CAGC Leaders Converge on Capitol Hill

By: Dave Simpson, CAGC President & CEO - September 27, 2023

The five officers of the Carolinas AGC Board of Directors joined CAGC staff in Washington, D.C. last week for an annual AGC of America conference and to meet with members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from NC and SC to discuss issues important to the construction industry, including:

• Relief for the workforce shortage crisis, our top challenge.
• Immigration reform such as creating a guest program to help provide workforce relief.
• More Career Technical Education funding for the construction trades.
• Opposition to proposed heat standards, union issues such as Project Labor Agreements and other developments that are not business friendly but are supported by President Biden and his administration.

Attending AGC’s 2023 National & Chapter Leadership Conference (NCLC) on Sept. 17-20 in D.C. were CAGC Board Chair Mark Johnnie, Chair Elect Dean Wilson, Treasurer Ty Edmondson, Vice Chair Lynn Hansen, Charlie Wilson, Immediate Past Chair, and Dave Simpson, CAGC President & CEO. Nearly 300 attendees participated in the three-day event, representing AGC’s 89 chapters across the nation.

DC Trip Highlights

One highlight of the trip featured a CAGC visit with U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC, 5^th District), Chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee (middle photo above).

“I hear you and the workforce shortage in the construction industry is a top priority,” Foxx said before taking the CAGC delegation to the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives to watch congressional action, including a visit from U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC, 3^rd District) with CAGC representatives in the House gallery.

The CAGC delegation visited the offices of nine members of the U.S. House and Senate, including a face-to-face visit with U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC, 3^rd District). Our message to the members and staff visited centered on the following issues that we presented with accompanying policy info:

Key Points Made in AGC Visits 

Invest in Workforce Education:

The construction industry’s labor shortage remains severe. The outlook remains tight. Despite construction firms increasing pay and benefits, 91 percent of the firms recently surveyed by AGC report that they continue to have trouble filling badly needed positions. Part of the problem is the residual effect of decades of education policies underscoring to students the need to attend four-year institutions as the only career option. Currently, only 21 percent ($26.7 billion) of total federal education funding ($128.5 billion) goes to career or workforce education, with the majority ($101.8 billion) earmarked for traditional four-year colleges.

Immigration/Visa Reform:

The U.S. Immigration system is broken, and Congress must undertake immigration reform to address workforce needs:

• In NC and SC, state and federal lawmakers have approved billions of dollars for public infrastructure funding (highway-heavy, building and utility work) but little is being done to help provide an adequate workforce that could be eased with immigration and Visa reform.
  
  
• New temporary Visas should be created for less-skilled workers at a time when current legal immigration visas exist for seasonal workers, seasonal agriculture work and highly skilled workers.
  
  
• Extend work authorizations, which now face legal threat involving over 100,000 construction workers, for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). TPS and DACA status holders have played a key role in our economy and industry for decades.
  
  
• Ensure that the H-2B Visa Program remains a viable option for construction employers and employees. The program successfully matches some employees’ needs but the statutory cap falls short to meet the overwhelming demand for workers.

OSHA Heat Hazard Enforcement:

The construction industry is proactively addressing heat exposure and AGC opposes a one-size-fits-all national heat standard being proposed.

NCLC Meeting Highlights

To prep for the Capitol Hills visits, AGC CEO Steve Sandherr and President Les Snyder did an excellent job, along with numerous staff, in highlighting and explaining the issues to attendees to discuss with the members of Congress. In addition, speakers addressed with attendees such issues as improving corporate culture, ratcheting up volunteerism, the importance of our Political Action Committees, suicide prevention and mental health improvement, a top issue for the construction industry.

“It was an amazing AGC conference,” said BOD Chair Mark Johnnie, “highlighted by visits with numerous members of the NC and SC congressional delegations and their staffs, especially with a personal tour by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of an up-close and personal view from the gallery of a session of our US House of Representatives.”