MCAA Government Affairs Update for May 26, 2025: The Latest Developments Impacting Our Industry

As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting your livelihood and setting the stage for a bright future, MCAA has secured the services of Longbow Public Policy Group to advise our MCAA Government Affairs Committee (GAC). GAC Chair, Jim Gaffney will be passing along information relative to our industry on a regular basis.

On Monday, May 26, 2025 MCAA Lobbying Firm, Longbow Public Policy Group provided the following information:

Trump Administration

President Trump Signs EOs Bolstering Nuclear Industry 

Last Friday, President Trump signed a series of executive orders to overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and speed the deployment of new nuclear power reactors in the U.S. Trump’s orders call for a “total and complete reform” of the NRC and under the new rules, the NRC would be forced to decide on nuclear reactor licenses within 18 months. Trump’s orders also create a regulatory framework for the Departments of Energy and Defense to build nuclear reactors on federal land, which according to a White House official will allow for “safe and reliable nuclear energy to power and operate critical defense facilities and artificial intelligence data centers.” The President’s order also aims to jump start the mining of uranium in the U.S. and expand domestic uranium enrichment capacity. The President also directed faster testing of new reactor designs at the Department of Energy’s national laboratories.

Congress

Senate HELP Advances Nominees to Lead Labor Department Employment and Training Administration and Career, Technical, and Adult Education Office at the U.S. Department of Education

Last Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced several nominees in a 12-11 party-line vote, sending them to the full Senate for confirmation. These nominees include Henry Mack, III to lead the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration, which oversees federal workforce training and registered apprenticeship programs, and Kevin O’Farrell, President Trump’s nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. O’Farrell will be responsible for working with Mack to rejuvenate career and technical education at the nation’s schools.

Unfortunately, the Senate HELP Committee advanced these nominees without a confirmation hearing. MCAA had no opportunity to submit questions to lawmakers regarding nominees’ views on federal workforce training and registered apprenticeship issues. This is particularly concerning because, if confirmed, Mack and O’Farrell will have key roles in implementing President Trump’s recent executive order (EO) on Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future and lawmakers did not have an opportunity to press them on how they would do this. We have been conducting outreach to Senate lawmakers to see if this instance of advancing nominees without confirmation hearings will become a trend, which would severely limit our ability to press nominees on various issues of interest to MCAA before they are confirmed by the Senate.

Bipartisan Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Support Domestic Nuclear Industry

Last Monday, Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Lee (R-UT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced the International Nuclear Energy Act, which aims to support the U.S. domestic nuclear industry’s leadership and offset China and Russia’s growing influence over nuclear energy development. 

The legislation would: (1) support the establishment of an office to coordinate civil nuclear exports strategy, establish financing relationships, promote regulatory harmonization, enhance safeguards and security, promote standardization of licensing framework, and create a nuclear exports working group; (2) create programs to facilitate international nuclear energy cooperation to develop financing relationships, training, education, market analysis, safety, security, safeguards and nuclear governance required for a civil nuclear program; (3) require a Cabinet-level biennial summit focused on nuclear safety, security, and safeguards to enhance cooperative relationships between private industry and government; and (4) establish a Strategic Infrastructure Working Group to determine how to best structure a fund to finance projects critical to national security.

MCAA Issues and Interests 

Project Labor Agreements

Federal Court Grants Injunction to Uphold Biden-era PLA Mandate for Federal Construction

As we continue to lobby to preserve President Biden’s MCAA-supported executive order on project labor agreements, we learned that late last Friday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) a preliminary injunction based on their claim that the Trump Administration is violating federal law by failing to abide at all Departments and federal agencies by President Biden’s MCAA-supported executive order creating a presumption that project labor agreements (PLAs) will be used on large-scale federal construction projects expected to cost $35 million or more. The lawsuit comes after the Department of Defense (DOD) and the General Services Administration (GSA) earlier this year responded to a January Federal Court of Claims decision upholding several bid protests over PLA language in DOD and GSA contracts by issuing a class deviation for all DOD and GSA contracts to forgo PLA language. While this District Court ruling is a win, we are concerned that this case could now prompt the Trump Administration to move to fully rescind President Biden’s PLA executive order (EO) and have been redoubling our lobbying efforts to preserve this EO.

