The Opportunity America Jobs and Careers Coalition is a Washington-based business group focused on job training and workforce development. Members include employers and employer associations from a broad range of industries experiencing skills mismatches and worker shortages – IT, manufacturing, construction, retail and hospitality, among others. As representatives of business and industry, we see first-hand how the economy is changing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Millions of Americans are still out of work. Many will need to reskill for a new job or a new industry.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided states and localities with $350 billion in relief funds and $10 billion in capital improvement assistance at a time of critical need.  The COVID-19 pandemic ripped a gaping hole in the budgets of many local governments, making this assistance crucial for many workers and businesses across the nation. However, the funds lack clear guidance to states and localities on their applicability.

We have significant concerns with policies and programs that tend to promote specific building materials. Engineers and construction professionals should make decisions about which materials to use to meet the codes, standards and specifications of the project. It is inappropriate for Congress to stack the deck for or against specific building materials: Congress should not pick winners and losers and should not promote policies or programs that prefer one building material over another. Mass timber is often promoted as a sustainable building material.

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), a broad-based coalition of hundreds of organizations representing hundreds of thousands of employers and millions of employees in various industries across the country, and the 280 undersigned organizations write in opposition to the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, S. 420. This radical legislation would violate workers’ free choice and privacy rights, jeopardize industrial stability, cost millions of American jobs, threaten vital supply chains, and greatly hinder our economic recovery from COVID-19.

On behalf of manufacturers nationwide and the millions of Americans who stand to benefit from revitalized U.S. infrastructure, we write to urge you to take up and pass the bipartisan infrastructure deal recently announced by President Biden and leaders in Congress. Manufacturers have spent years calling for bold, bipartisan infrastructure investments that bolster America’s competitiveness, and now is the time to act on this historic opportunity.

As the Senate continues its work on a surface transportation reauthorization bill and negotiates the details of a bipartisan infrastructure package, we discourage members of the Democratic Conference from pursuing any increase in minimum liability insurance requirements for motor carriers. Such an increase is wholly unnecessary, would do nothing to improve highway safety, needlessly jeopardize countless blue collar jobs, destroy many small and family-owned businesses, and threaten necessary bipartisan support for any legislation that includes it.

However, legislative proposals like the misleadingly named “Protecting the Right to Organize” (PRO) Act is an unprecedented attempt to fundamentally change dozens of well-established labor laws at a time of tenuous economic recovery. While there have been no reported barriers with workers seeking to consider unionizing in our industry, this legislation would disrupt the rights of workers and employers and add unworkable mandates that would severely impact the ability to efficiently produce and deliver construction materials. It is a solution in search of a problem.

As the Senate continues its work on a surface transportation reauthorization bill and negotiates the details of a bipartisan infrastructure package, we ask that members of the Republican Conference take a stand against any proposal to increase minimum liability insurance requirements for motor carriers. Such an increase is wholly unnecessary, would do nothing to improve highway safety, needlessly jeopardize countless blue collar jobs, and destroy many small, family-owned businesses.

The undersigned companies and organizations strongly endorse the Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for GPS and Satellite Communications Act or the “RETAIN GPS and Satellite Communications Act” introduced today. This legislation would ensure that the costs incurred by the public sector, businesses and consumers as a result of the FCC’s decision to permit Ligado Networks LLC to use spectrum in a way that would cause interference to GPS and satellite communications would be covered by Ligado—the licensee benefiting from the decision.

The undersigned trade associations represent millions of individually- and family-owned businesses operating in every sector of the American economy. We write to voice our strong opposition to any reductions or repeal of the 20-percent deduction for qualified business income under Section 199A, including phasing out the deduction above certain income thresholds. Section 199A is an essential part of the Tax Code.