AGC CEO Addresses Group
On Jan. 18, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for increasing the federal gas tax by 25 cents as part of its recommendations for an infrastructure package announced at its “America’s Infrastructure Summit: Time to Modernize” event.  In addition to increasing the gas tax, the Chamber’s recommendations include leveraging more public and private resources, streamlining the permitting process, and expanding the workforce to build the infrastructure. AGC CEO Steve Sandherr was asked to participate in the event and shared the association’s efforts to address the workforce challenges facing the construction industry.
AGC has been sharing a similar plan – An Agenda to Rebuild Our Infrastructure & Our Workforce – with Congress and the administration and looks forward to working with the U.S. Chamber and other stakeholders to ensure an infrastructure plan is enacted that provides increased funding and financing, streamlines the environmental permitting process and helps address the construction industry’s workforce challenges.
For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at [email protected].

House Transportation Committee Considers Environmental Streamlining
On Jan. 18, AGC’s Senior Counsel on Environmental Law and Policy Leah Pilconis testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in support of further federal environmental review and permit streamlining measures. Among AGC’s recommendations, the association called on Congress to merge the National Environmental Policy Act review and Clean Water Act Section 404 permit processes to reduce duplication and delay in the federal environmental approval process.  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations Major General Ed Jackson and Director of Civil Works James Dalton, among others, also testified on the panel that included AGC.
For more information, contact Leah Pilconis at [email protected].

What Contractors Should Do in the Event of a Shutdown
On Jan. 18, AGC urged Congress to pass a short-term funding bill that would avoid a government shutdown and provide temporary relief from several Obamacare taxes impacting construction employers. AGC has compiled resources – What Contractors Should Know in the Event the Government Shuts Down – to help your company deal with the consequences of a government shutdown.
As noted, the funding bill would additionally provide essential relief from a number of Obamacare taxes that would otherwise detrimentally impact construction contractors, especially small businesses. Specifically, the bill delays until 2022 the Cadillac tax, a 40 percent excise tax on employer-sponsored health coverage whose benefits exceed specific thresholds. The legislation would also provide a one year, 2019 moratorium on the health insurance tax that will increase the cost of health insurance for small business employers, the majority of AGC’s construction contractor membership. 
For more information, contact Jordan Howard at [email protected].

On Jan. 8-9, nearly 40 member company CFO’s and other senior accounting and tax professionals attended the AGC Financial Issues Committee (FIC) Winter Meeting in San Diego, California. Committee members discussed the recently passed tax reform legislation and how it impacts the construction industry and its priorities.
The group also discussed the use of Public Private Partnerships (P3s) with Mike Lucki of Lucki Advisors; received an update on the implementation of new accounting standards from Susan Cosper of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB); and heard from AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson about the economic outlook for construction.
The FIC Summer Meeting will be held June 7-8 at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC.  Meeting and hotel information will be circulated in the coming months.
For more information, contact Matt Turkstra at[email protected].

On Jan. 9, AGC participated in a media rollout of the Give Retirement Options to Workers (GROW) Act with the future bill’s sponsors, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP) and North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU). More commonly known as “composite plans,” the GROW Act has long been an AGC priority, and legislation could be formally unveiled in the coming weeks.
Initially proposed in the NCCMPs Solutions not Bailouts, the composite plan concept incorporates the best features of defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans. These composite plans would offer voluntary options to share risks, providing funding stability, providing lifetime income to participants, and limiting employer obligations to negotiated contributions only.
AGC of America CEO Stephen Sandherr and Sean McGarvey, President of NABTU, weighed in on composite plans in an op-ed published in The Hill. More information can be found on the Save Our Futures website, and AGC is calling on members to send letters of support to their legislators via the AGC Legislative Action Center.
For more information, contact Jim Young at [email protected] or (202) 547-0133.

On Jan. 4, following Presidential Executive Order (EO) 13813, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its plan to expand access to healthcare through small business health plans. The proposal could grant small employers greater flexibility to join with groups or associations to offer insured health coverage in the large group market at more favorable prices and with less restrictive requirements. The impact state laws might have on this remains unclear, especially for plans that are not fully insured and generally remain subject to state insurance laws.
EO 13813, “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States,” directed the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury to develop rules to expand association health plans (AHPs), short-term limited duration insurance, and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs).
The DOL’s proposed rule pertains to AHPs only by modifying the definition of “employer” under Section 3(5) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) regarding entities (AHPs) that could sponsor group health coverage. This change would allow employers to band together to offer health coverage if they are either: “(1) in the same trade, industry, line of business, or profession; or (2) have a principal place of business within a region that does not exceed the boundaries of the same State or the same metropolitan area (even if the metropolitan area includes more than one State).” The proposed rule would also allow working business owners, such as sole proprietors and other self-employed individuals, to act as employers for purposes of participating in an AHP, and as employees of their businesses to be covered by the group or association’s health plan.
Comments are due by March 6, 2018, and AGC will provide input to the DOL, as well as notify members of developments.
For more information, contact Jim Young at [email protected] or 202-547-0133 or Claiborne Guy at [email protected] or 703-837-5382.

