On June 21, 2022, the Biden Administration unveiled its Spring 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions mapping out federal agency priorities for the coming months. This bi-annual publication informs the public of regulations under consideration or planned by federal agencies. The present agenda includes several submissions by labor agencies.
The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing changes to its 鈥淲D-10 Davis Bacon Wage Survey Report of Construction Contractor鈥檚 Wage Rates鈥 form to help improve collection of data for determining prevailing wage rates.
乌鸦传媒 of America and five other employer groups jointly submitted an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court on June 15 in support of a request for review of a Washington Supreme Court decision that prevents a company from recovering damages from a union that sanctioned destruction of company property.
On June 8, 乌鸦传媒 sought clarification from OSHA on its enforcement of heat-related hazards under its National Emphasis Program (NEP). Due to the absence of specific guidance clarifying how compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) will evaluate a contractor鈥檚 implementation of protocols to address heat exposure, fair and consistent enforcement will be significantly impacted across all regions. In addition, the NEP鈥檚 ambiguities may ultimately put workers at further risk of injury or illness.
Environmentalists are pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undertake a rulemaking to classify discarded polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl) as hazardous waste under federal law and to revise the solid waste management guidelines on disposal of PVC. 乌鸦传媒 filed comments on June 3 on a proposed consent decree that would settle the lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity in D.C. federal court, saying EPA unreasonably delayed responding to CBD鈥檚 2014 petition that asked the agency to regulate PVC under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under the proposed 鈥渟ue and settle鈥 agreement, EPA promised to decide within nine months whether to move forward with listing PVC as hazardous waste, which could have significant implications for the construction industry.
The Construction Owners Association of America (COAA) is the largest association of construction owners in the United States. COAA just held its Spring Connect conference in downtown Baltimore on the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) campus. One session featured 鈥淲hat I Love and Hate About Updating My Contracts from an Owners鈥 Perspective.鈥 ConsensusDocs鈥 Executive Director & Senior Counsel Brian Perlberg spoke on a panel with Joe Cleves of Taft Law and Pen Wolf from the Cleveland Clinic.