On Aug. 14, the Office of Management and Budget announced final guidance to revise OMB’s Guidance for Grants and Agreements. This guidance defines the rules for federal agencies as they distribute funding through grant programs and other financial assistance. The revisions would aid implementation of the Build America, Buy America Act provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This guidance finalizes a proposal issued by the OMB on Feb. 9.  

On Aug. 8, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule, Updating Davis-Bacon and Related Acts

On Aug. 2, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in Stericycle Inc., which overruled Boeing and adopted a new legal standard for evaluating employer work rules challenged as f

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council plans to issue a proposed rule on Aug. 3, 2023, that would establish new requirements for “sustainable procurement” in federal contracting. The proposal complies with Executive Order 14057, Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability, signed by Pr

ABC has prepared a summary of Biden administration regulatory actions of interest to ABC members by agency. 

On July 31, the Council on Environmental Quality released a proposed rule to implement Phase 2 of revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act implementing regulations. The proposal makes wide-ranging changes to the rules for federal agencies conducting the environmental review and permitting process.

On July 26, the U.S. House of Representatives passed S.J. Res. 24, a Congressional Review Act resolution on the Endangered Species Status for Northern Long-Eared Bat with a bipartisan vote of 220-209. The passage of S.J. Res. 24 would, if enacted, prevent the ABC-opposed U.S. Department of Interior&a

On July 26, ABC Senior Director of Legislative Affairs Peter Comstock participated in a roundtable hosted by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. The roundtable focused on the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and policies to better connect job creators and small businesses with job seekers.

On July 18, Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., introduced the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 4721, legislation which would make permanent the current 20% deduction for small and family-owned businesses, provided through Section 199A of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This bipartisan proposal is co-sponsored by 99 U.S. representatives, including two Democrats, and has the support of all Republican members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.

On July 28, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards published its final revision to the Form LM-10 Employer Report, which adds a checkbox to the Form LM-10 report requiring certain reporting entities to indicate whether such entities were federal contractors or subcontractors in their prior fiscal year, and two lines for entry of filers’ unique entity identifier and federal contracting agency or agencies, if applicable. &

On July 27, President Joe Biden announced a series of actions aimed at protecting workers from the impact of extreme heat, including asking the U.S. Department of Labor to issue a first-ever hazard alert for heat.

On July 21, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued its Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule, which will undo the ABC-supported provisions of the 2019 final rule promulgated under the Trump adm

On July 13, 2023, the U.S Department of Labor launched its “High Road to the Middle Class” map, highlighting existing workforce development programs that meet certain criteria to be designated by the DOL as “high road training programs.”

The U.S. Department of the Treasury plans to release a proposed rule implementing provisions of the ABC-opposed Inflation Reduction Act. The law provides over $270 billion in tax credits for the construction of solar, wind, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, electric vehicle charging stations and other clean energy projects, conditioned on requirements that project contractors meet prevailing wage and appr

On July 17, ABC submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in response to OSHA’s request for comments on its efforts to develop a leading indicators resource for usage by employers to improve safety management systems.

Three proposed rules of concern to ABC members promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor are currently at the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and are expected to be issued imminently. The Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process and Overtime proposed rules are being reviewed by OIRA, and review of the Form LM-10 Employer Report final rule has concluded.

On June 22, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it will be holding Small Business Advocacy Review panel (also known as a SBREFA panel) meetings this summer to gather input on a possible Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings rule.

Construction Executive won the Silver EXCEL award from Association Media and Publishing for general excellence in the magazine—circulation 50,001 or more category. Since its launch in 2003, CE has won more than 20 editorial awards.

Construction is highly labor-intensive, and nothing gets done without our highly skilled and dedicated workforce. While standards tend to treat everyone equally, construction workers are not equally affected by heat those with certain health conditions or circumstances are more susceptible to heat illness. Thus, requirements designed for the least affected workers might not be sufficient to protect those at higher risk. One size does not fit all.

On June 13, the Biden administration released its Spring 2023 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 in 2023. ABC has prepared a summary of the actions of interest to ABC members by agency. 

On June 23, Rep. Rick W. Allen, R-Ga., a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, reintroduced H.R. 4320, the Truth in Employment Act, in the 118th Congress to shield employers from deceptive union harassment.

At a June 22 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor informed the committee that the Army Corps would be pausing all Clean Water Act jurisdictional determinations until a rulemaking revising the definition of “waters of the United States” is complete.

On June 13, ABC authored a letter to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee for its markup of H.R. 3938, the Build It in America Act. ABC supports this legislation, which would extend key provisions of the ABC-supported Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and provide additional certainty to the construction industry, including the deduction for research and development and the extension of th

ABC, as part of the Jobs and Careers Coalition, is working with staff of the House Education and Labor Committee as they draft legislation to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. ABC encourages members to fill out the WIOA survey today to provide important feedback on this critical workforce bill.