Every year, NUCA members take valuable time away from work to come to Washington to participate in the NUCA Washington Summit. If you’re a regular reader of Utility Contractor, you’ve undoubtedly read our pleas for your participation in this annual event where underground utility contractors show up in person to advance the industry’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill. At press time, NUCA President Lyle Schellenberg was preparing to appear before Congress to testify on the importance of increased investment in America’s environmental infrastructure, which will be the top agenda item at the Summit this year. However, other vital issues on the agenda also need to be addressed when NUCA members take to Capitol Hill on May 19. The following is a description of what’s currently on tap for this year.

Continuing the Momentum on Water Infrastructure Progress

As you probably know, NUCA’s No. 1 priority going into the 111th Congress was to ensure that a robust environmental infrastructure component was included in economic recovery legislation, which was signed into law on February 17. NUCA was proud to have helped secure almost $20 billion total for water, wastewater, underground storage tank, “Brownfields” and other types of projects that made the final cut and were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

As soon as the recovery bill was signed, NUCA started working on keeping the ball rolling. Although the $6 billion for EPA’s State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs will provide a solid jump start to the suffering underground water and sewer construction industry, it should only be considered a down payment. Now it’s time to increase annual funding for these programs for years to come.

NUCA was pleased to see the Obama Administration’s FY2010 budget proposal, which included significant budget increases for both SRF programs. Weeks later, the House and Senate passed their budgets, both of which included the same proposed numbers for water and wastewater infrastructure investment. However, while budget increases are great, they are not binding. The real money comes in the form of annual appropriations. Therefore, the first order of business at the NUCA Washington Summit will be to encourage lawmakers to provide FY 2010 appropriations levels consistent with the budget proposed by the president, House and Senate. Specifically, this would include $2.4 billion for the Clean Water SRF and $1.5 billion for the Drinking Water SRF.

In March, NUCA and the Clean Water Council (CWC), the coalition of 35 national and international construction organizations who take the lead on this issue in Washington, were honored to play an important role in securing passage of the Water Quality Investment Act (HR 1262), which would authorize $14 billion for the Clean Water SRF over the next five years. The key now is to get the Senate to move its version of the bill — and that’s another issue we’ll work at the Summit.

Gearing Up for “Card Check” Rumble

In what is being hyped as the biggest fight in the 111th Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act, better known as “card check,” was introduced in both the House and Senate in March. The legislation (HR 1409 /S 560) would allow for unionization of a company’s through a collection of a majority of “authorization cards” from a company’s employees in lieu of the secret ballot process currently provided for under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). On top of that, the card check bill also includes provisions for binding arbitration between workers and employers if the parties do not reach an agreement within 120 days and an increase in fines and penalties for unfair labor practices committed by employers.

Labor’s ace in the hole was the support of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn). The unions were counting on him to cast the critical 60th vote needed to end debate and bring the bill up for a final vote. However, when Specter said publicly that “the better way to expand labor’s clout in collective bargaining is through amendments to the NLRA rather than eliminating the secret ballot and mandatory arbitration,” all bets were off. At this point, card check supporters need to hold the support of all Democrats and at least one Republican Senator.

That said, organized labor is reported to be running $10 million worth of ads in politically important states, where they hope grassroots advocacy will sway one or more moderate Republican senators. The lobbying has gone from intense to extreme, and all groups with a stake in this fight will be weighing in big time. NUCA will be one of them.

Providing Affordable Health Care Still a Priority

Besides the overwhelming challenges facing the underground utility construction industry and the shortage of work in various markets of interest, the rising costs of providing health care has been a huge concern for NUCA members. This year is no different. In years past, NUCA has supported Association Health Plan (AHP) or Small Business Health Plan (SBHP) legislation that would allow small businesses to pool their resources in order to provide quality health care to their employees at a more affordable cost.

Although the current environment in Washington is such that stand-alone AHP/SBHP legislation in not politically viable, NUCA is working as a member of the Small Business Coalition for Affordable Healthcare (SBCAH) to include the fundamental concepts of the previous legislation into a much larger health care package, which is expected to be debated this year. The SBCAH strives to increase the access and affordability of health insurance for small-business owners, employees and the self-employed. The coalition will encourage lawmakers to include several provisions in comprehensive health care legislation, including:

• Market-Based Pooling Arrangements to achieve greater purchasing clout, spread risk and lower administrative costs. This leads to increased affordability and choices for the purchase of private health insurance for business owners and their employees.
  
• Tax-Based Health/Insurance Incentives to supplement the cost of private health insurance for employers, the self-employed and individuals.
  
• New Healthcare Markets, Marketplaces and Products to provide flexibility to choose the health insurance packages that best meet the needs of the particular workforce.
  
• Understandable and Easy-to-compare Healthcare Information to provide clarity and assist health care consumers (including employers) across the healthcare marketplace.

The industry is hurting. There are now more than 2 million construction workers out of work and the unemployment rate for construction is now over 21 percent. There have been 21 consecutive months of significant job loss in the industry and construction has been hit harder by the economic downturn than any other industrial sector. Now is the time to fight for your industry.

With your help we can continue to expand our markets and get the industry back on its feet. We can fight to preserve the secret ballot process in the workplace that is fundamental to our democracy. And, we can support commonsense health care reforms to enable employers to better provide health insurance to their employees at an affordable cost. If you are unable to attend the Washington Summit (May 18-20, Hotel Monaco, Alexandria, VA), we hope you will do your part from home. The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. Your industry needs you in the game. Won’t you give us a hand?

Eben Wyman is NUCA Vice President of Government Relations.