WASHINGTON (March 28, 2024) — Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and its Florida First Coast chapter filed suit in federal court to stop the Biden administration’s plan to mandate project labor agreements on construction contracts procured by federal agencies. ABC’s complaint asserts that President Joe Biden lacks the legal and constitutional authority to impose a new federal regulation injuring economy and efficiency in federal contracting and illegally steering construction contracts to certain unionized contractors, which employ roughly 10% of the U.S. construction workforce.
ABC estimates the Biden pro-PLA policy will affect at least 180 federal construction contracts valued at $16 billion across America on an annual basis, including several federal construction contracts for projects in Jacksonville and dozens of projects in Florida and the Southeast.
ABC and its Florida First Coast chapter filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Jacksonville in response to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s Dec. 22, 2023, final rule –– and the related Dec. 18, 2023, White House Office of Management and Budget Memo –– implementing President Biden’s Feb. 4, 2022, Executive Order 14063, which mandates PLAs on federal construction projects of $35 million or more.
In its legal filing, ABC asserted that the Biden administration’s PLA rule is beyond the scope of executive authority and violates the Constitution, the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint also notes that the rule violates the Federal Property Administrative Services Act, the Competition in Contracting Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act and the Regulatory Flexibility Act, among others, by limiting competition and forcing large and small businesses to sign union agreements as a condition of winning a federal contract for construction services.
