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Biden administration investment tracker

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Will Ragland
Ryan Koronowski
June 15, 2023

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—two of which received broad bipartisan support—unleashed an unprecedented level of public and private sector investments in America. These investments are rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, bolstering American manufacturing, and cementing U.S. leadership in critical new industries such as clean energy, electric vehicles, and much more. In total, these investments hold the promise of creating, supporting and reshoring millions of well-paying jobs.

This tool catalogs more than 35,000 of these investments that users can filter by category, state, congressional district, amount, and/or keyword. The tracker is a valuable and growing resource for anyone who wants to learn how these laws are being put to work in their counties, in their states, and across the country.

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Why the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is good economics

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

JUNE 30, 2022
AUTHORS: Michelle Holder & Shaun Harrison

Overview

President Joe Biden, in November 2021, signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, providing $1.2 trillion in new government investments to create millions of jobs, increase U.S. economic competitiveness abroad, and help address the climate crisis. The multiple provisions of the law are now or will soon:

  • Create hundreds of thousands of jobs within the transportation sector, with investments in passenger and freight rail, bridges, roads, airports, ports, and public transit
  • Guarantee safe drinking water by eliminating the nation’s lead-tainted service lines, especially in disadvantaged communities that need refurbishing the most
  • Reduce supply chain bottlenecks to help ease inflation and lower the cost of goods and services
  • Build a national network for electric vehicle charging stations
  • Manufacture solar panels, wind farms, batteries, and electric vehicles to help address climate change
  • Make high-speed internet affordable and accessible

These much-needed investments are not only delivering significant macroeconomic benefits now, and will continue to do so well into the future, but also potentially addressing longstanding economic inequalities. Indeed, the new infrastructure investments and the jobs created by these investments can reduce these inequalities, increase unionization, and address climate change because they rest on sound economic principles.

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The Intersection of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Davis-Bacon Act Requirements for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

The National Law Review
Friday, June 17, 2022

On November 15, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, which is popularly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (“BIL”).

The BIL is estimated to create an additional 800,000 jobs. The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) contends that such new jobs will “expand the middle class, revitalize our nation’s transportation, communications and utility systems and build a more resilient, reliable, and environmentally sound future.” The White House asserts that the BIL will provide protection to “critical labor standards on construction projects,” as a substantial portion of the construction projects included in the BIL will be subject to requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act (“DBA” or the “Act”).

While the BIL provides new revenue sources and opportunities for construction projects, federal contractors and subcontractors should ensure that their businesses comply with the DBA’s prevailing wage rates and labor standards requirements.

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Practical Consideration in Compliance with DBA
Federal contractors and subcontractors should ensure that covered workers are properly classified for the work such individuals perform and paid in accordance with the prevailing wage rate for their classification.

Employers will often face recordkeeping challenges when they have nonexempt employees who perform covered (manual) work and non-covered (administrative) work in the same workweek.

In such instances, the employer must determine whether the employee is salaried or paid hourly. If the employee is salaried, the employer must determine whether the employee’s salary is greater than or equal to the prevailing wage rate for the employee’s classification. If not, the employer contractor is required to increase the employee’s pay for the week the covered work is performed.

Likewise, if the employee is paid hourly, then the employer must ensure the employee’s hourly rate is greater than or equal to the prevailing wage rate for the employee’s classification.

Federal contractors and subcontractors could face various consequences due to their failure to comply with the DBA, ranging from termination of the federal contract and debarment to a contracting agency withholding money due to the contractor to cover back wages due to employees as well as criminal prosecution. Accordingly, federal contractors and subcontractors should consult with legal counsel to ensure they comply with the various DBA requirements for any covered contracts.

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Workforce Development’s Role in Building the Infrastructure Labor Force

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Feb. 25, 2022
Marina Zhavoronkova, Center for American Progress

Construction and other industries supported by the new federal infrastructure law face labor shortages. Workforce development systems can help narrow that gap by supporting efforts to bring in women and workers of color.

The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is injecting $1.2 trillion toward repairing America’s crumbling transportation system, ensuring access to clean water, connecting people to high-speed broadband and more. But as infrastructure funding starts to trickle down to cities and states, it will take a skilled and diverse workforce to ensure that the law’s extraordinary potential becomes a reality.