Registered Apprenticeship

Labor Secretary Testifies Before Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee Regarding FY 2026 Budget Request 

Last Thursday, the MCAA policy team monitored and engaged on Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-Health and Human Services regarding President Trump’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request. Apprenticeship programs, as well as the Trump Administration’s proposed reformulation of federal worker training programs known as “Make America Skilled Again” (MASA) block grants, were a focus of the hearing. Chavez-DeRemer asserted that workforce training and apprenticeships were a key part of the Trump Administration’s “worker centric” approach and explained that the President’s budget reflects a desire to give states and localities flexibility to spend workforce dollars as they see fit. She also argued that the Trump Administration’s proposal to consolidate workforce training under MASA will give states and localities more control, while eliminating “burdensome” federal program requirements for training programs that get federal funds. Chavez-DeRemer also explained that in order to achieve the Trump Administration’s goal of 1 million new apprentices, she will be presenting the President with a plan to reorient federal workforce programs to prepare the U.S. economy for reshoring and re-industrialization. In response to questions submitted by the MCAA and its allies regarding this reorientation, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer declined to provide any details or even commit to a public input process before releasing the plan. 

During the hearing, Subcommittee Ranking Member Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) criticized the Trump Administration for “going backwards on apprenticeship,” and pointed to the cancellation of several apprenticeship contracts and to the President’s budget request, which she said “really decimates” funding for state and local workforce programs. 

Misclassification of Construction Workers as Independent Contractors

DOL Announces Appointees for Wage and Hour Division

Last Friday, the Labor Department announced five political appointees for the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor, which enforces federal wage and hour laws , including the classification of workers as employees or independent contractors. The appointees include Donald M. Harrison, III as acting Wage and Hour Administrator and Caroline Brown, W. Glenn Viers, Garret Buttrey, and Dana M. Deason as Senior Policy Advisors. These appointees will be tasked with, among other things, deciding the fate of the MCAA-supported, Biden-era independent contractor rule making it harder to misclassify construction workers as independent contractors and the Biden-era, MCAA-supported final rule on Davis-Bacon Modernization. 

Pension Reform

Bipartisan Lawmakers Introduce “Auto Reenroll Act”

As we continue conversations on Capitol Hill regarding the MCAA’s pension reform priorities, we were informed early last week that Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) were introducing the Auto Reenroll Act that would amend safe harbors in ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code to permit retirement plan sponsors to reenroll non-participants at least once every three years, unless the individual affirmatively opts out again. The legislation is endorsed by AARP, the American Benefits Council, the American Retirement Association, Edward Jones, Empower, LPL Financial, Nationwide Retirement Solutions, and Transamerica. We are working with the National Coordinating Committee on Multiemployer Plans to confirm what, if any, impacts this legislation will have on multiemployer defined benefit plans.

Decarbonization

Final Rescission of Two Biden-Era Decarbonization Rulemakings After MCAA Successfully Advocated Congressional Review Act Resolutions Disapproving of These Final Rules

MCAA successfully lobbied to rescind two Biden-era decarbonization final rules. Last week, the Federal Register published the formal notices rescinding these rules from the Code of Federal Regulations. One is the Department of Energy’s final rule on Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-Fired Instantaneous Water Heaters. The other is the Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule on the Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems. 

Other Interesting Things Since Our Last Report 

May 22, 2025

• The House Appropriations Committee announced plans to begin marking up the 12 fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills on June 5, starting with the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Agriculture Subcommittee markups. The Committee is aiming to complete the mark-up process by July 24^th with a full Committee markup of the Labor-Health and Human Services spending bill. It’s still unclear when the White House will release its full fiscal year 2026 budget, but there have been indications it will arrive in late May or early June, before House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) starts bringing bills before the committee. MCAA will be deeply engaged on the appropriations bills seeking to advance our priorities and fight off expected amendments seeking to curtail federal prevailing wage and the application of PLAs.

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a memorandum clarifying the specific limited role that states play in the federal licensing and permitting processes under Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401, which authorizes states to review water quality impacts that could result from federally licensed or permitted projects. The memorandum clarifies that a state’s evaluation is limited to considering negative impacts to water quality that prevent compliance with applicable water quality requirements. The memorandum is available here. 

• MCAA health plan trustees may be interested to know that the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on how to improve prescription drug price transparency. The RFI seeks input regarding prescription drug price disclosure requirements, including information on existing prescription drug file data elements and information on implementation generally, such as the ability of health plans to access necessary data for reporting, as well as state approaches and innovation. The agencies also released updated guidance for health plans and issuers that sets a clear applicability date for publishing an enhanced technical format for disclosures. These improvements are designed to eliminate meaningless or duplicative data and make cost information easier for consumers to understand and use. Separately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a significant expansion of its auditing efforts for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Per the release, CMS will immediately begin auditing all MA contracts for each payment year in all newly initiated audits and will invest additional resources to expedite the completion of audits for payment years 2018 through 2024. 

