On December 18, the Biden administration announced its government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) final rule that requires PLAs on direct federal construction projects of $35 million or more, with limited exceptions. AGC has long prepared to and will fight this executive overreach in court.

AGC of America submitted extensive comments in 2022 opposing the proposed rule. Through the association’s grassroots efforts, AGC members sent more than 8,500 communications against the proposal via formal comments and messages to their federally elected officials.

AGC of America neither supports nor opposes contractors’ voluntary use of PLAs on government projects or elsewhere but strongly opposes any government mandate for contractors’ use of PLAs. AGC is committed to free and open competition for publicly funded work. AGC has long maintained that the federal government should not mandate PLAs. The use of government-mandated PLAs hurts union contractors, open-shop contractors, and fails to promote economy and efficiency in federal procurement.

According to an AGC of America analysis of data obtained via a Construction Advocacy Fund-financed lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, the Department of Defense federal construction agencies rejected PLA mandates 99.4 percent of the time even when encouraged to do so under the Obama-Biden Administration.

For more information, contact Jordan Howard at [email protected] or (703) 837-5368.