Government and Public AffairsIssues Update

This report will spotlight the hard-fought battles in Washington and across the states from the 119th Congress, as well as how members can engage in crucial legislative advocacy during this election year. While the ever-changing and historic level steel, aluminum and copper tariff rates were predicted in our 2025 and 2026 outlooks, and the political environment remains ever challenging, there have been many significant advances for industry policy goals to date, with many more challenges ahead until the November elections.

We are now at the halfway point in the 119th Congress, and our top goal remains unchanged: protect what matters most to the majority of our members in the now-enacted tax package, such as bonus depreciation, equipment expensing, estate tax permanence, SALT cap increases and the R&D tax credits. To do so, we have also joined countless coalition allies to score a number of real victories to extend important tax incentives for efficiency, CHIPS and energy grid enhancement enabling the fast-growing wave of data center projects. 

Often success is measured in the number of laws and programs you preserve, not the new laws you help pass each session. Joining with our coalition allies, we helped to push back efforts to eliminate tax preferences for municipal bonds, preserved state and local tax deductions for businesses and stopped the efforts to tax employee fringe benefit plans. All these defensive efforts preserved construction markets and sustained the integrity of employee benefit plans, no minor achievement.

SMACNA has been active on Capitol Hill in recent years consistently advocating for the Small Business Payment for Performance Act. Changes to federal construction contracts, commonly referred to as change orders, are inevitable on complex projects. Federal agencies frequently issue unilateral change orders without timely formalization or compensation, forcing contractors to finance government-directed work for extended periods.

The legislation would allow small businesses to request an equitable adjustment when a contracting officer issues a change order without the contractor’s agreement and would require the federal government to pay no less than fifty percent of the estimated cost of the change order upon receipt of the equitable adjustment request.

SMACNA has met with dozens and dozens of Members of Congress and staff in congressional offices to build bipartisan support and advance the bill through the House and Senate Small Business Committees, emphasizing the impacts on cash flow, workforce stability, and project delivery.

SMACNA is supporting and urging co-sponsorship of legislation introduced by Representatives Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Richard Neal (D-MA) to restore renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives originally enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation would reinstate investment and production tax credits for renewable power generation, extend incentives for energy efficient buildings and homes, support domestic manufacturing of clean energy components, and restore clean vehicle and clean hydrogen production credits.

SMACNA is educating Members of Congress on the implications of this legislation sure to impact and lower energy costs, boost construction demand, domestic manufacturing, and support efforts to address critical workforce needs.

SMACNA submitted a formal statement to the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the Energy Subcommittee hearing titled “Building the American Dream Examining Affordability, Choice, and Security in Appliance and Buildings Policies.”

SMACNA reaffirmed support for modern, consensus-based building energy codes and federal appliance efficiency standards, emphasizing cost savings, safety, disaster resilience and national energy security.

SMACNA submitted a written hearing statement to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce opposing the Modern Worker Empowerment Act and the Modern Worker Security Act. SMACNA expressed support for the Department of Labor’s 2024 final rule reaffirming the multifactor economic reality test for employee classification and raised concerns that the proposed legislation would undermine long-standing judicial precedent and competitive fairness in construction.

SMACNA continues to engage Members of Congress, especially the Senators on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to advocate for the value of registered apprenticeship programs and debt-free workforce pipelines delivered in partnership with SMART.

The American Energy Independence and Affordability Act (H.R. 5862) was introduced by SMACNA champion Rep. Thompson (D-CA) and is cosponsored by 117 House members.  

What H.R. 5862 does:

Businesses are already feeling the pain from higher energy costs and supply-chain shocks caused by uncertain but record tariffs. 

This legislation would deliver real relief by restoring incentives that make homes more efficient, help lower energy bills, support clean and renewable power, and expand access to affordable clean vehicles. 

We believe restoring these incentives will strengthen our energy independence, lower utility bills, boost domestic production and create thousands of good-paying, high-skill jobs in the United States.