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FDIC Protections On Monday, federal banking regulators said they would protect all Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) depositors, including those above the $250,000 deposit insurance limit provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. “Depositors will have access to all of their money starting this morning.  The FDIC, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department said, “No losses associated…

ASA Responds to President Biden’s Proposed Small Business Tax Increases Last Thursday, President Biden presented his proposed FY24 Budget, which included tax increases that will directly impact the pass-through business community.  To that end, ASA, along with the Main Street Partnership, called upon the House Budget Committee to strongly oppose it.  Per their letter, “the…

ASA Offers Input to the Office of Management and Budget on Buy America Act On March 13, 2023, ASA, along with the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC), submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding the implementation of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA) provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act…

The Fair and Open Competition Act On February 27, 2023, Sen. Young (R-IN) and Rep. Comer (R-KY) reintroduced the Fair and Open Competition Act (FOCA), which encourages construction companies to compete for federal and federally funded construction projects.  While FOCA would prohibit government-mandated PLAs (Project Labor Agreements) on federal and federally assisted construction projects, this…

ASA Opposes Bond Threshold Increase in Illinois On March 10, 2023, ASA sent a letter to the Illinois Senate Executive Committee opposing SB157, which seeks to amend Section 1 (30 ILCS 550/1) of the Public Construction Bond Act, Illinois’ Little Miller Act, by raising the current bond threshold from $50,000 to $5,000,000. Also, the legislation creates…

This Week in Congress This week, the House voted on legislation that would overturn a Biden administration rule expanding environmental protection for additional bodies of water, along with bills related to social media censorship, declassifying information on COVID-19 origins, and expanding emergency health-care coverage for veterans at facilities outside the Veterans Affairs Department system.   The…

FY24 Budget On March 9th, President Biden will travel to Philadelphia to release his budget for FY24, which lays out the President’s budget message, top priorities, some brief details on each agency’s request and summary tables. The budget appendix with detailed appropriations language, ‘analytical perspectives’ and budget justifications will not be released until Monday, March…

ASA Supports Rep. Steube (R-FL)’s Tax Relief Legislation for Hurricane Ian’s Recovering Efforts ASA supports Rep. Steube (R-FL)’s legislation to provide income tax relief to Americans recovering from Hurricane Ian. The legislation designates Hurricane Ian as a qualified disaster for the purposes of determining tax treatment of certain disaster-related personal casualty losses.  Per. Rep. Steube,…

ASA Central PA and Western PA Chapters Support Construction Materials Price Escalation Bill On Thursday, the PA Senate Labor and Industry Committee voted on SB 359, the Construction Materials Price Escalation Bill, which would address extraordinary construction material price increases.  ASA Central PA and Western PA Chapters helped draft this legislation.  It is well known…

This Week in Congress This week, Congress returned to session with the Senate focusing on nomination votes, along with committee hearings on oversight of Ukraine funding and enshrining the Equal Rights Amendment.  The House voted on the REIN IN Act, which would require the administration to report the inflationary effects of executive orders before the…