The Biden administration’s legislative ideas are coming into sharper focus, starting with a $1.9-trillion coronavirus “rescue” plan that includes only a small list of construction-related provisions. But what has captured construction executives’ interest is the second item on incoming President Joe Biden’s Capitol Hill agenda: an economic recovery proposal due in February that Biden says will “make historic investments in infrastructure, along with manufacturing, research and development and clean energy.”

行业官员说，新政府还将在环境与劳资关系等领域寻求其他立法，并修改监管政策。

一旦恢复计划在立法文本中得到充实，它仍然必须在国会山获得批准。拜登的提议面临着比几个月前担心的民主党人在1月5日在佐治亚州的两次参议院竞赛中获胜的胜利。胜利导致在房间里进行了50-50的党派分裂，新副总裁卡马拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）将举行抢七票。

它还使民主党人在某些情况下绕开了通过使用预算和解来绕过终结60票的门槛，这使得法案只能以简单的多数派进行。众议院仍然掌握在民主党人的手中，但利润率仅为11票。

由民主党控制的参议院是指“主席的变化，员工的变化和优先事项变化”，国家石头，沙子和砾石协会政府和监管事务副总裁米歇尔·史丹利说。斯坦利补充说，民主党人苗条的参议院多数席位“意味着，如果没有很多共识，这些优先事项将无法完成。”

Steve Hall, American Council of Engineering Companies’ senior vice president for advocacy, says Democrats’ Senate edge “allows [Biden] I think to be a bit more aggressive and to shape the start of the conversation—in terms of the legislative agenda—more to his liking.” But Hall says, “The president is going to need Republicans on his side to move the big stuff forward that becomes law.”

A Key Deadline

建筑官员说，他们希望2021年最终成为国会批准“大型东西”中最大的一年，这是一项长期的基础设施法案，并在政治上尽可能多地资金。

Biden whetted industry appetites in his Jan. 14 rollout of the rescue plan, saying he would present his “Build Back Better recovery plan” before a joint session of Congress in February. Biden said, “It’s time to stop talking about infrastructure and to finally start building an infrastructure so we can be more competitive.”

他说，他的提议将产生“数百万的高薪工作，使美国人可以重建我们的道路，我们的桥梁，我们的港口，以使它们更具气候弹性，并使它们更快，更便宜，更干净，以运输美国制造的商品在我们国家和世界各地。”

拜登没有为基础设施计划提供价格标签，但是在总统竞选期间，他提出了一项200万美元的提议。仍然未知的是如何支付这样的提议以及其范围的范围。

Infrastructure advocates expect the plan’s centerpiece to be a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization. Hall says, “We know that’s going to be the driver.” Highway and transit programs now are operating under a one-year stopgap, which lapses Sept. 30. Hall says that deadline will force legislative action. “It’s got to happen,” he says. “There’s an end date at the end of September.”

Democrats’ Senate control and Biden’s clean energy and other climate-related priorities already are shaping the content and contours of the highway part of the package. The new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Tom Carper (D-Del.), has signaled he won’t use a $287-billion measure the panel cleared last Congress as a starting point. That bill never advanced to the chamber’s floor.

在起草一个新的高速公路法案,吹毛求疵的人现在希望to greatly expand the earlier version’s provisions dealing with climate change, a spokesperson said. He said Carper aims to have the new bill follow Biden’s framework, which includes moving to zero carbon emissions in the transportation sector.

国家沥青路面协会兼首席执行官奥黛丽·科普兰（Audrey Copeland）表示，拜登的计划将超越公路和过境。她说：“我认为这肯定会更广泛。”

全国清洁水机构协会（NACWA）还预计，拜登的计划将广泛。政府事务董事总经理克里斯蒂娜·苏菲斯（Kristina Surfus）表示，NACWA的一个关键目标是使水成为包装中的“前沿和中心”。她补充说：“对水的投资与相关的民主优先事项紧密一致，以建立弹性和推动环境正义。”

拜登也可能会推动其他立法。例如，建筑工会乐观地认为，关键优先事项，保护组织或专业的权利可能会在民主党多数派的国会中取得进展。该法案将对劳动力进行全面的改变，例如结束对次要抵制的禁令。众议院在2020年通过了专业法案，但参议院没有接受。

Yvette Pena-O’Sullivan, executive director of the Laborers’ International Union of North America , says, “there’s a lot of hope for figuring out a way to move the PRO Act or something like it, so it’s not just a symbolic bill that’s sitting out there,” She adds that “we will see how well the discussions go. It may not look exactly like the PRO Act, but there’s real opportunity to get labor reform done.”

