Top Priorities for the Final Months of 2024

Equipment Tax Incentives Extenders Package
We are giving our strongest support for expedited Senate passage of (House passed) H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for America’s Families and Workers Act, as passed by the House (357-70) Jan. 31.

The nation is seeing robust and record setting growth of construction activity following the enactment of major policy changes, especially the Infrastructure Act, CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act’s private sector tax incentives.

Therefore, we are asking the Senate’s support for three essential tax incentive provisions: 

• Retroactive Extension of the 100% Bonus Depreciation: This would restore the 100% bonus depreciation for qualified property, instead of the current 20% annual phase down that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023. 
• Retroactive Extension and Permanence for 174 Research and Development Expenditures: This would allow companies to immediately deduct R&D expenses instead of amortizing over five years.
• Expand Section 179 expensing and interest deductibility for small businesses: This would increase the maximum eligible amount of equipment investment and extend the point at which the benefit phases out.

Change Order Reform
We are boosting efforts to pass H.R. 2726, The Small Business Payment for Performance Act, which is vital legislation sponsored by Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN). The bill would make essential reforms to federal contracting practices to resolve change order disputes that harm contractors and taxpayers more quickly. Original co-sponsors include Rep. Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Rep. Veasey (D-TX). This critical proposal has already passed the House in the last Congress (117th). It continues to receive bipartisan support with nearly two dozen cosponsors in this Congress and broad business support from union and non-union organizations.

Under current federal procurement practices, builders like those who are members of SMACNA aren’t paid for change orders until after the entire federal project is finished. The federal government can add millions of dollars to the cost of a project via a change order. It can take months or years of waiting to recoup those costs. H.R. 2726 would address this problem by requiring the federal government to pay 50% of the cost of a change order once those additional changes are completed and certified.