May 21, 2025

• In an open letter to Congress, the heads of the nation’s 10 largest airlines called on Congress to fund a major modernization of America’s antiquated air traffic control system warning that “the current system is failing Americans.” The CEOs explained that “it’s more expensive to continue supporting the technology and equipment from the 1980s than it is to buy a new ATC system,” and that the antiquated air traffic control system is forcing their companies “to fly fewer flights.” The letter comes as Congress prepares to consider appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026 beginning next month.

• A new report by the group Data Center Watch, tracking opposition to constructing new data centers, found that as much as $64 billion in projects have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition to the projects. Most of the projects affected are in Northern Virginia, where $900 million in projects have been blocked and $45.8 billion in projects have been delayed. The report noted that Republican elected officials made up 55% of those critical of data center projects, primarily over concerns about the use of the tax incentives. Democrats made up 45% of those opposing data center projects, largely over water use and other environmental concerns.

• Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC), along with Committee members Senators Mike Rounds (R-SC) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) raised concerns over proxy advisors’ influence over corporate governance of U.S. public companies and their pursuit of radical environmental and social policies through their control of the shareholder proxy voting process. In a letter to the leaders of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co., the lawmakers highlighted what they called “the lack of transparency, accountability, and oversight facing the firms while their decisions impact U.S. public policy on important economic, environmental, and social issues.” The members are demanding information to better understand the firms’ foundations for recommendations, their potential for conflicts of interest, and the processes used to develop and apply voting policies on climate change resolutions and other issues placed before corporate shareholders.

• Donald Trump, Jr. said that he would not rule out a future run for the White House, saying that “I think my father has truly changed the Republican Party.”

May 20, 2025

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opened the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection requiring private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees that meet certain criteria to report online the number of individuals they employ by job category and by sex and race or ethnicity. The deadline to file the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 report is June 24, 2025. In a message to EEO-1 Component 1 filers, acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas sought to “remind [employers] of [their] obligation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 not to take any employment actions based on, or motivated in whole or in part by, an employee’s race, sex, or other protected characteristics.” Lucas also said that companies and organizations “may not use information about [their] employees’ race/ethnicity or sex—including demographic data collected and reported in EEO-1 Component 1 reports—to facilitate unlawful employment discrimination based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics in violation of Title VII.” Lucas also explained that “there is no ‘diversity’ exception to Title VII’s requirements.”

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $30.7 million in grant funding for training and technical assistance to address technical, financial, and managerial needs at small public drinking water and wastewater systems (i.e., systems serving 10,000 or fewer customers). The grants include: (1) $9 million to the National Rural Water Association to enhance operator licensing and conduct troubleshooting to determine factors affecting performance in small systems; (2) $14.5 million to the Rural Community Assistance Partnership to develop lead service line replacement plans, improve cybersecurity, and help private drinking water well owners and small publicly owned wastewater and on-site/decentralized wastewater systems improve water quality, including testing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination; and (3) $7 million to Southwest Environmental Finance Center at the University of New Mexico to build small system capabilities and improve operation efficiency and overall drinking water system performance. Additionally, EPA announced that it is re-launching the Water Infrastructure and Capacity Assessment Tool (Water ICAT), an interactive map that identifies drinking water and wastewater utilities that may benefit from water infrastructure technical assistance.

• The Justice Department announced the creation of a “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative” that will utilize the False Claims Act to investigate and/or pursue claims against recipients of federal funds that knowingly violate civil rights laws. The initiative appears to specifically target institutions that “take federal money only to allow anti-Semitism and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.”

May 19, 2025

• The House passed by unanimous voice vote the “Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act” (H.R. 1453). The legislation amends the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to require additional reporting by the Energy Department (DOE) regarding clean energy demonstration projects, including: (1) a copy of any initial contracts or financial assistance agreements executed between DOE and an award recipient; (2) a list of any material, technical, or financial milestones that have or have not been met; and (3) any material modifications to the scope, schedule, funding profile (including cost-share requirements), project partners or participating entities, or budget of the project.

• It was revealed that the Trump Energy Department plans to cancel seven major loans and loan guarantees that were conditionally approved under the Biden Administration. The cancellations include three that were still scheduled for completion by their sponsors, including a transmission project by a New Jersey utility, a loan program for low-income homeowners to install rooftop solar panels by Sunnova, and a factory to produce low-carbon ammonia by Monolith Nebraska. The remaining four projects were already previously cancelled by their companies because of other various headwinds, including three battery factories for Redwood Materials, Aspen Aerogels, and KORE Power, and a plastics recycling facility by International Recycling Group.

