51·çÁ÷

On August 13, 51·çÁ÷ submitted  on the July 14, 2009 Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council , which implemented President Obama's Executive Order 13502 to create new FAR contract clauses to be included in Federal contracts should an agency choose to require a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) on a particular Federal construction project. The proposed rule encourages (not requires) agencies to consider (not necessarily adopt) a PLA requirement on large-scale construction projects (defined as projects with a total cost to the federal government of $25 million or more) on a project-by-project basis where certain criteria are met. 51·çÁ÷'s comments focused on this vague and subjective set of requirements agencies had to meet to impose a PLA on a project. 51·çÁ÷ also pointed out that the agency requirement that the PLA must "allow all contractors and subcontractors to compete for contracts and subcontracts without regard to whether they are otherwise parties to collective bargaining agreements" is ostensibly a fair principle, but is unrealistic, considering the very burdensome changes that a public PLA typically imposes on open shop contractors operations. The comment period on the  relating to project labor agreements was subsequently  for 30 days, with a new deadline of September 23. If you would like to submit your views, you can send comments by mail to General Services Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (VPR), 1800 F Street, NW, Room 4041, ATTN: Hada Flowers, Washington, D.C. 20405, or by fax to (202) 501-4067. Comments can also be submitted online via the federal eRulemaking portal by clicking . Read more about 51·çÁ÷'s Comments and the Proposed Rule .