During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) questioned witnesses about private businesses' rights under the Biden Administration's new project labor agreement (PLA) rules.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Dreher, your testimony states that your firm, which is employee-owned, and I might
00:05add that's my favorite kind of ownership of any private business, just wants a fair opportunity
00:12to compete and win federal awards.
00:15But you say the administration's PLA mandate denies you and your employees that fair opportunity,
00:21and you're right.
00:22Even the Boston Globe editorial board last month wrote that, quote, although they don't
00:27say so explicitly, PLAs in effect limit public work only to firms whose workers belong to
00:32trade union, end quote.
00:34If your firm wants to continue to perform federal awards, you need to convince a union
00:38to which your employees do not belong to agree with you to work with you.
00:42Your testimony says this gives the union maximum leverage to dictate the terms to you.
00:47Is it accurate to say the PLA rule makes your firm hostage to outside labor unions since
00:53you can't perform federal projects unless you agree to cater to their terms?
00:58Absolutely.
01:00What sort of provisions harmful to nonunion contractors and their workforce might a PLA
01:06include?
01:07So just taking a step back, looking at the whole picture here, right, I think we can
01:12all agree that the industry's short over a half a million workers right now.
01:16And from 2009 to 2023, 12 out of 3,210 contracts had a PLA.
01:25We're not against PLAs.
01:26We don't want PLAs mandated.
01:29This industry needs fair and open competition.
01:32We have a lot of work to do, rebuilding our bridges, our highways, our naval infrastructure.
01:37And adding another roadblock in like this, mandating these requirements, it doesn't make
01:42sense.
01:43It doesn't help this country achieve its mission to improve our infrastructure.
01:47I agree completely.
01:49Mr. Brubeck, federal contracting professionals seem to think the project labor agreement
01:53mandates unwise since they choose to use them only on only 12 out of more than 3,000 construction
02:00solicitations since 2009, even when encouraged to use them by President Obama.
02:05So do you think these contracting officers will try to obtain case-by-case waivers from
02:11the PLA rule?
02:13Yes, they're going to try to do that.
02:14But the waiver process that's been constructed by the rule is actually a bad faith waiver
02:19process.
02:20I was talking to an Army Corps of Engineers executive procurement officer.
02:24They have to get a waiver by going all the way up to the senior procurement officer of
02:28the Army Corps of Engineers.
02:30This is a gentleman who oversees all procurement of missiles, weapons, tanks, all that stuff.
02:35It's not even the head of the construction side of the Army Corps of Engineers.
02:38By the time that goes all the way up the chain of command and back down, that project
02:42solicitation is going to be delayed immensely.
02:45It's designed to make sure there are no exceptions.
02:47We have not heard of any exceptions to this policy, despite the contracting officers
02:51asking for those or asking us to see if our litigation would be able to provide exception
02:55to this.
02:57Mr. Dreher testified that his firm, which has won many federal construction awards,
03:02won't be able to bid on many projects due to the PLA mandate.
03:05If an agency can show a solicitation, we'll get a lot fewer bids due to a PLA mandate.
03:11Does that qualify them for a waiver?
03:17Apparently the OMB memo says that if they get three or fewer bids, then they could qualify
03:23for a PLA exemption.
03:25But they have to go up to the senior contracting officer, procurement officer and ask for that.
03:29And then they have to justify that in a written report.
03:32The senior procurement officer's decision is going to be published on a public website
03:36for further scrutiny and perhaps intimidation.
03:39Have any waivers been issued since January?
03:41I'm not aware of it.
03:42I'm aware of about 50 solicitations in the pre-solicitation or solicitation phase that
03:46have PLA language.
03:47I'm not aware of one waiver being offered so far.
03:52Mr. Lude, your testimony states that the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority received
03:56only a single bid on the first Federal contract issued under the PLA rule.
04:02How many bids do you typically receive on projects?
04:05Yes, that's correct.
04:07We received a single bid on the West Shore project that had the PLA.
04:11We typically receive anywhere from four to five to even ten bids on large infrastructure
04:16projects.
04:17That doesn't sound like a very good deal for the taxpayers.
04:19That's right.
04:22Would you have to re-bid the project?
04:27At this time, we do not believe that the Corps will re-bid the project, no.
04:30So will the fact that you just got one bid, will that delay the timeline?
04:39Right now, we're working through that process with the Corps, so there's uncertainty as
04:42to how it will move forward.
04:44They're trying to award that project, but as soon as we get more information—
04:47Well, the Corps worked so quickly, I didn't know if—
04:50Yeah.
04:51Okay.
04:52Yeah.
04:53Well, hopefully, Madam Chair, I appreciate you holding this hearing.
04:56This is a serious issue, and hopefully we can figure a better way out.
05:03So with that, my time's expired.