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ASA Secures Miller Act Exemption from Inflationary Increases in the FY22 NDAA Last year, Congress passed the FY22 defense spending bill that includes the Miller Act exemption from inflationary increase.  On December 28, 2021, President Biden signed it into law and maintaining Miller Act bond threshold at $150,000 is big win for small business contractors. …

Attorneys’ Council and Task Force Update: 2021 Despite the ebb and flow of life in a pandemic, our Attorneys’ Council and ASA Task Forces stayed active in 2021 – and even got the opportunity to meet together in person for the first time since SUBExcel 2020! Following a series of productive but remote Attorneys’ Council…

ASA Calls Upon House and Senate Leadership for Full Funding of Surface Transportation Programs ASA, along with several transportation associations, called upon the House and Senate Leadership for full funding for surface transportation programs in fiscal year 2022. The current Continuing Resolution (CR) holds all surface transportation program spending at FY 2021 levels.  This means…

OSHA’s Pending Employee Vaccine ETS and the Supreme Court On Monday, January 10, 2022, OSHA will begin enforcing the first phase of the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring employers with 100 or more employees to combat the spread of COVID-19 including that all employees either be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. This Friday, January 7,…

What Happened to Build Back Better? Congressional staff have informed us that the Build Back Better (BBB) bill will not be ready for floor action any time soon and predict the wide-ranging legislation that the White House has negotiated with centrist Sens. Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ) may have to be completely overhauled.  On Monday, Senate…

This Week in Congress The House voted on a resolution finding former Trump administration White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress, in addition to a bill to appoint a State Department envoy to combat Islamophobia.  The Senate voted on legislation that would impact the U.S. borrowing default by raising the debt…

Build Back Better Act? On Monday, Sen. Manchin (D-WV) spoke to President Biden regarding the reconciliation package (Build Back Better Act). No final decisions were made, but the two will continue to discuss a way forward.  Sen. Manchin did not rule out the possibility of a vote by the end of the calendar year, saying…

2021 ASA Webinar Wrap Up ASA is dedicated to offering the highest quality education to its members, and 2021 has been an incredible year for our virtual webinars. We’ve had speakers from the Small Business Association, our Government Relations Team, business experts, and so much more. All of our past webinars can be found at…

State Legislation Impacting Employer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Several states have enacted legislation that will directly impact President Biden’s COVID-19 Employee Vaccine Mandate, including Ohio and South Carolina, who will be joining nearly a dozen other states that have set legal limits for on-the-job shot requirements.  Montana and Tennessee legislatures have banned vaccine mandates as a…

No ASA In-Person Legislative Fly-In for 2022 After much deliberation with the ASA Board and the Co-Chairs of the Government Relations Committee, ASA has decided NOT to proceed with the 2022 in-person Legislative Fly-In scheduled for June 14-16, 2022.  This decision was not made lightly, and was based upon the information received from the House…