The government-funded workforce development system, authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), is a network of federal, state and local organizations and agencies that connect employers and job-seekers to education and training opportunities and to each other. The system must leverage its expertise and positioning to support the talent and diversity demands of the infrastructure law. Industries supported by the legislation, such as construction, are facing significant labor shortages. They also have historically excluded segments of the labor market such as women and communities of color, groups that recent jobs data show are still bearing the brunt of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The majority of the construction jobs funded by the IIJA will be subject to Davis-Bacon Act protections, which will ensure that workers are paid a prevailing wage and have access to workplace protections. While workforce development is not the sole solution to systemic inequities in the labor market, it has the potential to create an ecosystem in which those problems are not perpetuated and, in doing so, connect job-seekers to good jobs — those that pay well and provide benefits — and help employers meet their labor needs.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces $23.5 billion in road projects, bridge repairs (IL)

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By Greg Bishop
10-21-19

Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled Monday a multi-year plan to spend $23.5 billion on road and bridge projects that were included in Illinois’ $45 billion capital plan, which will be funded through tax and fee hikes.

The Rebuild Illinois plan enacted this summer doubled the state’s gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents a gallon. Taxpayers have already paid more than $414 million in just two months, $200 million more than the year before. The plan also increased other driving fees. Such funds are going to roads and bridges in the plan.

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Pritzker detailed $23.5 billion in road and bridge spending specifics on Monday in Springfield. The multi-year plan’s detailed projects can be found at IDOT.Illinois.gov.
The plan covers more than 2,000 miles of roadway and 847 bridges.

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Omer Osman said state funding would be supplemented with about $9 billion from the federal government.

“And of course that’s going to give us the flexibility of matching any federal funding,” Osman said. “And even if we have another transportation bill coming out of [Washington] D.C., even if that goes up, we still have the ability to match that increased funding.”
Pritzker said the state is also using a federal Transportation Asset Management Plan standard.

“Many other states have been working toward that standard, we are for the first time working toward that standard,” Pritzker said. “What does that mean? It means we’re saving a lot of money for taxpayers as we’re focusing on our roads and bridges.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation said TAMP is “a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, and improving physical assets, with a focus on engineering and economic analysis based upon quality information, to identify a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.”

Illinois’ TAMP was accepted by the federal government in August.

“We look forward to working with IDOT as you implement the TAMP to achieve and sustain a state of good repair over the life cycle of both pavement and bridge assets and to improve or preserve the overall condition of the National Highway System,” U.S. Department of Transportation Division Administrator Arlene Kocher said.

No money has gone out from Illinois’ plan yet, but Pritzker’s administration said it will use pay-go funds for roads and bridges and borrowing through taxpayer-backed bonds for larger highway projects such as interchanges.

Laborers Local 477 representative George Alexander said the statewide infrastructure plan would put unions back to work.

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Gov. Pritzker Releases Public Works Plan (IL)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

MAY 18, 2019
Radio.com

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — It’s finally here — a proposed $41.5 billion public works plan called Rebuild Illinois.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office presented it to lawmakers Friday. If enacted, it would be the first capital construction plan for the state in a decade.

Mike Sturino, president and CEO of the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association, says the construction proposed is a 70-30 split between horizontal (roads and bridges) and vertical (buildings).

…

In an e-mailed statement, the governor’s spokeswoman, Jordan Abudayyeh, said:

“As a result of working group sessions with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle from both chambers of the general assembly, the administration is working on a preliminary draft of a comprehensive capital plan that will put 540,000 Illinoisans back to work and finally fix our crumbling infrastructure. The administration looks forward to continuing to engaging in productive conversations before the proposal is finalized.”

In an e-mailed statement, Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady of Bloomington said:

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Infrastructure Investment Must Create Good Jobs for All

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Center for American Progress
April 22, 2019 at 9:03 AM

Advancing a large-scale plan to rebuild America’s crumbling roads and bridges is at the top of many federal lawmakers’ 2019 agenda…

Equally important, lawmakers must ensure that any major infrastructure investment also helps secure the nation’s long-term prosperity. This means that the jobs supported by the plan must pay fair wages, provide good benefits and a voice on the job, and offer American workers from all walks of life a pathway to the middle class.

Over the past century, pro-worker lawmakers have sought to uphold the basic guarantee that government spending will create good jobs. This has been accomplished through a variety of measures-such as prevailing-wage and benefits laws that ensure workers receive fair compensation, as well as protections to prevent discrimination, support equal pay, and ensure that workers are able to exercise their right to form unions. Yet it is far from guaranteed that the jobs created through the infrastructure plan will be good ones.

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Without adequate job quality protections, jobs funded through any new infrastructure investments could be of low quality, pay substandard wages, provide too few opportunities for advancement-particularly for women, people of color, and other historically disadvantaged communities-and do little to correct the decades long problem of stagnating U.S. wages.

Weak job standards not only harm American workers but also put responsible businesses that pay fair wages and respect employees at a competitive disadvantage. Moreover, research finds that when corporations receiving government contracts pay poverty wages or violate workplace laws, they often deliver poor-quality products to taxpayers and require taxpayers to bear hidden costs through federal and state governments’ provision of services to supplement workers’ incomes, such as Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and refundable tax credits.

