AGC Continues to Combat Legislation Limiting Federal Agency Participation at Conferences

AGC and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) met this week with House Leadership staff to discuss legislation that would severely restrict federal agency participation in conferences hosted by private organizations.  Aside from ASAE, AGC was the only other organization there to fight for continued open discussion with federal agency representatives at private industry conferences and meetings. The reason for this discussion came as a result of legislation—H.R. 2146 and S. 1789—which passed separately, with minimal debate, in both the House and Senate last week as a response to the recent General Services Administration training conference scandal.  Though not enacted into law and still facing additional legislative action, if enacted, this legislation would bar more than one meeting with a federal agency per year, per organization. A reasonable reading is that, for example, if employees from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) attend a construction conference sponsored by one AGC chapter, no other USACE employees could attend any other conference or meeting sponsored by an AGC-affiliated organization until the next fiscal year. More than 2,100 organizations signed on ASAE’s letter to Congress protesting this measure, including AGC of America and ten chapters.  AGC will continue to work closely with ASAE to redress this provision to ensure its contractors can convey their messages face-to-face to federal regulators who impact their businesses. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at 703-837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org.