ARTICLE
In a victory for fair and open competition, John M. Tenaglia, Principal Director of Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy announced: “Effective immediately, contracting officers shall not use project labor agreements for large-scale construction projects, implemented at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 22.5 and 36.104(c). Contracting officers shall amend solicitations to remove project labor agreement requirements, including any solicitation provisions and contract clauses prescribed at FAR 22.505.” This is in response to the recent US Federal Claims Court decision that struck down the Biden Executive Order mandating PLAs on federal projects over $35 million. The court ruled that only congress can authorize government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs), deeming them an unauthorized socio-economic set aside. AGC of America CEO, Jeff Shoaf said: “Our association’s novel bid protest approach was designed to block the unlawful mandating of project labor agreements on all federal construction projects valued at $35 million or more. While last month’s ruling in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims made it clear that former President Biden’s executive order mandating the use of such agreements was unlawful, there was some doubt whether federal officials would come to the same conclusion. “The announcement that the U.S. Department of Defense will drop project labor agreement mandates from its military construction solicitations is a clear sign that our approach is working. We expect all federal agencies involved in procuring construction services to follow suit and drop what is clearly an unlawful mandate from their construction solicitations. “In addition, we will continue our conversations with the Trump administration about the need to officially revoke former President Biden’s illegal project labor agreement mandate Executive Order and FAR Rules to eliminate any remaining ambiguity that exist within the ranks of federal procurement officials.” For more information, please refer to the AGC of America press release.
In a victory for fair and open competition, John M. Tenaglia, Principal Director of Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy announced:
“Effective immediately, contracting officers shall not use project labor agreements for large-scale construction projects, implemented at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 22.5 and 36.104(c). Contracting officers shall amend solicitations to remove project labor agreement requirements, including any solicitation provisions and contract clauses prescribed at FAR 22.505.”
This is in response to the recent US Federal Claims Court decision that struck down the Biden Executive Order mandating PLAs on federal projects over $35 million. The court ruled that only congress can authorize government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs), deeming them an unauthorized socio-economic set aside.
AGC of America CEO, Jeff Shoaf said: “Our association’s novel bid protest approach was designed to block the unlawful mandating of project labor agreements on all federal construction projects valued at $35 million or more. While last month’s ruling in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims made it clear that former President Biden’s executive order mandating the use of such agreements was unlawful, there was some doubt whether federal officials would come to the same conclusion.
“The announcement that the U.S. Department of Defense will drop project labor agreement mandates from its military construction solicitations is a clear sign that our approach is working. We expect all federal agencies involved in procuring construction services to follow suit and drop what is clearly an unlawful mandate from their construction solicitations.
“In addition, we will continue our conversations with the Trump administration about the need to officially revoke former President Biden’s illegal project labor agreement mandate Executive Order and FAR Rules to eliminate any remaining ambiguity that exist within the ranks of federal procurement officials.”
For more information, please refer to the AGC of America press release.