But the bill will face strong opposition from Associated Builders and Contractors and other business groups.

Rescue plan

Biden’s initial legislative priority, however, is his $1.9-trillion “American Rescue Plan.” It seeks to address immediate problems stemming from the persistent coronavirus pandemic. The envisioned legislation would fund activities such as a stepped-up vaccination push, further payments to individuals, extended and increased unemployment benefits, expanded paid family leave, and major funding infusions to state and local governments and schools.

救援计划唯一与建筑有关的直接资金是其K-12学校的1300亿美元。这可以用于各种目的，包括对学校设施的身体改进，例如升级通风系统和修改室内空间以允许社交疏远。但是学校还可以选择使用这些资金来雇用更多的看门人或辅导员，购买个人防护设备或扩展校车服务。

其他规定可能会为建筑带来间接利益。该计划为州和地方政府提供的3500亿美元将使关键的公职人员继续工作，例如警察和消防员。但是，利用这笔钱来增加州和地方机构的运营预算可以避免延迟建筑项目。18luck官网

在监管方面，拜登政府有望尝试撤消批评者所说的特朗普政府的回滚。

Within his first days of office, Biden plans to direct agencies to delay any rules that have not gone into effect, including “midnight rules” President Donald Trump issued in his last days in office. These are likely to include rules to weaken protections for migratory birds and to change the metric for determining “significant” sources of pollution under the Clean Air Act. Biden also can issue executive orders reversing policies Trump put in place through such directives.

环境团体还希望拜登政府使用《国会审查法》（CRA）转移环境政策。根据该法律，国会可以在政府结束后的60个立法日内批准规则。这涵盖了8月21日之后最终确定的规则。CRA动作的一个可能的拜登目标是阻止对甲烷排放的不太敏锐的规则。世界资源研究所董事丹·拉什夫（Dan Lashoff）称废除该规则为“没有脑子”。

But many Trump regulations that affect construction came before the CRA cutoff. “The closer it gets to getting a rule into place, the more limited their options are,” says Melinda Tomaino, Associated General Contractors of America director of environmental services.

一些特朗普的规则，例如他更换美国法规的水域和《国家环境政策法》的修订，已经在联邦法院受到质疑。托马诺说，如果案件到达美国最高法院，拜登的政府不太可能继续对特朗普辩护。

The new administration also can put its stamp on policy through actions that do not involve the lengthy rulemaking process, says Brad Thompson, managing director for strategic initiatives at C2ES, a climate and energy think tank. He says the US Dept. of Energy, for example, could release new energy-efficiency standards.

汤普森还预计，白宫环境质量理事会将重新审视7月发布的NEPA变更，再次强调项目的“累积影响”。

Biden’s stated commitment to addressing social justice inequities will affect pollution regulations, Tomaino says. For example, the US Environmental Protection Agency has been working on a plan to deal with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. She says she expects the PFAS focus to “go into overdrive with the new administration.”

与劳动有关的法规的变化也可能发生。铁工工会总裁埃里克·迪恩（Eric Dean）表示，他希望更多的美国劳工部领导层解决与COVID相关问题（例如安全与健康方案）的解决。

迪恩说：“我们希望他们给我们一个蓝图，说明如何浏览以前从未处理过的事情。”“我们认为政府应该提供领导。”在特朗普政府的领导下，“我们得到的只是板球，”他说。

根据拜登（Biden）的过渡小组，他的救援计划将授权劳动部的职业安全与健康管理局（Safetitation Safety and Health Adminissmation）为工人发布COVID-19保护标准，大概包括包括建筑的工人。

有组织的工党，尤其是工人联盟，正在为拜登的决定加油，提名波士顿市长马丁·沃尔什（Martin J.Pena-O'Sullivan表示，该工会还希望看到更多地执行劳动法律和法规，包括处理工资，独立承包商问题和安全性的法规。

Dramatic shifts could come at the National Labor Relations Board. Wilma Liebman, a Democrat who chaired it during the Obama administration, says that under the Trump administration, the board has been staggering in its sweep and its speed in … how many precedents that have been overruled, both by way of adjudication and rulemaking, possibly more than any other in history.” Those changes have favored employers, she says, and drew praise from business groups.

五人NLRB现在以3-1的共和党多数席位。它有一个空置的民主党席位。共和党席位将于8月开放，这时民主党人预计将占多数。

The ironworkers’ Dean also hopes the new Congress will reach a deal on an approach to help financially ailing multi-employer pension plans; the plans are common in union construction.