On Oct. 8, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing titled “Labor Law Reform Part 1: Diagnosing the Issues, Exploring Current Proposals.” The hearing considered existing legislative labor and employment reforms, including the Faster Labor Contracts Act (H.R.5408/S.844), National Right to Work Act (S. 533), Protecting the Right to Organize Act (H.R.20/S.852), the Warehouse Worker Protection Act (H.R.4896/S. 2613), and others.

Ahead of the hearing, ABC sent a letter to the committee urging Senators to oppose the PRO Act and the Faster Labor Contracts Act. “ABC believes there is a better path forward—one that prioritizes collaboration over coercion. Congress should focus on empowering all Americans, regardless of union affiliation, to learn, advance and succeed based on their skills, safety record and merit,” the letter reads. “Encouraging workforce development, adopting an all-of-the-above approach to apprenticeship and reducing regulatory barriers will strengthen both employee opportunity and the nation’s economic competitiveness. Such efforts represent true labor reform—centered on freedom, fairness and the American worker.”

In addition, the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace also sent a letter opposing the FLCA and the Hawley Labor Policy framework and in support of various existing legislative labor reforms, including the:

• Save Local Business Act (H.R. 4366)
• Start Applying Labor Transparency (SALT) Act (H.R. 2952)
• Worker Enfranchisement Act (H.R. 2572)

On September 16, Rep. Pete Stauber introduced the ABC-opposed FLCA in the House, an effort to strip workers and employers of their right to freely negotiate workplace conditions. Specifically, the FLCA imposes a 10-day time period for an employer and union to begin negotiating following a representation election as well as a requirement that a bargaining agreement be finalized in 90 days. The consequences for not obtaining such an agreement will likely be mandatory, binding arbitration, which will allow the federal government to set the terms of private contracts without the input or consent from the employees, employers or unions involved. For more information, read ABC’s press release. On Oct. 1, CDW sent a letter to members of the U.S. House urging them to oppose the FLCA.

On October 8, Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., reintroduced the Employee Rights Act in the Senate for the 119th Congress. On June 26, ABC announced its strong support for the reintroduction of the ERA in the U.S. House, urging the swift consideration of the bill to protect worker freedoms nationwide. The ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace also released a statement in support of the bill’s reintroduction in the House.  

“Worker choice, flexibility and privacy are essential to the success of the construction industry, and the Employee Rights Act delivers much-needed balance to our nation’s labor laws,” said Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of government affairs. “This bill protects all workers’ right to a secret ballot, their control over personal contact information and their freedom to work as independent contractors if they choose. Congress must act now to advance this pro-worker, pro-growth legislation and stop harmful policies that undermine workforce freedoms.”
 
The ERA would:

• Guarantee secret ballot union elections on jobsites
• Safeguard worker privacy and limit forced disclosure of personal information
• Provide legal clarity for independent contractors
• Clarifies the definition of a joint employer
• Prevent the use of employee dues for union political campaigns without consent

On Sept. 15, ABC joined a diverse coalition of over 40 trade groups and associations in a letter to Congress opposing the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. “The WWPA would impose long discarded and unworkable regulations on warehouse distribution centers, curtail employers’ due process rights when challenging citations from OSHA, and hamstring a critical part of our national supply chain,” the letter reads. “Despite its narrow sounding title, the legislation would impact workplaces in nearly every industry sector nationwide. Protecting workers is a priority for all employers, but this bill would only impede efficient operations without improving workplace safety.”

July 24, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions advanced three labor nominees by a party-line vote of 12-11. The nominations will now move to the Senate floor for a final vote at a later date.  

• David Castillo to serve as Chief Financial Officer, Department of Labor  
• Brittany Panuccio to serve as a Member, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
• Jonathan Snare to serve as a Member, Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission 

Ahead of the vote, the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace along with 11 employer organizations, including ABC, sent a letter to the committee expressing strong support for Brittany Panuccio to serve on the EEOC.

On July 23, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing titled, “The Road Ahead: Proposals to Improve America’s Transportation Infrastructure.” Ahead of the hearing, ABC sent a letter to the committee calling on them to prioritize fair and open competition and an all-of-the-above approach to workforce development as it crafts the Surface Transportation Act reauthorization.

