Public Policy Positions
The Associated General Contractors of Vermont will continue to support Vermont’s building trades by having a regular presence and involvement with the legislative process. The AGC/VT lobbying team has prepared for another session during the COVID-19 pandemic which will mean web conference committee meetings, challenging budgetary conversations, and additional engagement efforts with leaders.
Regulatory
- Support a state wide housing plan to address the shortage of workforce home ownership
- Oppose state action on any employee classification policies until USDOL has completed defining who should be considered an employee or independent contractor
- Support enforcement of traffic laws within work zones by either adding uniformed officer enforcement to VTRANS contracts or employment of speed detecting license plate reading technology
- Oppose required licensing or registration of commercial contractors
- Oppose any policy proposed by the Vermont Climate Council that will unnecessarily negatively impact Vermont businesses
Financial
- Support a strategic plan to spend fund from the Federal Infrastructure package in a timely manner that the workforce can complete
- Oppose doubling of the dyed diesel tax to pay for home winterization
- Oppose mandated employer funded vacation and family leave programs
- Support reinstatement of association health insurance plans
- Oppose any new unemployment insurance charges/funds/programs to increase benefits based on the failure of the $25/week supplemental payment from Act 51 of 2021
Employment
- Oppose requirements to disclose personal contact information from non-government organizations
- Support changing the employee drug testing threshold from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion”
- Support elimination of marijuana from employee drug test panels
- Oppose policies expanding both Vermont’s Prevailing Wage and Davis Bacon
- Support Vermont continuing the tradition of “employment at will”
- Support exempting military retirement from state income tax
- Support funding of Vermonts workforce development program to include AGC/VTs workforce program
Meet Your Lobbying Team
| Lobbying Team Matt Musgrave- Government Affairs Director Heather Shouldice- William Shouldice and Associates Tess Kennedy- William Shouldice and Associates Emma Shouldice- William Shouldice and Associates |
Government Affairs Committee Cheryl Harvey- Chair Brent Tewksbury Dave Markowski Jason Sicard Mark Peloquin Kathi Perry Steve Griffin Tom Garrett Tom Loyer Kellen Cloud |
AGC National Priorities
AGC works with the Legislative Action Committee to set the legislative agenda every two years, to coincide with the start of each new congressional session. Issues are added or removed from the legislative agenda based on three factors: the top issues of importance for a majority of AGC members, the timeliness of each individual issue and the achievability of success. Once the legislative agenda is set, AGC's government affairs subject matter experts create one-pagers to provide talking points for issues currently moving through the legislative or regulatory process. These one-pagers can be found by visiting www.agc.org/agcs-policy-priorities.
Federal Contracting Issues
- Oppose the Blacklisting Executive Order
- Support Civilian “BRAC”
- Support Procurement Reform
- Oppose Government-Mandated Project Labor Agreements
- Support Career & Technical Education
- Support the Composite Plan Design for Multiemployer Pension Plans
- Oppose Executive Order on Paid Sick Leave
- Oppose OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard
- Oppose OSHA's Attempt to Restrict Post-Incident Drug Testing
- Fully Fund Transportation Programs & Fix the Highway Trust Fund
- Support efforts to improve supply chain and cost increases
