U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to Examine Costly Government-Mandated PLAs Again
On Friday, June 3, at 9:30 AM, the Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing, “H.R. 735 and Project Labor Agreements: Restoring Competition and Neutrality to Government Construction Projects.” This hearing is the next step in the legislative process towards House passage […]
U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to Examine Costly Government-Mandated PLAs
Today at 1:30 PM, the House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee’s (chaired by Rep. Issa of California) Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending Subcommittee (chaired by Rep. Jordan of Ohio) is holding a hearing called, Regulatory Impediments to Job Creation: The Cost of Doing Business in the Construction Industry. The hearing will focus […]
April 12 Status Update on Executive Order 13502 and Federal Project Labor Agreements
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com has breaking news about the federal government’s final rule promoting government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects costing more than $25 million. Today, the Office of the Federal Register’s Public Inspection Desk published a notice online that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council’s final rule implementing President Obama’s Feb. 6, 2009, pro-PLA Executive Order […]
March 22 Status Update on Executive Order 13502 and Federal Project Labor Agreements
The federal government is one step closer to issuing a regulatory rules that promote project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects costing more than $25 million. It’s a controversial White House gift to Big Labor that may increase federal construction costs and will reduce competition from quality nonunion contractors and their skilled employees. Today a notice was published […]
What is Section 7 of Executive Order 13502 on Federal Project Labor Agreements?
From 2001 until Feb. 6, 2009 Executive Order 13202 protected at least $147.1 billion worth of federal construction projects from discriminatory and costly government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs). In addition, the order prohibited PLAs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of federally-assisted construction projects across the country. Federally-assisted projects are local, state or private construction […]
Hoover: Live Union or Die
Kent Hoover, Washington bureau chief for Bizjournals, is the latest to cover the government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) on the U.S. Department of Labor’s new $35 million Job Corps center in Manchester, New Hampshire in his post titled, “Live Union or Die” on Portfolio.com. Here’s an excerpt: North Branch Construction, a nonunion contractor in Concord, […]
Federal Times “This Week” News Brief: Project Labor Pacts Boost Costs, Study Finds
Federal Times, the premier news source for federal government managers, covered the September 23 release of the Beacon Hill Institute’s (BHI) study, “Project Labor Agreements on Federal Construction Projects: A Costly Solution in Search of a Problem,” in their September 28 “This Week” news briefs. The BHI study found that PLAs significantly increase construction costs on […]
Midnight Deadline to Submit Comments on Federal Project Labor Agreement Proposed Rule
The FAR Council’s comment period on proposed rules that would implement President Obama’s Feb. 6 Executive Order 13502 relating to federal PLAs closes today at midnight. The comment period, which had expired Aug. 13, was reopened with a new deadline of Sept. 23, according to a notice published in the Aug. 24 Federal Register (74 Fed. Reg. […]
Project Labor Agreements’ Dire Effect on Minority Contractors
In a September 9 entry on the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) blog openmarkets.org, CEI Editorial Director Ivan Osorio notes the negative impact of PLAs on job creation, especially for local residents and minority contractors. The post also points out that this problem is likely to become more widespread thanks to President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, which […]
Executive Order 13502 “Egregious” and “Simply Unfair”
In an outstanding piece titled, “Forced Union Payments on Tax Paid Projects,” Mike Thompson of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy calls President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, which encourages federal agencies and departments to utilize wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal projects over $25 million, “egregious” and “simply unfair.” Here are […]