Among
the early Trump administration executive orders last week were documents
reinitiating the approval process for construction of the Keystone XL and
Dakota Access pipelines, and a verbal promise to reduce business regulations by
75% to incentivize factory construction in the U.S. Laborers International
General President Terry O’Sullivan says pipeline unions have $50 billion of
work under contract. North American Building Trades Unions President Sean
McGarvey says energy projects currently employ 32% of the U. S. construction
industry workforce.
At
the same time, it appears the Trump administration is preparing executive
orders intended to reduce the influence of organized labor in the construction
industry by rescinding Clinton and Obama administration executive orders
favoring project labor agreements on major federally funded construction
projects. Watch for more news on this front in the coming weeks.
Last
week Senate democrats introduced legislation proposing the Trump campaign’s
promised $1 trillion infrastructure investment over the next 10 years,
including $210 billion for roads and bridges, $200 billion for funding other
national transportation projects, $110 billion for water and sewer
infrastructure construction, and $100 million for energy infrastructure. Trump
administration spokesmen would not comment on the proposal, but Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell immediately told reporters he doesn’t want in
infrastructure construction stimulus plan.
McConnell
said he is waiting for a Trump administration proposal that pays for
infrastructure projects “in a credible way.” Assistant Republican Leader
Senator John Cornyn echoed McConnell’s sentiment, saying, “It needs to be paid
for because we’ve got $20 trillion in debt.” President Trump himself earlier
commented that putting people to work building infrastructure is “not a very
Republican thing. I didn’t even know that, frankly,” and that infrastructure
won’t be a core part of the first few years of his administration.
