Building a Better
Building a Better
|
Thanks to resources from the AGC Construction Advocacy Fund, AGC executed a successful lobbying, advertising and media relations campaign to convince a bipartisan majority in Congress to pass a $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure funding bill. As important, the bill made permanent significant environmental streamlining measures first put in place by President Trump. The bill provides significant increases in funding for a wide range of infrastructure projects and will boost demand for many types of projects. After enactment, AGC launched a digital advertising and public relations campaign to dispel misinformation about the infrastructure bill to help ensure that future versions remain bipartisan.
AGC of America waged a successful campaign to block the Biden administration’s unlawful effort to retroactively disqualify countless construction firms from having their PPP loans forgiven. In late 2020, the Small Business Administration attempted to impose a loan forgiveness questionnaire that would have disqualified most firms from having their loans forgiven, disregarding clear Congressional intent. AGC was the lone organization to file suit – financed by the AGC Construction Advocacy Fund – to block the questionnaire. Because of our efforts, the administration, in 2021, withdrew its questionnaire and allowed the loans to be forgiven based on Congress’ original conditions.
Using funds from the AGC Construction Advocacy Fund, AGC filed suit against two Biden administration vaccine mandates that would undermine members’ ability to hire enough workers to complete projects. The first mandate, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, would have forced employees of firms that employ 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly. The other rule would have forced all employees of firms that perform direct federal construction to be vaccinated, with no testing option. In filing our legal challenges, we noted the administration lacked the authority to impose either measure. And we noted that the two rules were unlikely to boost vaccination rates within the industry, since roughly 64 percent of construction jobs would not be covered. Instead, the rules would only encourage vaccine-hesitant workers to leave larger firms and federal contractors to work at smaller firms. (The Construction Advocacy Fund also financed the development of vaccine PSA’s).
Download the report
AGC of America made sure government officials, owners and reporters across the country were aware of the significant disruptions in the supply chain for a host of construction materials. We made sure they understood that these disruptions were leading to big increases in the costs of many materials and widespread delivery delays. Via direct briefings to officials and owners, our series of Construction Inflation Alerts, media briefings and events, we took the issue national and got the Biden Administration to acknowledge the need for solutions. While some of their actions – such as working to reduce port bottlenecks – have been helpful, we continue to push the administration to remove costly tariffs on key materials and take other steps to fix the nation’s broken supply chains.
Download the report Supply Chain AGC 2021 Annual Report
In order to avoid Washington’s habit of regulating first, and consulting industries later, AGC of America proactively crafted a series of climate change recommendations for the construction industry and shared them with government officials, owners and the media. These measures are intended to ensure that contractors’ skills are used to reduce the environmental impacts of the projects they are hired to build. More important, they will guarantee that the construction industry, through AGC of America, has a seat at the table when government officials create new, construction-focused measures to combat climate change.
AGC, with resources from its Construction Advocacy Fund, waged a successful lobbying, advertising and media relations campaign to block Congress from passing a host of anti-construction measures in 2021. This includes blocking passage of the so-called “Build Back Better” social spending measure; the dangerous PRO Act that would have undermined decades of existing labor law and stability; and other measures – including apprenticeship requirements for federal contractors and local hire preferences for infrastructure projects. These measures, if enacted, would have done significant harm to a construction industry already coping with supply chain problems, labor shortages and ongoing Covid-related project delays and cancellations.
All too often, contractors are blamed for utility strikes despite inaccurate, late or non-existing line locates done on behalf of utility firms. As part of our efforts to correct this mistaken narrative, we conducted a survey of utility infrastructure members to catalog exactly how often they are mistakenly blamed for others’ mistakes. We used the survey results to educate government officials, the media and key stakeholders about what is actually happening on, or rather under, the ground and to push for improvements to the current 811 call-before-you-dig system.
Download the report Fixing 811 AGC 2021 Annual ReportAGC PAC
$574,490 (2nd highest annual haul) raised from 548 donors.
AGC Construction Advocacy Fund
$884,850 (highest annual haul) raised from 209 individuals, member companies, and AGC chapters. A record number of members contributed to the Construction Advocacy Fund in 2021.
11,338 Advocates11,338 different AGC advocates contacted their elected officials on our behalf
85,371 EmailsAGC members sent 85,371 emails to government officials about key AGC priorities
7,004 TweetsAGC members sent 7,004 Tweets to elected officials urging support for key pro-construction measures
3,145AGC of America added 3,145 new advocates in 2021