Around the Country 

Northeast 

• On May 22^nd, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a partnership with the City of Albany and the New York State Department of Health to improve water quality in Albany, NY after finding elevated levels of lead in the city’s drinking water. EPA issued an order of consent that requires the replacement of lead service lines in the city, which serve approximately 98,000 people.

• On May 21^st, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that on May 7^th, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter ruled that RCL Mechanical, Inc., a plumbing company located in Raynham, Massachusetts violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by, among other things, interrogating and threatening workers, soliciting grievances, creating an impression of surveillance, and threatening employees with discipline if they supported the UA Gasfitters Local 12’s organizing drive. Judge Carter also found that RCL illegally transferred, disciplined, laid off and terminated employees in violation of the NLRA and issued a remedial bargaining order. In addition to the bargaining order, the judge ordered the employer to cease and desist from making unlawful threats and promises, rescind the unlawful discipline, and reinstate the terminated workers with backpay.

• On May 21^st, Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee, passed away at 75 after a bout with esophageal cancer. 
  

• On May 20^th, Representative Jared Golden (D-ME) announced he will seek a fifth term representing Maine’s 2^ndCongressional District, ending speculation that he might challenge Maine’s senior Senator Susan Collins (R) in 2026.

• On May 19^th, the stop work order on the Equinor Wind Project offshore New York was lifted after the Interior Department reversed course and said the project could proceed as part of an apparent deal Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) made with the Trump Administration to allow gas pipeline projects to move forward in New York that will also increase gas capacity for New England.

• On May 19^th, Wynn Resorts announced that it is abandoning plans to develop an integrated casino resort in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan with Related Companies and halting its efforts to get a casino license in New York. Wynn said it has become clear through the rezoning process that there are better uses for its capital and that it is surrendering to the inevitability of “years of persistent opposition” to the project.

West

• On May 22^nd, the Interior Department announced that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has been formally designated as the lead federal agency responsible for overseeing the decommissioning of oil and gas platforms within the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary near California, the responsibility for which has been transferred from the Department of Commerce. The sanctuary encompasses 4,543 square miles of Central California coastline. 

• On May 21^st, the Interior Department released a new U.S. Geological Survey assessment that identifies 473 million barrels of oil and 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Mowry Composite Total Petroleum System spanning parts of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah that is undiscovered and technically recoverable. The full geologic assessment is available here. 

Northwest 

• On May 20^th, it was reported that while office space occupancy rates in most major cities are recovering from pandemic-era lows, Portland’s 35% office vacancy rate hasn’t budged because employers have fled the city due to crime and quality of life issues associated with ongoing homelessness problems that were fueled by the state’s botched experiment with drug decriminalization. The premier office tower in downtown Portland is currently on the market for half the price it went for a decade ago. 

Midwest 

• On May 19^th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is lifting the EPA’s 2016 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) emergency order on drinking water from Flint, Michigan because the city has completed the SDWA’s requirements. The city has replaced over 97% of legacy lead pipes carrying water to homes and water sampling shows that Flint’s water system is now in compliance with lead standards.

Southeast

• On May 22^nd, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced that it recovered more than $207,470 in back wages and damages for 157 workers from a Michigan electrical services contractor, M.J. Electric LLC, for failing to pay proper overtime rates to workers at job sites in Kentucky and Arizona. The WHD found that the contractor did not include non-discretionary bonuses in employees’ regular rate of pay when calculating overtime pay. The investigation initially revealed the overtime violation at the TVA’s Paradise Simple Cycle Project in Drakesboro, Kentucky. The investigation was expanded after similar violations were found at an M.J. Electric project in Arizona.

• On May 20^th, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced it submitted a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a small, next-generation modular nuclear reactor at its Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

• On May 19^th, the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced that it will locate the PHMSA National Center for Excellence for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Safety in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The Center of Excellence will facilitate research and development, training, and regulatory coordination and will encourage the development of LNG safety solutions. More information on the Center of Excellence is available here.

Southwest

• On May 21^st, it was announced an Abilene, Texas artificial intelligence data center project central to OpenAI’s efforts to reduce its reliance on Microsoft for computing power secured $11.6 billion in funding to expand from two to eight buildings, increasing the total amount secured for the project to $15 billion. Construction on the Abilene site started last June 2024 after Oracle agreed to lease the data center for 15 years and rent servers from the facility to OpenAI.

• On May 16^th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of 31 individuals for immigration-related violations during a targeted joint federal-state-local worksite enforcement operation at an unnamed business and two construction sites in Laredo, Texas. The individuals arrested were citizens of Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, and all have been transferred to ICE custody and are pending removal proceedings.