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With projections showing former President Donald Trump has retaken the presidency, the focus for construction observers now turns to the final tally in Congress, and how a new Trump administration will begin to take shape.
The uncertainty in projections up to Election Day on Nov. 5 had many forecasters describing the White House race, and multiple House and Senate contests, as toss-ups. Now as the dust settles, a new alignment shows Republicans in control of the White House and Senate, with the final control of the House still unresolved as of early Nov. 6.
Construction industry groups, managers and workers were no doubt among those riveted to their screens to learn the outcomes for other contests.
Jeff Urbanchuk, American Council of Engineering Companies senior vice president for political communications and strategic issues, said in comments emailed to ENR that ACEC also was “monitoring some key races.” They include contests involving the 16 engineers now in Congress.
Urbanchuk says those incumbents are “champions for infrastructure and ACEC’s legislative priorities, and potential candidates that could slide into key chair roles on committees with jurisdiction over priority areas like infrastructure, water, environment, energy, tax policy, and anything having to do with the engineering workforce or policies.”
Urbanchuk also notes that not all of that group of legislators are from the branches of engineering in ACEC’s usual sphere, but all are in STEM fields. It is a bipartisan group and includes three senators—Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Alejandro Padilla (D-Calif.).
Heading into the election, the Associated Builders and Contractors has had several broad areas of focus, “regardless of the outcomes,” says Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs.
Brubeck said in emailed comments that those themes include how the next administration will address construction’s labor shortage of more than 500,000. If Trump wins, Brubeck is looking to see whether he will roll back what Brubeck terms “harmful regulations” concerning workforce development. A related question is how Trump would address immigration in the construction industry in his overall immigration policies.
Regarding infrastructure, he says, "ABC is not pushing for more spending, but instead is asking when and how these projects will get built with money already authorized." Brubeck says that about 60% of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding “has not hit the streets yet.” He says that means there will be many public-sector contract awards and groundbreakings for new projects in the next four years.
With that volume of public funding, “How will the health of the economy impact private construction and development?” Brubeck asks.
ABC also is interested in whether Trump, if elected, would move to cancel other current regulations, some applying to construction, such as those for project permitting, and others that apply broadly, such as an Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation clarifying employees’ rights to authorize a representative to accompany an OSHA official during workplace inspections.
Also among ABC’s areas of interest are cost inflation for construction materials, as well as tax policy and nominees for federal judgeships and other positions.
Editor's note: The text of this article was updated 11/6/2024 to reflect a clarification on ABC's infrastructure position.
