clear if the House of Representatives has the votes to approve this proposal. Additionally, the package must pass through the evenly divided U.S. Senate, where, even if the House is able to include all of these provisions in a final package, they will be subject to change under the Senate Byrd Rule that removes extraneous provisions from budget reconciliation packages.
ABC strongly urges its members to reach out to their members of Congress to voice their concerns with the partisan budget reconciliation package by using the ABC Action Center.