On July 1, a diverse group of lawmakers from around the country sent letters to President Trump urging him to rescind the Biden-era rule requiring PLAs on federal construction projects of $35 million or more. 95 members of the U.S. House and 21 members of the U.S. Senate signed the letters, expressing serious concerns over the administration’s decision to double down on a policy that is inherently exclusionary, anti-competitive and costly for American taxpayers.

ABC Supports One, Big, Beautiful Bill as Senate Kicks off Vote-a-Rama:

On June 30, the U.S. Senate began deliberations on their version of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act after passing a key procedural vote this past weekend. On June 27, ABC sent a Key Vote letter to the U.S. House and Senate, urging members of Congress to support the bill which includes key tax relief for contractors. ABC also joined a group of organizations representing millions of Main Street businesses in a June 28 letter expressing strong support of the package. ABC supported provisions of the OBBB would:

• Make the Small Business Deduction Permanent
• Provide Permanent Estate Tax Relief
• Restore 100% Bonus Depreciation
• Revive Expensing of R&D Costs
• Eliminate tax on Overtime for American Workers
• Expand 529 Accounts for Skilled Trades Training

The Motion to Proceed to debate the bill on the Senate floor passed in a 51-49 vote, with Senators Thom Tillis, R-N.C. and Rand Paul, R-Ky., voting against the measure. The bill is now in its early stages of a series of votes nicknamed “vote-a-rama,” where the Senate will consider any number of amendments to the package, a process expected to take several hours. Keep in mind, under Senate rules, reconciliation bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority, overriding Senate filibuster rules that typically require a 60-vote supermajority. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but Tillis and Paul are both unlikely to change their minds on Trump’s key agenda item, leaving Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., with a slim margin to pass the package. A third GOP defector would force Vice President JD Vance to break the tie, while a fourth would kill the bill all together.

If the Senate approves the package, it will head back to the House where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will face yet another challenge in corralling his Conference. Notably, the House passed their version of the OBBB at the end of May in a slim 215-214-1 vote. The Senate’s version now includes steeper cuts to Medicaid and a phase out of the $40,000 state and local tax deduction cap, not to mention an $800 billion increase to the deficit. These present a clear and present threat to Johnson’s hopes of getting the package through the Chamber and to the president’s desk ahead of their July 4 deadline.

On June 25, ABC joined other business groups and trade associations in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, supporting making permanent and expanding the Section 199A deduction from 20 to 23 percent. While ABC supports the Senate’s provision of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill that would make permanent the 199A deduction, it also would cut in half their ability to deduct State and Local Taxes (SALT) as a business expense. The net result will be a tax hike on millions of pass-through businesses relative to what they currently pay.

Locking in the higher deduction under Section 199A will prevent a significant tax hike in 2026 and ensure that ABC members—most of whom are passthrough businesses—can reinvest in their companies, expand their workforce and take on new projects without fear of future tax hikes.

On June 25, the Coalition for Workplace Safety sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in support of David Keeling’s nomination to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. The committee is considering additional nominees at the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including:

• Nomination of Penny Schwinn to serve as Deputy Secretary of Education, Department of Education
• Nomination of Kimberly Richey to serve as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Education
• Nomination of Daniel Aronowitz to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, Department of Labor  
• Nomination of Jonathan Berry to serve as Solicitor, Department of Labor
• Nomination of Andrew Rogers to serve as Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor
• Nomination of Anthony D’Esposito to serve as Inspector General, Department of Labor
• Nomination of Andrea Lucas to serve as a Member, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
• Nomination of Jeremiah Workman to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training, Department of Labor

On April 8, the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the U.S. House Committee on Small Business held a joint hearing titled, “Prosperity on Main Street: Keeping Taxes Low for Small Businesses.” Ahead of the hearing, ABC sent a letter to the committees in support of key provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that provided important tax relief for contractors. Specifically, ABC called on House and Senate members to support critical tax policies, such as:

• Maintaining Parity for Pass-Through Entities through the permanence of the TCJA’s Section 199A
• Revived Expensing of Research and Development Costs
• Restoration of 100% Bonus Depreciation

The scheduled expiration of many of these policies would have grave effects, not only for our contractor members, but for the construction market more broadly, specifically harming small businesses around the country. On Jan. 17, ABC sent a letter to the House Ways & Means Committee emphasizing the significance of making permanent the provisions of the TCJA for America’s working families.