On April 11, AGC joined over 40 national organizations in urging the bipartisan leadership of the House Ways & Means and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees to act on and pay for a well-funded infrastructure bill.  As with similar efforts, AGC and the other stakeholders are calling on Congress to produce an infrastructure bill that responsibly deals with the nation’s infrastructure crisis.

For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at oneills@agc.org.

Executives from New England States Discuss Industry Priorities

On April 11, several AGC members from throughout New England met with House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-Mo.) for a Boston roundtable discussion on issues impacting the construction industry. Rep. Graves provided attendees with an update on an infrastructure package and surface transportation reauthorization AGC continues to press Congress to reauthorize the federal highway and transit programs and include a Highway Trust Fund fix in any infrastructure package considered this year.

For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at oneills@agc.org.

On Mar. 28, AGC led a coalition of fifteen trade associations in a briefing to House and Senate staff about the basics of federal construction contracting. In coordination with the Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) of the House Small Business Committee, the briefing included an industry presentation and a question and answer session. The presentation, What Every Congressional Staffer Should Know About the Construction Industry, answered fundamental questions such as: how contractors can enter the federal market, how contractors find what federal projects are out for bid, and what resources are for available for contractors. AGC continues to advocate for infrastructure and will continue to work to educate congressional offices about the construction industry.

For more information, contact Jordan Howard at jordan.howard@agc.org or (703) 837-5368.

Industry/Government Pilots Highlighted

On Apr. 3, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) used AGC’s 100th Convention as the venue to release “A Playbook to Build Tomorrow's Highway Construction Workforce,” which highlights successful practices from around the country to identify, train and place job seekers into the construction workforce. FHWA, state departments of transportation and local departments of labor funded workforce development boards with AGC chapters for the past two years in twelve pilots on a highway construction worker development program. The idea grew out of discussions at the AASHTO-AGC-ARTBA Joint Committee. The pilots focused on efforts that are currently underway in the local areas and identified what has worked and what has not. A panel that included Arizona AGC, Colorado Contractors Association (AGC) and AGC’s Wyoming Contractors Association discussed what happened in their locales. FHWA has developed a “#Roads to Your Future” website that captures the results and the “Playbook” is intended to help other areas of the country to implement their own coordinated highway construction worker development programs.

For more information, contact Brian Deery at deeryb@agc.org. 

The construction industry is experiencing record economic activity with low unemployment and little expectation that the current domestic workforce can alone meet employment demand. Currently, our nation's immigration system provides the high-tech sector, agricultural businesses, and seasonal employers with options for guest workers. It does not for the construction industry.

Contact your members of Congress and tell them to support “The Workforce for an Expanding Economy Act,” which would allow contractors to hire year-round construction guest workers while protecting American jobs and reducing incentives for individuals to enter the country illegally.

For more information contact James Young at youngj@agc.org or (202) 547-0133.

Pending Court Approval; AGC Calls for More Time to Comply

Pending court approval, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on April 3 its intention to require private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees to submit the Obama-era pay data portion of the EEO-1 report (which requires 3,660 data fields per employer location) by September 30, 2019. However, the deadline to submit the EEO-1 report’s “traditional” race and gender data (which requires 180 data fields per employer location) remains May 31, 2019. AGC and business allies submitted an amicus brief calling on the court to provide at least 18 months for contractors to prepare their systems for the new pay data requirements. AGC will continue to consider its legal options as more unfolds.
A federal court recently reinstated the Obama administration EEOC pay data reporting requirement—which was halted under the Trump administration—as part of the federally mandated filing of the EEOC’s EEO-1 report.  The reinstated pay data report will require applicable employers to report the total number of employees and total number of hours worked for 12 different pay bands (pay ranges) for 10 different EEO-1 job categories and 14 different gender and race/ethnicity groups.

There may be additional challenges or delays to the implementation of this pay data reporting requirement. Nevertheless, applicable AGC members—pending court approval—should plan as though they need to report pay data by the current May 31, 2019 deadline. Many AGC member companies will need to identify how to pull this payroll and demographic information. This may require advanced planning, as many firms use separate systems to maintain demographic data versus compensation data.

AGC previously opposed this pay data reporting requirement, calling upon the Trump administration and Congress to rescind it. AGC submitted comprehensive comments explaining its position to the EEOC in April and August 2016.

For more information, contact Claiborne Guy at claiborne.guy@agc.org.

From college students to CEO opportunities, AGC assists all levels of construction professionals in advancing their career. This episode of the AGC Constructor Cast will help guide listeners in ways to advancing their construction careers with scholarships, courses, and peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges.

To access this episode, click here.

Headlines Federal Contractors Session on April 2

General Services Administration (GSA) Emily Murphy will headline the Federal and Heavy Construction Division Session (April 2 at 9:00 am MT) at AGC’s 100th Annual Convention taking place on April 1 - 4, 2019 in Denver, Colorado.  Administrator Murphy leads a staff of more than 11,000 employees nationwide, overseeing approximately 368 million square feet of property, and approximately $55 billion in annual contracts.  Following Administrator Murphy’s remarks there will be a presentation on the recent Laredo Land Port of Entry project by GSA and Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC.
For more information on the AGC convention, including registration, click this link.

For more information, contact Jordan Howard at jordan.howard@agc.org or (703) 837-5368.

On March 28, by a vote of 95-1, the Senate approved AGC-supported nominee Nicole Nason to serve as the 26th Federal Highway Administrator. Nason has a strong background in transportation having served as the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) in the George W. Bush Administration. She also served as an assistant secretary at U.S. DOT and worked on SAFETEA-LU transportation authorization legislation. AGC met with Nason several times in her prior Trump administration position of Assistant Secretary of State to discuss U.S. embassy construction issues. The FHWA Administrator position has been vacant for the past two years as President Trump’s original nominee withdrew from consideration.
Brandye Hendrickson, FHWA Deputy Administrator, has been leading the agency since. Ms. Hendrickson will address AGC’s Highway and Transportation Division on April 2 during AGC’s 100th Convention in Denver. AGC pressed the Senate to support Nason’s nomination.

For more information, contact Brian Deery at deeryb@agc.org. 

On March 26, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing focused on the chronic underinvestment in our nation’s airports and potential solutions. Prior to the hearing AGC urged support for increasing airport infrastructure, including increasing the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC).  The PFC is a local airport user fee used for airport facility expansion and renovation that has a federally mandated cap on how high an airport can set the fee. Raising or eliminating the cap on the PFC will allow local airports to meet there short and long-term infrastructure needs. AGC is a proud member of the Beyond the Runway Coalition and will continue to work with our partners for increased airport infrastructure funding.

For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at oneills@agc.org.