Making a Difference For Construction

The Construction Advocacy Fund is the most effective tool for advocating commercial construction interests at the federal and state levels of government.

Through the Fund, the Associated General Contractors of America is able to finance efforts to expand markets for contractors through research and lobbying, protect the industry form regulatory overreach through litigation, and advocate for the industry by financing critical advocacy campaigns that influence policy decisions. It also fights to increase your company’s opportunities for growth by providing accurate data to government officials and opinion leaders to influence regulatory policy. By bringing sound data to the table, the Fund protects the industry’s position in a competitive market.

A number of battles are being fought in Congress, state capitals, regulatory agencies, and the courts. Your help is important to ensuring that the construction industry comes out on top. Your company’s support will directly help secure our top legislative priorities, including:

  • Improving the pipeline for the construction workforce.
  • Promoting programs that expand infrastructure investment.
  • Influencing legislation on environmental issues.
  • Improving employer-sponsored health care affordability and quality.
  • Blocking and improving regulatory measures targeting construction.
  • Ensuring tax policies benefit companies equally.

Building a better policy and regulatory environment for the industry is crucial. And it starts with you! The Fund needs your help to fight for our agenda. Your support will give us the necessary resources to combat the opposition in our capitals and courts and spread our message of prosperity, jobs, and safety throughout America.

Expanding Markets

The Fund fuels the association’s efforts to expand market opportunities for construction contractors by:

  • Educating media and elected officials about construction’s role in shaping a strong economy.
  • Pushing for transportation funding to improve our aging highways, bridges, and transit systems.
  • Working to establish a water infrastructure fund to finance water system repairs.
  • Getting legislation to fund repairs to aging ports and waterways approved.
  • Working to change public policy to make it easier to use public private partnerships to fund infrastructure investments.

Protecting Against Overreach

The Fund makes it possible for AGC to protect the industry from unneeded and costly over regulations such as:

  • Imposing new Silica Limits so low that they can’t even be measured with existing technology which would require employers to purchase costly medical monitoring and engineering controls.
  • Allowing for Quickie Elections that will restrict employers’ ability to communicate during the union election process and push signatory contractors into permanent bargaining relationships.
  • Forcing contractors to seek EPA Clean Water permits before working on projects where water might accumulate in puddles, ditches or minor creeks.
  • Imposing Government Mandated Project Labor Agreements on a range of federal construction projects, limiting competition and restricting contractors ability to bargain.
  • Making it even more expensive and complex to provide Healthcare for employees.
  • Declaring Coal Fly Ash a toxic substance, eliminating its use in construction material.
  • Establish new Lead Paint rules that will increase the cost of renovating older commercial buildings without improving health or safety.
  • Impose new, post-construction Stormwater Runoff Rules that threaten to hold contractors liable for structures they didn’t design and don’t operate.
  • Significantly complicate federal highway DBE Program that will make it even hard for contractors to comply with this well-intentioned but ineffective program.
  • Radically redefine Federal Affirmative Action programs that will force contractors to spend billions proving they are doing what federal data already shows they are doing.

Advocating for the Industry

The Fund allows AGC to push for greater workplace safety, new workforce development measures, and better construction technology, including:

  • Shedding light on the pending construction workforce shortage and the need to reinvigorate high school level career and technical training programs.
  • Playing lead roles in a number of key coalitions that are pushing for comprehensive immigration reform designed to open labor markets.
  • Promoting member firms’ efforts to improve workplace safety and provide clear, measurable data on how contractors in each state are faring.
  • Highlighting the need for greater highway work zone safety.