Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Labor Standards In this Supplementary Information for the final rule, Treasury encourages recipients to ensure that capital expenditures to respond to the public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic and water, sewer, and broadband projects use strong labor standards, including, for example, project labor agreements and community benefits agreements that offer wages at or above the prevailing rate and include local hire provisions. Treasury believes that its encouragement of labor standards carries benefits because it will ensure that workers have access to strong employment opportunities associated with infrastructure projects, which will in turn aid the economic recovery. Treasury believes that infrastructure projects may also benefit from stronger labor standards due to the potential of these standards to ensure a stronger skilled labor supply and minimize labor disputes and workplace injuries, which can result in costly disruptions to projects. Treasury assesses that these benefits will increase the economy and efficiency of infrastructure projects undertaken through SLFRF and will outweigh the potential for a marginal increase in labor costs. Splitting Payments to Recipients Treasury is required by statute to deliver funds to local governments in two payments separated by at least twelve months, and the interim final rule provided for split payments to a majority of states as well. As discussed above, splitting payments ensures that recipients can adapt spending plans to evolving economic conditions and that at least some of the economic benefits will be realized in 2022 or later. However, consistent with authorities granted to Treasury in the statute, Treasury recognizes that a subset of states with significant remaining elevation in the unemployment rate could face heightened additional near term needs to aid 397