2022 Top Legislative Issues

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) is the nationally recognized voice of the electrical construction industry. NECA’s 4,000 contractors bring electrical power, lighting and communications systems to buildings and communities across the United States. The following items are NECA’s priority issues for the 117th Congress:

Comprehensive Infrastructure Investment
Robust investments in our nation’s infrastructure is essential to keeping NECA’s electrical contractors in business, their employees working, rebuilding our nation, and ensuring a robust economy.

• Find a sustainable solution to fix the Highway Trust Fund.
• Increase investment in infrastructure through innovative financing mechanisms such as Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) and a National Infrastructure Bank.
• Cut red tape by continuing to reform the construction permitting process.
• Strengthen our energy grid infrastructure with investments in nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind and other modes of new green energy.
• Increase investment in water projects.
• Robust investment in electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations.
• Increase federal investment in nationwide broadband and 5G technology.
• Oppose efforts to arbitrarily cut federal construction accounts.

Multiemployer Pension Reform
Our contractors value and support the multiemployer pension system. It is the bedrock of the signatory electrical construction industry. In order to modernize and continuously improve the benefits our contractors offer NECA Government Affairs continues to work towards strengthening this system.

• Authorize the creation of the innovative composite plan design, which would combine the key features of defined benefit and defined contribution plans.
• Provide zone structure relief to multiemployer pension plans.
• Make structural reforms to withdraw liability to ensure contractors are not unduly burdened.
• Implement provisions like those in the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, and the Pension Relief Act of 2010, which would give plans the ability to freeze their zone status and smooth investment losses.

Workforce Development
NECA contractors know that their employees are a key to their success. That is why we invest in the nation’s most comprehensive apprenticeship training programs, highly compensate our skilled workforce, and provide quality health care and retirement benefits. To ensure our ability to maintain this high standard and further our employees, reform should solidify these practices and encourage others to do so.

• Streamline and modernize the National Apprenticeship Act.
• Approve Sensible Incentives and Reforms to Encourage Apprenticeship Enrollment.
• -Limit the Expansion of Publicly-Funded, Short-Term, Industry Approved Apprenticeships in the Construction Industry.
• Prevent the Misclassification of employees as independent contractors
• Oppose Efforts to Repeal, Suspend, or Modify the Davis-Bacon Act.
• Oppose any efforts to revive Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs).
• Oppose Limits on the Use of Project Labor Agreements.

Federal Tax Reform
High tax rates and a complex tax code hampers our nation's competitive standing and hinders our economic growth. The time and money NECA contractors spend to comply with our existing and complex tax code could be—and should be—spent on growing their businesses and creating jobs.

• Make the Pass-Through Deduction Permanent to Ensure Certainty and Predictability.
• Maximize the Value and Integrity of the New Deduction for Pass-Through Businesses.
• Repeal the Estate Tax.
• Repeal the Alternative.
• Minimum Tax Make Remaining Tax Extenders Permanent.

Contracting Reform
Small businesses are the foundation of our economy. With nearly 80 percent of NECA’s membership consisting of small businesses, the need to prevent government waste, reform contracting methods, and simplify the government procurement process remains a top priority. Congress must realize that many solutions to the problems facing our contractors come at no cost to the federal government and provide bipartisan wins in an all too often polarized world.

• Establish a statute of repose for federal construction projects.
• Ensure payment protections for construction subcontractors and suppliers performing federal construction under Public-Private Partnerships.
• Prohibit the utilization of reverse auctions for the procurement of construction contracts.
• Improve the design-build construction process.
• Ensure responsible contractors are given priority in the bidding process of federal contracts.