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Prevailing wage protects Michigan families, workers (MI)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Stephanie Chang
Dec 17, 2017

The main thing Michiganders need to remember about the prevailing wage repeal proposal is this: Do not be fooled.

This year, special interests collected signatures to put the question of repealing Michigan’s long-standing prevailing wage law before the Legislature or on the ballot – often misconstruing the true intent of what their petition would do.

I oppose this proposal, and one need only visit my Detroit and Downriver district to understand why.

Michigan’s prevailing wage law ensures that our publicly financed buildings, roads, bridges and utilities are constructed using highly skilled and trained workers who are paid the regional average for their trade. The law doesn’t artificially inflate wages or the cost of construction and doesn’t force workers to be union members.

It just ensures that the people building our infrastructure earn a fair wage and benefits, and that their pay reflects their level of training. The law keeps skilled tradespeople and their families here in Michigan, where they participate in the economy and pay taxes.

Michigan created the middle class, and I am seriously concerned when the middle class is threatened by the potential slashing of wages and benefits for our hardworking friends, neighbors and family members.

Mistakes happen when inexperienced, lesser-trained workers do the work.

For example, there is courthouse in a community outside of Detroit that took 21 months to complete – far longer than the six months anticipated. From the noisy HVAC system that prevented judges from being able to hear proceedings to the counter windows missing holes for clerks to speak through, the shoddy work increased project costs tremendously.

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Direct Federal Spending High on Industry’s Infrastructure List

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Industry officials, lawmakers also agree on need for Highway Trust Fund fix.

October 14, 2017
Tom Ichniowski

As the construction and transportation industries continue to wait for more specifics from the White House about President Trump’s still-unreleased infrastructure investment plan, some top officials are making clear that they want direct federal funds to be a keystone of the proposal, though acknowledging that public-private partnerships can be helpful in some cases.

Lawmakers and witnesses at a House highways and transit subcommittee hearing on Oct. 11 also said they want the plan to include a remedy for the Highway Trust Fund, which will face another shortfall in 2020 unless it gets a revenue infusion.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the panel has been working closely with administration officials on “principles” for the infrastructure plan “And we hope to see that soon coming out of the White House,” Shuster added..

The wait for the plan has been long. There has been little action in the House, too, said Rep. Peter DeFazio (Ore.), the transportation committee’s top Democrat.

He noted that it has been more than nine months since the committee held its first 2017 infrastructure hearing, on Feb. 1 and House lawmakers have only rolled out a few legislative proposals.

DeFazio said that “all we’re doing around here is just talking, while the country crumbles.” He added, “I mean, seriously, let’s get to work.”

DeFazio also called for a strong federal role. He observed that more than 20 states in recent years “have stepped up” by raising revenue, mainly through increases in their own gasoline taxes. But DeFazio said those additional dollars are not enough. “They need a federal partner,” he said.

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GUEST COMMENTARY: Saving Midwest infrastructure from climate change

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Mary Craighead
Oct 13, 2017

The increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters that have recently come to Texas, Florida, the Gulf Coast, California, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are a harsh reminder our climate is changing.

But these changes are not limited to far-off coastal communities and tropical islands.

In the Midwest, average temperatures are 4.5 degrees higher than they were in the 1980s. Annual “heavy precipitation days” are up 27 percent since the 1950s.

Great Lakes ice coverage is down, and electricity outages and demand for cooling systems are up. Projections expect temperatures to rise and heavy precipitation seasons to get even more severe for the balance of this century.

Each of these changes carries a very real risk – both in terms of direct infrastructure costs and impact on our $2.6 trillion regional economy.

Higher temperatures reduce the lifespan of roads and bridges, can cause railways to buckle and affect aircraft performance. As we’ve seen just in the past few weeks, flooding and more extreme storms can have damaging impacts far beyond the destruction of individual homes and businesses – disrupting freight and commuter routes and threatening above-ground energy transmission capabilities. This latter point is a special risk for the economy of the Midwest, which features mostly above ground transmission lines.

During this especially intense storm season, lawmakers in Washington and state capitals across our region have been discussing ways to maintain, expand or modernize the infrastructure systems at the heart of our economy. Ultimately, their proposals will entail a significant expenditure of public dollars.

But just as taxpayers wouldn’t want us using outdated technology for today’s infrastructure, we shouldn’t be creating facilities according to outdated heat and rainfall trends. To ensure taxpayers get the best bang for the buck, we need policy makers and project planners to incorporate today’s climate realities.

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