Political Advocacy

ABC Central Florida

2024 Ways to get Involved with government affairs

  • Join us in Tallahassee for the Legislative Conference. (Check back for 2025 dates)
  • Attend the Annual Bourbon Bash PAC Fundraiser, February 22, 2024 - Spots are limited!
  • Save the date for ABC of Florida's State Convention, July , 2024.
  • Attend the ABC Legislative Hobnob on March 23, 2024, at Harry P. Leu Gardens
  • To get involved in the ABC Government Affairs Committee, contact Taylor Dupree at tdupree@abccentralflorida.org
  • Take Action – during session, we will be sending Action Alerts to you, asking that you help us contact legislators in support or opposition to upcoming votes. The more people who “Take Action” when we ask, the better we do at conveying the importance of the topic to the industry and Florida. The 2024 regular legislative session convenes on January 9 and runs until March 8.

ABC is Florida’s largest professional management association of commercial, industrial and institutional general contractors, specialty contractors, associates and suppliers.

Ranked by the U.S. Congress among the most influential organizations in the country, ABC was founded on and remains committed to our three-fold mission of safety and skills training, government and political affairs, and business development.

Current Florida Issues

2024 Legislative Priorities

The Legislative Agenda for ABC of Florida is determined by you - our members - during our annual Legislative Planning Conference as part of the Summer State Convention. Members from all five chapters vet issues, debate priorities, and then vote on specific bill or legislative efforts we will champion.

Career and Technical Education (HB917 Rep. Snyder / SB 460 Sen. Simon)

About Career and Technical Education:

Florida has made great strides in recent sessions in elevating and highlighting the value of strong workforce education programs and offerings.  From the establishment of the Pathways to Career Opportunities Grant for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs to establishing and supporting the Tool Time Tax Holiday for those getting their career start.  But we know that those efforts help people who may already be in the industry either employed or searching for employment.   In order to help construction and other industries identify their next generation of skilled workers, we need to be working collaboratively with our K-12 School Districts to introduce career offerings to students as early as Middle School and we need to increase and improve offerings to students in High School.  Middle School is often where students start to lose interest and hope in their future.  Introducing a variety of industry options in Middle School can positively impact the schools, students and their parents.  That was the impetus behind this legislation. 

The Bill:

  • Will allow 16 and 17 year olds in limited circumstances, like a summer job, gain experience on residential projects under required oversight and without violating OSHA. This comes at the request of the Homebuilders who are looking to provide some summer job/work experience on single family homes.  This part of our bill DOES NOT amend any child labor laws other than establishing minimal circumstances in which construction experience can be gained.
  • Will create the Statewide Career and Technical Education Task Force. The Task Force will have representatives from the Department of Education, Department of Commerce, Career and Technical Education, Industry, Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice.  Collectively they will review existing offerings, current funding levels, discuss critical industry needs, and then make recommendations to the Legislature on expanding CTE offerings and funding and under what circumstances.
  • The bill also seeks to amend how local jurisdictions address journeyman standing and licensing requirements. There are jurisdictions that do not adhere to existing reciprocity standards as established under Florida Statute.  We are seeking to clarify that process to ensure that those who obtain their journeyman status are not required to meet additional hurdles established by local jurisdictions.  The state establishes statewide determinations of journeyman standings.  Those should apply statewide regardless of the local jurisdiction.

 

Continuing Contracts Legislation (HB 149 Rep. Alvarez/SB 656 Sen. DiCeglie)

 About Continuing Contracts:

A continuing contract is the grouping together of multiple but smaller projects of lesser value, or, multiple similar projects under a certain dollar threshold value.  Florida Statute currently allows public owners to utilize this process for professional services (architectural or engineering) or management services for construction (General Contractor/Construction Management Services). 

The public owner utilizes a competitive solicitation process to procure the professional or management services for future projects.  Through the competitive process they will select multiple awardees who will operate in a rotation as future work becomes available.  When the public owner first needs their service, they’ll contact the first company on the list to see if they have time for the project.  If they do – the project is theirs.  If they are too busy on other projects, the public owner will go to the next company on the list.  So long as no individual project is more than the statutory cap, the rotation may continue.  This rotation will continue for a previously determined period of time for the awardees.  Once the time has expired, the public owner will put a new competitive solicitation out for certain services and select a new group of awardees. 

The benefit: putting together and managing competitive solicitations takes staff time and costs money. The grouping together of multiple smaller, or multiple but similar projects cuts down on time for public entity staff while still maintaining a required level of competitiveness. 

It also costs staff time and money for the private sector to put together bid responses.  For smaller or emerging companies, this process affords them the opportunity to get experience potentially on multiple projects via one procurement process. 

The Bill:

  • Will increase the current statutory cap from $4 million to $7.5 million to account for inflation, supply chain cost increases, overall construction cost increases, etc.
  • Will tie future rates to the Consumer Price Index so we don’t have to continue to adjust the cap based on market conditions.
  • Expands permissible use of continuing contracts to FDOT for geotechnical services.

Partners on the Bill:

ABC has negotiated the language with Local Governments, Architects, and the Florida Transportation Builders.  FTBA is having conversations with the Engineers about the geotechnical service component of the bill.

Workplace Heat Exposure and Employment Requirements (HB 433 Rep. Esposito/SB 1492 Sen. Trumbull)

About this Legislation:

This legislation seeks to ensure that all employers throughout Florida adhere to Federal OSHA standards.  Under OSHA’s General Duty Clause, employers are responsible for providing workplaces free of known safety and health hazards.  OSHA has used this clause for enforcement of heat-related violations for more than two decades and currently creates and publishes best practices, guidance, advice, and educational materials about working in hot environments.  These OSHA regulations apply to ALL industries, which means it is more comprehensive than proposed local ordinances previously contemplated, some of which only applied to the construction and agricultural industries.

Employers and employees are best served when safety and health regulations are uniform, predictable and easy to understand.  We know that OSHA is currently working on new heat exposure regulations that when released, will apply uniformly to all.  If OSHA takes too long to establish these standards, this legislation permits Florida to establish a uniform standard for the state so that we don’t have different standards in every county and municipality.

Lastly, this legislation addresses the prevalence of local governments subjectively establishing wage rates that differ per jurisdiction.  These subjective wage rates often change annually and can drive up the costs of existing projects and programs without much warning to the end user, the taxpayer.  This legislation reserves the right to establishing wage rates to the state.

ABC of Florida is part of a collaborative team supporting this legislation.

Private Provider Reforms in Multiple Bills: Building Regulations (HB 267 Rep. Esposito)/SB 684 Sen. DiCeglie)

This legislation will be incorporating language from ABC updating the definition of Private Providers as well as clarifying that when a licensed architect or engineer affixes their seal to their plans review and inspection documents that the Building Department must further expedite their timelines.

 

House Bill 267 also requires the expediting plans review and permit applications for residential projects.  This bill has already been heard in its first House Committee and passed favorably.

 

CONTACT YOUr legislators

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Track Bills in Florida

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National Government Affairs

National Legislative Issues
National Grassroots Team

ABC’s Lobbying Team:

Tallahassee

Carol Bowen, ABC Chief Lobbyist
3730 Coconut Creek Parkway, Suite 200
Coconut Creek, FL  33066
cbowen@abceastflorida.com

Additional ABC Lobbyists

Robert Stuart
Chris Carmody
GrayRobinson

Find ABC Chapters across the nation here.

Visit the ABC of Florida website for more information.