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Representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are hosting a webinar on Thursday, Feb. 2, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, to give an overview of the agency’s recordkeeping requirements and Injury Tracking Application.
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On Jan. 31, 100 organizations, including ABC, signed a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to extend the comment period for its proposed rulemaking on banning noncompete agreements for an additional 60 days. The groups argued that the regulated community should be given sufficient time to assess the potential consequences of the rulemaking and develop insightful comments for the FTC to consider. Currently, comments on the proposed rule are due by March 20 through regulations.gov.
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On Jan. 9, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a press release reminding certain employers that the deadline to submit the calendar year 2022 Form 300A is March 2.
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On Jan. 13, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a process for labor and employment agency-related requests for deferred action. According to the DHS press release, “Noncitizen workers who are victims of, or witnesses to, the violation of labor rights, can now access a streamlined and expedited deferred action request process.”
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On Jan. 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission issued a proposed rule that would ban all noncompete agreements with limited exceptions. ABC will be commenting in opposition to the proposed rule, which is overly restrictive on well-established and reasonable business practices of the construction industry. Comments on the proposed rule are due by March 10 through regulations.gov.
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The ABC National Health and Safety Committee, along with input from subject matter experts in mental health, suicide and addiction, completed the development of a Total Human Health key component that will give companies a new metric on which to benchmark their safety programs.
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On Dec. 16, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor sent its final rule updating Davis-Bacon and Related Acts prevailing wage regulations to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget for review. The content of the final rule is expected to be publicized in February 2023 or later, but will likely align closely with the DOL’s proposed rule. The review at the OIRA is usually the final step in the process before a rule is officially published in the Federal Register.
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During the last year, the Biden administration pushed to roll back Trump-era initiatives and institute new, pro-union policies that challenge our members’ ability to win work. ABC fought against these proposed rules and regulations affecting merit shop contractors and advocated for open competition and free enterprise.
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On Jan. 4, the Biden administration released its Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The agenda lists upcoming rulemakings and other regulatory actions from each agency that the administration expects to publish in 2023. It also includes deadlines from 2022 that were missed. ABC has prepared a summary of the actions of interest to ABC members by agency.
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On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 778), setting the table for its U.S. Senate passage this week.
Notably, the NDAA does not include ABC-opposed provisions from a House-passed version of the bill that would have debarred federal contractors for Fair Labor Standards Act and National Labor Relations Act violations, established restrictive local workforce requirements for federal contractors on military construction projects and implemented a preference for unionized federal contractors performing U.S. Department of Defense contracts. An ABC-led coalition representing the interests of federal contractors advocated for removal of these controversial provisions and helped ensure they were stripped from the NDAA in an agreement between the two chambers.
Passed every year for more than half a century, this year’s version of the NDAA includes a record $858 billion in spending priorities, eclipsing last year’s $768 billion budget.
Additionally, the NDAA did not include Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform legislation, the recently amended Building American Energy Security Act of 2022.
While the NDAA appears on track to pass this year, Republicans have already won at least one major concession. The version the House passed Thursday with overwhelming bipartisan support ends the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members; last month, a group of Senate Republicans threatened to block the bill unless it ended the policy, which some Republicans claim has caused staffing issues due to vaccine-related discharges.
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