By: Terri Cordia and Bill Osterndorf
On March 14, 2023, the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP) launched its Mega Construction Project (Megaproject) Program. The Megaproject Program is another step towards OFCCP’s efforts to ensure Construction Contractors provide fair and equitable practices in the workplace.
OFCCP’s Megaproject Program is in part a response to the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” (BIL) signed into law in November of 2021. BIL allocated $550 billion for the fiscal years of 2022 through 2026 to investment in the country’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, mass transit, water infrastructure, and broadband. Projects that may be part of OFCCP’s Megaproject Program are BIL funded construction projects valued at $35 million or more, some part of which is federal funding, where the project lasts for at least one year. OFCCP’s Megaproject Program Quick Reference Guide states that OFCCP’s is committed to offering compliance assistance and fostering collaboration between the prime contractor, subcontractors and community stakeholders. OFCCP’s intent is to remove hiring barriers and ensure there are diverse pools of qualified workers for trade jobs.
The OFCCP Mega Construction Projects Program fiscal year 2024 budget request is $10 million to expand workforce and technological capacity. As outlined in the Sixteen Affirmative Action Steps, the Megaproject Program provides a structure in which OFCCP:
- Conducts outreach and engages with prime contractors to regularly convene a range of stakeholders in Equal Employment Opportunity, including the project funding agency, prime and subcontractor, unions, apprenticeship/pre-apprenticeship programs, and community-based organizations focused on fair and equitable hiring and employment opportunities for applicants in underrepresented communities.
- Provides on-going assistance at the pre-bid and post-bid stage to prime contractors and subcontractors on their nondiscrimination and affirmative action obligations.
- Evaluates the contractor’s efforts to recruit and utilize talent from underrepresented backgrounds and promote contractor compliance with anti-discrimination and affirmative action requirements.
- Promotes awareness of eligibility for Indian preferences where projects are located on or near Indian reservations and foster outreach to workers in these communities.
- Updated the letter that opens an affirmative action compliance review for construction companies in 2021 to ask for significantly more information than was requested in the past.
- Revised the Technical Assistance Guide for Construction in 2019.
- Conducted hundreds of compliance reviews of construction companies after doing hardly any construction reviews for years.
- Introduced the Notification of Construction Contract Award Portal (NCAP) in 2022 that provides a new way for federal contractors to let OFCCP know about subcontractors being used on federal projects.
These actions make it clear that the construction contractor community intends to focus far more of its resources on construction companies.
OFCCP’s Mega Construction Projects Program Reference Sheet defines the distinction between a direct federal construction contractor and a federally assisted construction contractor. Since the Megaproject Program will focus on BIL-funded construction projects, it is likely companies involved in federally assisted construction projects will experience the full impact of the new Megaproject Program.
DCI Consulting offers a wide range of services, including consulting on federal construction contractor affirmative action obligations. We can help your organization meet its compliance obligations.
