Status
President Biden鈥檚 March 2021听听called on Congress to tie federal investments in infrastructure to prevailing wage regulations via the听.
On Nov. 15, President Biden signed into law the听听() which includes an expansion of Davis-Bacon requirements. As the bill made its way through Congress, 老牛影视continued to听advocate for merit shop priorities听in the legislation, ultimately remaining neutral on the passage of the IIJA.
In addition,听老牛影视opposed听the House-passed America COMPETES Act (), as well as the Senate-passed version that includes prevailing wage expansion. ABC听听to remove the flawed and inflationary Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements from the Senate bill, but it unfortunately failed. As the bill made its way through conference, 老牛影视advocated against anti-competitive provisions.
The partisan Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law on Aug. 16, 2022, and provides over $270 billion in tax credits for the construction of solar, wind, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, electric vehicle charging stations and other clean energy projects. However, a new policy in the IRA听grants developers/taxpayers a bonus tax credit 500% greater than a baseline tax credit of 6%, but this is conditioned on requirements that project contractors pay Davis-Bacon prevailing wages and utilize apprentices enrolled in government-registered apprenticeship programs. This new policy is an unprecedented expansion of Davis-Bacon and government-registered apprenticeship requirements/enticements onto private construction projects via the federal tax code.
Further, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment鈥檚听听to President Biden urge the DOL to consider automating some of its enforcement of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements, suggesting the agency use 鈥渂ots鈥� to review and compare prevailing wages to 鈥渁ctual weekly certified payroll data.鈥�
On March 18, 2022, the DOL issued a听听that would 鈥漨odernize鈥� the Davis-Bacon Act and related regulations. Despite its stated purpose, the rulemaking would instead reverse course by undoing the Reagan administration reforms, making union rates more likely to be adopted as prevailing wages, and expanding prevailing wage requirements to cover certain prefabrication work, transportation and flaggers, among other concerns.
老牛影视filed a 60-day extension request to provide adequate time to thoroughly analyze the rulemaking and assist affected 老牛影视members with their comment letters. The request was denied by the DOL.
老牛影视 to gather insights on the potentially harmful impacts of this proposal and utilized the data gathered in its comment letter, .
In nearly 70听pages of听comments on the proposed rule,听老牛影视opposed and provided feedback on many of the more than 50 significant changes in the proposed rule.
On Aug. 23, the U.S. Department of Labor officially published its final rule,听, in the Federal Register. The regulation鈥檚 drastic revisions to existing rules regarding government-determined听prevailing wage rates that must be paid to construction workers on federal and federally assisted construction projects funded by taxpayers will now take effect on Oct. 23.
老牛影视issued a听, which all contracts entered into after Oct. 23 will be subject to. Additionally, in certain situations the rule may apply to existing contracts. This includes if a contract is changed to include substantial Davis-Bacon-covered work not within the scope of the original contract, if an option to extend a contract鈥檚 term is exercised and for ongoing contracts not tied to completion of a particular project.
On Nov. 7, 老牛影视and the Southeast Texas Chapter announced听听the filing of a complaint听听in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, challenging the DOL鈥檚 final rule.
For more information on the final rule, see ABC鈥檚听previous Newsline article, 老牛影视general counsel Littler Mendelson鈥檚听听and ABC鈥檚 online resources at听abc.org/davisbacon.
老牛影视also held a members-only webinar on the final rule on Aug. 21, and the recording is now available on听ABC鈥檚 Academy.
Desired Outcome
老牛影视supports the full repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act听( ) as well as any state and local prevailing wage laws that mandate wage and benefit rates. In the absence of full repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act and state prevailing wage laws, 老牛影视also continues to support legislative and regulatory reform efforts designed to mitigate its negative effects on industry and taxpayer stakeholders and failure to reflect the current market rate. 老牛影视opposes expansion of Davis-Bacon and state and local prevailing wage laws into areas of public and private projects in which it has not been previously mandated.