ABC April 21 submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the role of green jobs in our economy. In addition, ABC submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on green jobs and on the negative impact project labor agreements (PLA), the Davis-Bacon Act and Buy American provisions have on construction projects.
In its testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, ABC expressed concern over the “Green Jobs Act of 2007,” enacted as part of the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” which was signed into law December 2007 and establishes National Energy Training Partnership Grants. The bill funds training programs targeted at creating an efficient energy and renewable energy skilled workforce, but excludes open shop training programs from receiving this funding.
“The advances in the technology and skill involved in green building, and the benefits of their use, is indeed a welcome trend for contractors, skilled workers and the end user,” ABC stated in its testimony. “It is our view that the most efficient path to encouraging this continued growth of this sector is by giving all training providers, regardless of union affiliation, access to federal training programs so that the greatest numbers of workers can be trained in green jobs.”
ABC also submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works about PLAs and Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements contained in the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).” ABC noted that PLAs discriminate against nonunion contractors and raise the cost of projects. ABC also pointed out Davis-Bacon Act requirements could significantly delay projects that are currently shovel-ready.
“For example, if a project is bid and the work is set to begin as soon as funding is procured and one dollar or more of project funding comes from the ARRA, the entire project would have to be re-bid taking into account Davis-Bacon wage rates for that project,” ABC noted in its testimony.
In addition, ARRA contained changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The changes include “Buy American” provisions that require all iron, steel and manufactured goods used in the construction, alteration and maintenance or repair of public buildings or public projects be produced in the U.S. and executive compensation reporting requirements that are overly intrusive and likely to discourage contractors from bidding on ARRA projects. ABC pointed out that the guidance available for FAR rules only confuse the issue more.
“To date, guidance documents for compliance with the new FAR rules have only been produced for contracting officers of federal agencies, and not for the actual contractors and businesses,” ABC stated. “To be sure, the FAR rules…will create significant obstacles to the acquisition process, especially for small business contractors with no prior experience in federal contracting.”
To read a copy of ABC’s testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, click
here.
To read a copy of ABC’s testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, click
here.