Construction spending during January 2022 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,677.2 billion, 1.3 percent above the upwardly revised December estimate of $1,655.8 billion. The January figure is 8.2 percent above the January 2021 estimate of $1,549.8 billion. [NOTE: During the early part of this year, comparisons against early 2021 figures may be greatly affected by the inflationary growth that took hold in mid-late 2021].  READ MORE HERE

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that construction spending during December 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,639.9 billion, 0.2 percent above the upward revised November estimate of $1,636.5 billion. The December figure is a substantial 9.0 percent above the December 2020 estimate of $1,504.2 billion. The value of construction in 2021 was $1,589.0 billion, 8.2 percent above the $1,469.2 billion spent in 2020 (which is somewhat tempered by a 7.0 inflation level for the year). The overall numbers, particularly the private sector increase in “residential” masked the poor performance of nonresidential spending for the year, which was actually slightly down. Meanwhile, public sector funding struggled finishing below 2020 numbers, where even highway spending saw only a slight bump from a year prior, given how late the infrastructure bill passed.   Read more.....

Today, The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses but decided to let a separate regulation that requires health care workers to get a vaccine take effect.  In 6-3 ruling on matter affecting private companies, the justices – lead by the Chief Justice John Roberts, halted the mandate for all private employers with 100 or more workers, ruling the states and companies that challenged the rule were likely to succeed.  In so doing, they rejected the Biden Administration officials argument that the 1970 organic Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) gave them the authority to impose the mandate.

The majority held in part, that: “Applicants (i.e., states and private businesses) are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate. Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no ‘everyday exercise of federal power.’ It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of employees.”  As for the health care workers mandate, the justices hesitated on whether or not the government had a winnable argument – and thus, allowed the rule to remain in place pending a final determination.

However, even the private business requirement is not entirely put to rest, since the ruling means the mandate is blocked while the case goes back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which overturned a stay that had been imposed by a different appeals court.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that construction spending during November 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,625.9 billion, 0.4 percent above the upward revised October estimate of $1,618.8 billion. The likely inflation-affected November figure is 9.3 percent above the November 2020 estimate of $1,487.2 billion. During the first eleven months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,463.2 billion, 7.9 percent above the $1,355.6 billion for the same period in 2020. 

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BLOCKED:  U.S. District Judge Stan Baker of Savannah, Georgia, issued the nationwide injunction against enforcing the mandate on Tuesday, Reuters reported, Baker ruled that President Joe Biden overstepped his authority when he issued the requirement that all federal contractors be fully vaccinated by Jan. 18. State attorneys general from Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia, in addition to a trade group that represents contractors, filed the suit. This reinforces and broaden out an earlier preliminary injunction ordered for only three mid-west states to a nationwide hold on the President’s attempt to mandate vaccines on all federal contract workers.

BREAKING NEWS!! U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove on Tuesday blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for some federal contractors.  In short, the federal judge found that Biden likely lacks the authority to impose such a mandate across the board saying in part: “The question presented here is narrow. Can the president use congressionally delegated authority to manage the federal procurement of goods and services to impose vaccines on the employees of federal contractors and subcontractors? In all likelihood, the answer to that question is no.”  As a result, Van Tatenhove granted a request for a preliminary injunction covering the three states that requested the stay – namely Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Biden signed an executive order in September that set-in motion a process that had OSHA take the lead on private sector businesses, with the assumption federal contractors could force all their workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine unless the worker is entitled to an exception based solely on the fact they were receiving federal dollars.  Any contractors who did not comply with the order, originally set with a Dec. 8 deadline, were poised to lose the government’s business.

The federal judge sited the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution while finding the three states arguments persuasive as they related to:  the vaccine mandate was both illegal and unconstitutional, in part because it was imposed with little regard to “important aspects surrounding the mandate, including but not limited to economic impacts, cost to States, cost to citizens, labor-force and supply-chain disruptions, the current risks of COVID-19, and basic distinctions among workers such as those with natural immunity to COVID-19 and those who work remotely or with limited in-person contacts, among other aspects.”

Construction spending during October 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,598.0 billion, 0.2 percent above the large upwardly revised September estimate of $1,594.8 billion. The October figure is 8.6 percent above the October 2020 estimate of $1,471.7 billion, aided in part by the beginning of a new federal government fiscal year, but also close to the current monthly inflation rate. During the first ten months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,323.1 billion, some 7.5 percent above the $1,230.8 billion for the same period in 2020 – again, in part possibly reflecting the growing inflationary trends in the market.

PRIVATE CONSTRUCTION:
Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,245.0 billion, 0.2 percent below the revised September estimate of $1,247.9 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $774.7 billion in October, 0.5 percent below the revised September estimate of $778.6 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $470.3 billion in October, 0.2 percent above the revised September estimate of $469.4 billion. 

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Reacting swiftly to the highly controversial rulemaking proposal from OSHA, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Saturday blocked the Biden administration’s private employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate, pointing out: “Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the mandate, the mandate is hereby STAYED pending further action by this court.” The private and state petitioners said the mandate, promulgated as an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), should be struck down because:

(1) It exceeds OSHA’s authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
(2) OHSA’s authority is limited to workplace-related hazards while the risk from COVID-19 is “a society-wide danger.”
(3) The mandate doesn’t make sense because determining whether COVID-19 is a workplace hazard depends on employees’ age and health, not the number of co-workers that exist at a given establishment or business place.
(4) The OSHA/Presidential mandate is being applied without approval from Congress.
(5) While couched as an emergency workplace rule affecting nearly 100 million Americans -- the ETS is neither a workplace rule nor responsive to an emergency; and
(6) Vaccination status is a public health issue  -- which is neither a hazard particular to the workplace, nor an emergency after being present for nearly two years.

In short, the petitioner were successful in obtaining the STAY, by pointing out -- Congress did not grant OSHA such sweeping powers in its authorizing statute, and it is doubtful the President or the FEDERAL Government has such powers either.

The first signs of supply chain disruptions, inflationary prices, and labor shortages may have crept into the latest U.S. Census Bureau numbers. Construction spending during September 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,573.6 billion, 0.5 percent below the already downward revised August estimate of $1,582.0 billion, with the bulk of the slowdown coming in residential spending. However, the September figure is 7.8 percent above the September 2020 estimate of $1,459.3 billion. During the first nine months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,177.5 billion, 7.1 percent above the $1,099.8 billion for the same period in 2020.

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The Inaugural Construction Inclusion Week is here: October 18 - 22, 2021 and more than one thousand contractors have united to promote inclusion in the construction industry. In November 2020, CIRT held its first session on DEI featuring Dr. Robert W. Livingston, author of The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth about Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations, as well as a panel of CEO leaders:  Mark Cain, President, Smoot Construction; Mike McKelvy, President & CEO, Gilbane Building Co.; Tom Reilly, Executive Vice President, Turner Construction; and Dan Johnson, President & CEO, Mortenson.  This was the genesis of the "Time for Change" Consortium and during CIRT's Spring Conference this past June, members of the Consortium participated in a second panel discussion addressing some of the challenges and solutions related to diversity and inclusion impacting the construction industry. You can watch the full panel discussion below. #ConstructionInclusionWeek #TimeForChange #CEOLeadership