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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…

ASA Supports NAWIC’s WIC Week The National Association of Women in Construction is having its 25th annual “Women in Construction Week” March 5 – 11, overlapping ASA’s SUBExcel.  WIC Week celebrates and promotes the role of women in the construction industry and consists of virtual events and NAWIC chapter events throughout the country. ASA is proud…

Proposed FY24 Budget Cuts Senate Democrats said that the Republican budget-cutting plans would trigger “drastic” cuts to critical programs. Speaker McCarthy promised to write the FY24 appropriations bills at the FY22 level to win over holdouts among his party’s right flank during his bid for speaker.  Democrats calculate that discretionary spending would need to be…