Contracting firm leaders at the Associated General Contractors of America’s annual convention report that maintaining healthy backlogs and battling workforce shortages remain their top priorities. The convention, held in Las Vegas on March 7-9, drew more than 2,500 attendees.

但是，协会领导人和承包商高管表示，他们还正在与特朗普政府和新国会合作，讨论几个关键的国家问题。其中最主要的是基础设施资金，监管和税制改革，移民以及《平价医疗法案》的替代。

“One of the first priorities has to be fixing the Highway Trust Fund,” says incoming AGC President Art Daniel, president of AR Daniel Construction Services Inc., Cedar Hill, Texas. “And that starts with making short-term adjustments to the gas tax, then finding better ways to cover electric cars and hybrids.”

But Daniel and other AGC leaders insist that infrastructure funding must be defined broadly, beyond roads and bridges. To that end, AGC will unveil details in a few weeks about “an expansion of the business coalition” to push for infrastructure funding at all levels.

AGC首席执行官史蒂夫·桑德尔（Steve Sandherr）说：“没有民主党人或共和党道路。”“基础设施是两党。”但是，他补充说：“正是商业界必须向公众传达这一信息。”

“It’s strictly a shirts-and-skins mentality in Washington right now,” says Jeff Shoaf, AGC’s senior executive director of government affairs. “You belong to one team or the other.” But infrastructure reaches across party lines, he notes.

“One of our biggest concerns is immigration policy,” says Ken Simonson, AGC chief economist. The fear, he told attendees, is that new restrictions could worsen the industry’s already severe labor shortages.