Blacklisting Battle

On the General Contracting side of the construction business there’s an interesting battle happening that is due to come to a head this coming week.  This issue at hand is what the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is calling “Blacklisting” which is coming from a 2014 executive order from President Obama that is titled “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces.”  According to the ABC, the concern is that the proposal possibly could result in quality federal contractors being unfairly left out (or blacklisted) from future federal contracts by newly designated bureaucrats.  According to the ABC:

The proposal imposes a sweeping new regulatory scheme on federal contractors that will disrupt the federal procurement process, significantly increase red tape and costs for both government and industry, and serve as a barrier to federal contracting for many businesses.

Comments on this are due this week and it will be interesting to see if the ABC gets anywhere.  How this affects our industry is obvious… blowback from GC’s that may have previously done the work and now could be booted and also more red tape?  No thank you.    With government work a major piece of many company’s pies, this bears watching.  If you want deeper information on this, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Elsewhere…

--  The “app” for GlassBuild is now out- if you still have from last year, just click on it and it will update to the info for this year.  If you do not have, go ahead to the App Store or Google Play and download it.  You do not want to attend this show without it.  It’s like having a personal assistant right with you making sure you are seeing and experiencing all you can.

--  The Architectural Billings Index hung in there in July.  Slightly down from August but still solidly in the plus range.  If there’s a worry now it’s the struggles of the stock market.  Last week was ugly, I am afraid to see what this week will bring.  I guess you can never get too comfortable with our economy…

--  For those of you much smarter than me and those into the environmental responsibility angle, the folks at Enclos wrote a fantastic piece on Health Product Declarations for glass.  Worth the read or at worse a bookmark for when this issue comes across your desk.

--  A HAPPY belated 40^th Anniversary wish to my pal, TGP’s Chuck Knickerbocker and his wife.  Chuck is as smart as they come in our world and passionate about what we all do.  Thrilled that he has such a great milestone to celebrate with his bride!

--  Normally this would go in my links but this is too good for that area.  17 legendary locales, must visit places… shown as you imagine and then shown in reality.  Incredible.

--  Last this week… I noted previously my excitement over Hawaii doing what they are doing energy wise.  Now comes news that the city of Boise, Idaho is presenting a new standard for all buildings in that community to be built following a “voluntary” green building code.  While the push is voluntary the city seems to be going out of its way to make sure that everyone understands the benefits of building sustainably.  Hopefully by doing it this way, people will embrace the effort, grow it organically and do right for our universe.  Good for Boise, and the best thing to come out of Idaho since the football hall of famer and super glass guy Dave Michaeli.

LINKS of the WEEK

Tremendous story of a person that was thinking.  And of course he’s from Canada, so I expect nothing less!

Good piece on why Millennials struggle in the workplace.

And you knew it was coming… going to be a cold and snowywinter says the Farmers Almanac

VIDEO of the WEEK

I love good stories and love college football- so combine the two and I’m good.  Many schools like to surprise their walk on players when they end up getting scholarships. It is so cool to see the reaction of the teammates to one of their own getting that step up.  This one is from Notre Dame.  Love it!