NRMCA and our allied associations continue to urge Congress to pass a critical COVID relief package and to include industry priorities in upcoming legislation. Last week, NRMCA joined members of the Highway Materials Group (HMG) and the North American Concrete Alliance (NACA) in sending Congress letters outlining the importance of moving on a COVID relief package and including industry priorities. The NRMCA Government Affairs team drafted portions of both letters, ensuring the ready mixed concrete industry’s priorities were included – including reforms to the Paycheck Protection Program, expansion of the Employee Retention Tax Credit, liability protections for businesses against unfounded and frivolous lawsuits, and emergency funding to replace lost revenue for state departments of transportation so that they can reinstate canceled and delayed projects. You can read the HMG letter here and the NACA letter here.
Among the critical issues demanding congressional action are government funding – which expires on December 11 – and passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. Whether Congress can reach agreement on a COVID relief package remains an open question. Late last week it was reported that President-elect Biden and his team had begun wading into the negotiations, apparently in support of a roughly $2 trillion package, despite Senate Republicans' resistance to anything more than $1 trillion. Senate Republicans have twice tried to advance packages of $500 billion without success. However, it is likely that the president elect will be anxious to “clear the decks” of extraneous items like government spending, NDAA and COVID relief to give him freedom in pursuing his own legislative agenda. Both chambers are out of session until November 30.
For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association