On Monday, November 15, after Congress passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, President Biden signed it into law. This law will pour billions into roads and bridges, transit, broadband services, airports, waterways and more. Although a majority of the provisions are related to physical structures and developments, several provisions relate to labor and employment:

• Sec. 41101 mandates prevailing wages as determined by the Secretary of Labor in accordance with the Davis-Bacon Act for laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors that work on a project assisted in whole or in part by funding made available under the relevant division, for example, the Energy Division.
• Sec. 80604 ends the Employee Retention Tax Credit early. The ERTC was set to expire on Jan. 1, 2022, but the Act accelerates the end of the credit retroactive to October 1, 2021 (except for wages paid by a recovery startup business, for which the expiration date would remain unchanged).
• Sec. 23022 imposes record keeping requirements on employers that participate in the commercial driver apprenticeship program.
• Sec. 22427 establishes substance testing requirements for mechanical employees of railroads.
• Sec. 60102(h)(1)(A)(iv)(I-IV) creates a prioritization process for awarding grants for broadband deployment. Groups that receive federal funds for performing broadband work must prioritize projects based on:
  • Whether it is in an area of persistent or high poverty;
  • The speed of the proposed...

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