President Joe Biden continues to back and support provisions in the ABC-opposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act (H.R. 842/S. 420), which would violate workers’ free choice and privacy rights, force unions on employees who have voted against such representation, cost millions of American jobs and threaten vital supply chains.

On Nov. 15, 2021, President Biden signed into law the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provides $550 billion in new funding to invest in America’s roads, bridges, utilities and other needs on top of baseline government infrastructure spending via existing programs and annual appropriations. Much of the IIJA funding will be distributed to states and localities and other stakeholders through discretionary grant programs; however, the Biden administration continues to promote pro-labor policies tied to IIJA dollars.

On Feb. 4, 2022, President Biden signed Executive Order 14063, Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects. Once implemented following a rulemaking by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council that is expected to take months to complete, federal agencies will require that every prime contractor and subcontractor on a federal construction project of $35 million or more performed within the United States to sign a project labor agreement as a condition of winning a contract.

President Biden supports the House-passed and ABC-opposed National Apprenticeship Act of 2021 (H.R. 447), which would not achieve its goal of expanding apprenticeship opportunities, as it would further restrict small businesses’ ability to access federally registered apprenticeship programs, limit job opportunities in the construction industry and create additional obstacles for the construction industry to meet future workforce demand and needs.

On Jan. 13, 2022, ABC applauded the U.S. Supreme Court for reinstating the stay on DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, which applied to employers with 100 or more employees. On behalf of the construction industry, ABC filed one of the emergency appeals to the Supreme Court leading to this successful outcome.

On Nov. 30, 2021, a Kentucky district court preliminarily enjoined the federal contractor COVID-19 vaccination mandate, but only for three states—Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

The ABC-opposed and House-passed PRO Act (H.R. 842/S. 420) includes a provision that dramatically expands the joint-employer standard under the NLRA, and the NLRB intents to issue a new proposed rulemaking on the joint-employer standard in 2022.

On Nov. 22, 2021, DOL issued its final rule implementing President Biden’s Executive Order 14026, Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors, which applies to all workers performing work on or in connection with covered federal contracts. Effective Jan. 30, 2022, the minimum wage increased to $15 per hour.

In 2019, the EPA under President Trump and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers repealed the ABC-opposed 2015 WOTUS rule and replaced it with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

In July 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality issued an ABC-supported final rule to modernize the federal environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act regulations.

In March 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319) into law, including a controversial provision providing a Congressional Budget Office-estimated $86 billion taxpayer bailout of struggling union multiemployer pension plans.

Anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements end open, fair and competitive bidding on contracts to build taxpayer-funded construction projects. Government-mandated PLAs discourage merit shop contractors from bidding on taxpayer-funded construction contracts and drive up costs by between 12% and 20%, which results in fewer infrastructure improvements and reduced construction industry job creation.

President Biden’s March 2021 American Jobs Plan called on Congress to tie federal investments in infrastructure to prevailing wage regulations via the 90-year-old Davis-Bacon Act.

Immediately after taking office, President Biden fired incumbent NLRB general counsel Peter Robb, a move without precedent since the establishment of the Independent Office of General Counsel to the NLRB in 1947.

On Feb. 18, 2021, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 (H.R. 1177/S. 348) to implement President Biden’s proposal on immigration reform.

The commercial and industrial construction industry has a unique interest in energy policy, as it is not only a large-scale energy consumer, but also acts as a key facilitator of domestic energy exploration, production and transportation.

The ABC-opposed and House-passed PRO Act (H.R. 842/S. 420) includes a provision making it significantly more difficult for a worker to operate as an independent contractor.

Employees in 27 states enjoy the benefits of right-to-work laws prohibiting employers from requiring employees to join unions as a condition of employment, incentivizing competition and producing a better work environment for businesses and workers.

President Biden’s ABC-opposed partisan budget reconciliation package, formally titled the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376), passed the House on Nov. 19, 2021, by a vote of 220-213.