Could Help Roll Back Obama Administration Regulations On Jan. 4, the House passed AGC-backed legislation that would help Congress repeal more Obama administration regulations, as well as future administration’s regulations. The Midnight Rules Relief Act—introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calf.)—would enable Congress to include multiple regulations for repeal in one bill under the Congressional Review Act. As it stands, Congress can only include one regulation for repeal in single bill, which is a time-consuming process that severely restricts the number of regulations that could be repealed. To provide context, in 2016, federal agencies issued 3,853 regulations. This exceeds the number of bills Congress passed by a factor of 18.

$8 Billion in Federal Real Property Up for Consideration Last week, the President signed into law the AGC-supported Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act. This bipartisan law will shrink the federal footprint and streamline the disposal of excess or underutilized federal buildings. AGC has long been involved in pushing for federal real property reform and strongly supports these efforts.

Talking Points Can be Found at www.HardhatsforHighways.org While Members of Congress are back home for the remainder of the year, the AGC co-chaired Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) is urging our members to contact their Members of Congress – either in person or via email – and encourage them to permanently fix for the Highway Trust Fund. A new Congress and administration could provide the opportunity to fix the trust fund either through tax reform and/or an infrastructure package (as promised by President-Elect Trump).

On Dec. 19, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a final rule to revise existing language in the recordkeeping regulation to emphasize an employer’s responsibility to make and maintain accurate OSHA 300 Logs and all related incident reports. The new rule drastically expands on the existing regulatory language and in some cases added new provisions. While the newly published rule does make clear OSHA’s expectations involving the maintenance of injury and illness records, the true impetus for the rulemaking is to drastically expand the agency’s statute of limitation granted by the OSH Act. The OSH Act clearly states that “no citations may be issued after the expiration of six months following the occurrence of any violation.” However, this new rule will allow contractors to be cited for honest mistakes, or inaccuracies, related to recordkeeping dating back as far as five-and-a-half years. OSHA’s justification is that an omission of an injury or illness from the OSHA 300 Log constitutes an ongoing occurrence until corrected during the five-year retention period under the recordkeeping regulation.

In response to a request for comments from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, on Dec. 19, AGC notified the agency that improvements are needed to the way it collects wage data from construction contractors. The Wage and Hour Division is responsible for setting the prevailing wage rate for federal and federally assisted construction projects covered by the Davis-Bacon Act and currently uses wage surveys to collect wage data from contractors. The agency’s request for comments is a required part of the regulatory process as the agency seeks to extend the use of its current wage survey form (Form WD-10), which expires in 2017.

This week, AGC shared its federal agency regulatory, compliance and enforcement plan with members of the Trump Presidential Transitional Team. Entitled “Make Federal Agencies Responsible Again,” the document calls for the repeal of dozens of unnecessary and overly burdensome executive orders, presidential memoranda, and federal regulations that have made it more difficult for construction contractors to safely, efficiently and effectively build the nation’s civil and social infrastructure.

FAR Council Addresses Many of AGC’s Concerns On Dec. 20, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council issued a final rule requiring a prime contractor to notify federal contracting officers if (1) the prime contractor makes a reduced payment to a small business subcontractor or (2) if the prime contractor’s payment to a small business subcontractor is more than 90 days past due. The rule goes into effect on Jan. 19. The FAR Council did not withdraw the proposal as AGC recommended based on a myriad of existing small business subcontractor payment legal protections. However, it did take into account many of AGC’s concerns with the proposed rule.

Construction employment declined or was stagnant in one-third of metro areas between October 2015 and October 2016 amid diminishing public-sector investments in infrastructure and other civil works, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said a new infrastructure proposal being crafted by the incoming Trump administration could, if structured properly, help add more construction jobs in many metro areas.

On October 24, the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas granted a request for preliminary injunction against parts of the Obama Administration's implementation of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, or "Blacklisting" as it is known, Executive Order. As a result direct federal contractors will not—at this time—be required to report labor law violations with their bids on federal contract solicitations and awards.

Learn More on AGC WebED Oct. 31 from 2-3:00 p.m. ET