A coalition of national environmental and conservation organizations recently sent a report entitled Transition to Green: Leading the way to a healthy environment, a green economy, and a sustainable future to the transition team for the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama, highlighting its top environmental recommendations. Based on this and other indications, two of the areas of concern to our industry will be water and children.
The Kids Safe Chemical Act (KSCA) and the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA) are the bills that are expected to be reintroduced early on in the new session of Congress. Changes just in the definition of what is “navigable” could affect any application near any small water areas such as man-made lakes and ponds, drainage ditches, and the like. The group also points to storm water in urban areas as a problem that needs more regulation. The goal of KSCA is to produce a strong health-based law that presumes industrial chemicals “are guilty of producing a toxic body burden unless proven other wise.” Both these bills have much better chances of being passed this year.
Federal Contractors Required to Use E-Verify System. Federal contractors and subcontractors will be required to begin using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ E-Verify system starting Jan. 15, 2009, to verify their employees’ eligibility to legally work in the United States. The new rule implements Executive Order 12989, as amended by President George W. Bush on June 6, 2008, directing federal agencies to require that federal contractors agree to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their employees.
The amended Executive Order reinforces the policy, first announced in 1996, that the federal government does business with companies that have a legal workforce. This new rule requires federal contractors to agree, through language inserted into their federal contracts, to use E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all persons hired during a contract term, and to confirm the employment eligibility of federal contractors’ current employees who perform contract services for the federal government within the United States.
Federal contracts awarded and solicitations issued after Jan. 15, 2009, will include a clause committing government contractors to use E-Verify. The same clause will also be required in subcontracts of more than $3,000 for services or construction. Contracts exempt from this rule include those that are for less than $100,000 and those that are for commercially available, off-the-shelf items. Companies awarded a contract with the federal government will be required to enroll in E-Verify within 30 days of the contract award date. They will also need to begin using the E-Verify system to confirm that all of their new hires and their employees directly working on federal contracts are authorized to legally work in the United States.
U.S. House of Representatives. The first bill in the House, H.R. 1, could be the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which is a proposed amendment to the federal labor law that governs employer-union relations at companies other than airline and railroad companies. EFCA would replace the secret ballot elections method, currently used by employees when deciding whether to have union representation, with a “card check” procedure that would result in certification of a union if a majority of employees in an appropriate work group simply sign union cards. This would make it much easier for a union to become the collective bargaining representative of a group of employees at a company.
Additionally, EFCA would significantly change the process for negotiating a first contract. Changes would include mandatory government-run arbitration to establish the terms and conditions of employment in the initial contract if the parties cannot reach agreement during direct and mediated negotiations. You may remember that last year, PLANET had you send letters to stop this bill from being passed in the Senate after it had been passed in the House.
Illinois/Green Roofs and Roofers. In recent months, the United Union of Roofers, Water Roofers and Allied Workers Local No. 11 have launched a campaign to establish roofers as the primary installers of green roof systems. With some success, they have put together a multi-faceted campaign that includes marketing, specialized education and filing of jurisdictional grievances. These grievances may have a significant impact on green roof installation and maintenance by landscape contractors within the state of Illinois.
The roofers’ union apparently feels that any construction that occurs on a roof falls within the domain of a roofer. This position is misguided considering that heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors and other tradesmen do construction on roofs all the time and are not roofers. Furthermore, landscape contractors have the experience and expertise to ensure the long-term viability of a green roof since they have expert knowledge of plant installation, selection and maintenance.
For more information about this development in Illinois, contact Scott Grams, executive director of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association; who provided this information. This campaign, if successful, could become a problem in other states.
EPA/Storm water. EPA asked the National Research Council to review its storm water program. The report finds that the program will require significant changes if it is to improve the quality of the nation’s waters. This report calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put the authority and accountability for storm water discharges at the municipal watershed level.
A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (i.e., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat storm water, are recommended. Look for more local involvement in water quality and quantity. We need to educate the EPA about the ability of turfgrass to help stop runoff.
Web-Distributed Labeling. The main thrust behind this concept is to simplify complex labels (especially those with a variety of directions on how to use them, some 80 pages long). A number of issues related to this concept still need to be addressed, including:
- Who should host the Web-distributed labeling site(s)?
- What labeling should be affixed to the container vs. the Web-distributed labeling portion?
- How will distribution take place?
- How will activation/expiration dates be set?
- How often must the user check the Web site for label updates?
- Is protection of states’ rights to reflect their own requirements a concern?
- How will registrant copyright and liability issues and creation of a searchable database be handled?
- Should the system be mandatory or voluntary for registrants?
- How do you distinguish between professional-use products and consumer products?
- Should consumer products be included?
Implementation of Web-distributed labeling may be several years away, but I’m concerned that the requirement to check the Web for updates could be problematic. However, the Endangered Species Act requirement to check for updates on a Web site may be a good test case when it becomes a requirement.
What can you do? One of the ways you need to be proactive on these issues is reach out to the new members of Congress and check out their backgrounds to see if there are any industry connections. One example is Rep.-elect Kathy Dahlkemper of the third district in Pennsylvania, part owner of Dahlkemper Landscape Architects and Contractors, a major landscaping firm in the Erie, Pennsylvania area and PLANET member. For the past 11 years she worked as the human resource manager and director of special projects for the firm. She is also co-founder and director of the Lake Erie Arboretum at Frontier Park. Let
me know if you have any special connections.
H-2B. It appears the next chance to get some relief on H-2B will be in the next session of Congress. It is expected that the H-2B bills will be reintroduced in the House and Senate after those members of Congress that were co-sponsors have been asked to all be original sponsors. The second half of the cap (33,000 visas) is expected to be reached by January 2009. For the latest information about the current cap count, go online to USCIS.gov, click on Service Benefits and select Employer Information, and then scroll down the page and click on “Current Cap Count for Non-Immigrant Worker Visas for Fiscal Year 2009.”
Tom Delaney is PLANET's director of government affairs.