his week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for individuals from El Salvador, allowing them 18 months to alter their immigration status or face deportation. AGC previously joined other construction organizations in encouraging Congress to use its authority to take legislative action and ensure TPS holders can continue to work legally in the country.
Granted to individuals fleeing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances, the TPS program is a category of legal status that confers work authorization in the United States. The system has existed for decades and involves strong vetting and biometrics.
While El Salvador is the latest country to come under the Administration’s scrutiny of the program, the program itself covers over 300,000 individuals within the United States, 50,000 of whom work in the construction industry. AGC is concerned that ending the legal work status for 50,000 construction workers nationwide will exacerbate the industry’s growing workforce shortage.
For more information, contact Jim Young at [email protected] or (202) 547-0133.

On Jan. 10, the Problem Solvers Caucus – a bipartisan group of 48 House members – released their infrastructure report detailing policy suggestions for a future infrastructure plan. AGC and other infrastructure stakeholders consulted with these members of Congress, offering funding recommendations and policy prescriptions for inclusion in the plan.
Led by Reps. John Katko (R-NY) and Elizabeth Esty (D-CT), the caucus’s Infrastructure Working Group proposed bipartisan solutions to improve surface transportation, port and inland waterway, water and wastewater, aviation, energy, and communications infrastructure.
AGC is particularly pleased by the plan’s options for providing a sustainable and long-term funding source for the Highway Trust Fund, including indexing and “modernizing” the federal gasoline tax. Additionally, the plan offers AGC-supported infrastructure funding and financing options, including maintaining the tax-exempt status for municipal bonds and private activity bonds, as well as increasing the private activity bond state volume caps.
Other report highlights include calling on Congress to work with the Office of Management and Budget to reform federal budget scoring for federal infrastructure, dedicating 100 percent of revenue raised for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to support port and harbor dredging, increasing funding to the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, and streamlining project delivery through regulatory reforms.
The Problem Solvers report is especially timely as we await the release of the Administration’s infrastructure plan, held up as one of the few bipartisan issues that Congress and President Trump may be able to deliver on this year.
For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at [email protected] or (202) 547-8892.

Bill Encourages Transparency
On Jan. 10, a bipartisan group of members of the House of Representatives introduced an AGC-backed bill, H.R. 4754, that would require federal agencies to publically publish their change orders policies and procedures on any small business federal construction contract. The bill would provide prospective federal construction contractors with information they need to factor risk and resulting costs of delayed payment for change orders into their federal contract bids and offers. The bill originated out of a congressional hearing in which AGC members testified before the House Small Business Committee on change order delays and their impact on federal construction contractors.
AGC is at the forefront of advocating for greater accountability in the change order process, having previously called on the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council to improve the data federal agencies collect regarding the administration of change orders. AGC’s recommendations would require federal agencies to collect data covering the contracting officer’s (CO) timeliness of action, encouraging greater CO accountability.
To view the press release from one of the bill’s sponsors, click here.
For more information, contact [email protected]or (703) 837-5368.

On Jan. 5, AGC urged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to remove the goal of “net conservation gain” from the Service’s Mitigation Policy and Endangered Species Act (ESA)–Compensatory Mitigation Policy, finalized in late 2016.  AGC asserts that that the “improvement” goal is not supported under the ESA; the goal fails to provide a clear limit on how much mitigation is necessary and blurs the line between recommendations and requirements.
Construction project proponents already address species and habitat concerns throughout the project’s life, implementing avoidance and mitigation measures at great cost. The net gain goal only adds further delays and additional costs to construction projects without legal justification.
The FWS initially issued the 2016 mitigation policies in response to an Obama-era presidential memorandum that encouraged agencies to promote restoration or enhancement of natural resources, i.e., “net gain.”  A few months after the Service finalized the policies, President Trump issued an order to rescind the memorandum, directing agencies to reexamine their actions (regulations, orders, guidance, policies) for any barriers that unnecessarily obstruct the development and delivery of energy resources.
The Department of Interior (DOI) has acted swiftly to implement President Trump’s order.  Under DOI direction, FWS has accepted comment on its mitigation policies and also plans to review and revise the regulations for listing endangered and threatened species, as well as regulations for designating critical habitats.  A proposed rule is expected this month.  Separately, on Dec. 22, 2017, DOI rescinded two Bureau of Land Management mitigation documents and ordered the review of two others.
For more information, contact Melinda Tomaino at [email protected]or (703) 837-5415.