Cont'd from Home Page
Federal Construction Contracting Reform – NECA
and others in the Campaign for Quality Construction have
developed a comprehensive package of federal
construction contracting reform proposals. Rep. Carolyn
Maloney (D-14-NY) has introduced the basic bill. H.R.
3033, dealing with enforcing contractor responsibility
in abiding by federal regulations. Now, the plan is to
amend the measure in committee to include such items as
Paul Kanjorski’s (D-11-OH) bid listing measure, H.R.
3854, and Tom Davis’s (R-11-VA) proposal to prohibit use
of internet reverse auctions for federal contracts. The
complete package proposed by the CQC would:
Require certification that contractors are abiding by
legal employment and workforce eligibility laws and are
submitting proper withholding taxes if operating as
independent contractors;
Require a determination that contractors have a clean
record of abiding by environmental, labor, antitrust,
tax, anti-fraud, OSHA and federal state and local felony
laws;
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Create and enforce use by federal agencies of a
centralized contractor accountability database for
use by all federal contracting agencies showing
contractors debarred or otherwise ineligible to
receive public contracts;
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Require bid listing or a close alternative on
federal contracts;
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Forbid bid shopping and peddling;
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Prevent use of internet reverse auction procedures
on federal construction;
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Require compliance with prevailing wage law;
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Require compliance with laws against employment of
illegal foreign workers.
Estate Tax Reform – Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-9-MO)
has once again introduced a bill, H.R. 2380, to repeal
the estate tax. However, with a Democratic majority in
both House and Senate, full permanent repeal of the
estate tax is unlikely, though modest reforms are still
a possibility and will be seriously explored. Hearings
could be held before the end of the year.
Immigration Law Reform – A public clamor for
immigration law reform remains strong, but a reform
package that was unwieldy and tried to be all things to
all people died in the Senate. NECA had been working to
assure that the measure included major increases in
border security and immigration law enforcement and that
nothing in the reform law would hold an employer
responsible for the hiring practices of his
subcontractors or suppliers. Another try at a
comprehensive reform package is unlikely, but small,
incremental reform bills are possible in the Congress.
“Green Building” Initiatives – “Green buildings”
are in vogue now, and several pieces of legislation have
been introduced which would provide strong economic
incentives for energy efficient construction and
modernization. Some proposals are included in the energy
bill now awaiting conference negotiations. NECA is
following developments on this issue and is supporting
all the key proposals which could provide significant
new work for electrical contractors.
Visa
Reform to Fill Temporary Worker Shortages – A
need to expedite solutions to short term labor shortages
in our industry needs to be found. NECA has been working
with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to explore legislative
and regulatory alternatives to the slow, bureaucratic
and cumbersome requirements for obtaining current H2B
visas for foreign workers. However, the Immigration
legislative package, which would have carried the
language, died in a filibuster in the Senate and has
only the thinnest chance of being resurrected for
further action in this Congress.
Reform of the Alternative Minimum Tax – The House
Ways and Means Committee has approved a one-year “patch”
that would stave off the impact of the AMT on 20 million
middle income taxpayers in 2008. Unfortunately, a
complete repeal of the AMT has been tied to a massive
tax increase and restructuring measure that Committee
Chairman Charles Rangel (D-15-NY) has called “The Mother
of All Tax Bills.” The interim “patch” legislation has a
good chance of Congressional passage this year. (It also
includes a one year delay in implementation of the 3%
withholding tax.) The “mother of all tax bills,”
however, has virtually no chance of passage in this
Congress.
Political Action
By the first week of November, NECA’s Political
Leadership Council membership had 57 individual members
and 16 chapter representatives. So far in 2007, ECPAC
has raised $676,281 from 798 contributors. We are
shooting for at least $700,000 in the current year.
Our target for
the 2008 election cycle is expansion of our
million-dollar-plus political action effort to at least
$1.35 million…with
a realistic possibility of reaching the $1.5 million
mark!
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