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MCAA Government Affairs Update for the Week of September 22, 2025: The Latest Developments Impacting Our Industry

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As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting your livelihood and setting the stage for a bright future, MCAA has secured the services of Longbow Public Policy Group to advise our MCAA Government Affairs Committee (GAC). GAC Chair, Jim Gaffney will be passing along information relative to our industry on a regular basis.

On Monday, September 22, 2025 MCAA Lobbying Firm, Longbow Public Policy Group provided the following information:

Trump Administration

  • Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a request for comments on a proposed rule establishing standards implementing the “no tax on tips” deduction in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that may be of particular interest to MCAA members employing residential HVAC technicians and installers, residential plumbers, and appliance repairmen. This is because among the 70 occupations the IRS is proposing to make eligible for the OBBBA’s “No Tax on Tips” deduction are certain “home services” occupations, including: (1) Home Plumbers; (2) Home Heating and Air Conditioning Mechanics and Installers; and (3) Home Appliance Installers and Repairers. If finalized as proposed, MCAA members employing such workers will have new obligations to track and report “qualified tips” for these workers on revised tax forms. The proposed rule defines “qualified tips” as cash tips received by an individual in an occupation that customarily and regularly received tips on or before December 31, 2024. Comments on the proposed standards are due October 22, 2025 and can be submitted through the federal eRulemaking portal using REG-110032-25.
  • As MCAA continues to engage on permitting reform, we were briefed last week on the Trump Energy Department’s (DOE) new “Speed to Power Initiative” to accelerate large-scale grid infrastructure project development for both transmission and generation to ensure sufficient power for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers while ensuring a continued supply of affordable, reliable energy for consumers. The initiative was launched in response to a July 2025 DOE analysis that we detailed in our July 14, 2025 Government Affairs Committee report. To solicit the support and expertise of industry and the public to kickstart the Speed to Power Initiative, last Thursday DOE published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking feedback on actions it can take to meet projected electricity demand growth from AI, advanced manufacturing, semiconductor fabrication plants, and other large energy users. The RFI specifically highlights DOE funding programs and authorities to support such infrastructure projects, including: (1) DOE Loans and Loan Guarantees, which can be used to support grid infrastructure and electricity generation projects, including high-voltage transmission, generation, grid upgrades, and integrated systems that support load growth; (2) the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, which provides funding for substation upgrades, grid hardening, advanced control systems, and innovative approaches to enhance reliability and improve transmission, storage, and other regional energy infrastructure; (3) the Transmission Facilitation Program, under which DOE provides long-term financial assistance to help overcome the financial hurdles in the development of large-scale new transmission lines and upgrading existing transmission; and (4) DOE technical assistance, which provides access to advanced modeling and analytical capabilities of the DOE National Laboratories to address grid modernization and infrastructure investment challenges. The RFI also requests information on specific large-scale generation, transmission, and grid infrastructure projects that are under development, in planning, or construction-ready that should be considered and considered for priority siting and permitting, technical support, and/or federal funding assistance by DOE. Specifically, DOE requests detailed information for such projects, including among others: (1) the project’s region, name, geographical location, and description, including detailed maps or geospatial data of the project, if available; (2) the project’s type and size (e.g., 100-mile 500 kV transmission line, 1.1 GW nuclear plant, 20 GW data center/grid corridor, etc.); (3) the project’s current development stage (e.g., conceptual, environmental planning and permitting, financing, or construction-ready); (4) a description of how the project is critical to meeting confirmed or anticipated large electric loads; and (5) a description of how DOE financial assistance, loan guarantees, or technical assistance could support the project. Comments are due by 5pm ET on November 21, 2025 and can be submitted by email to SpeedtoPowerRFI@hq.doe.gov.
  • Last Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a lawsuit against the State of New York contesting the validity of S. 8034A, a state law that amended New York’s Labor Relations Act to give the New York Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) authority to oversee private sector union elections and to investigate and resolve complaints of unfair labor practices that violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Acting NLRB General Counsel William Cowen authorized the lawsuit asserting that the NLRB holds exclusive jurisdiction under the NLRA over such private sector labor disputes and that laws such as S. 8034A are preempted by the NLRA. The case is being closely watched by unionized employers, labor organizations, the Trump Administration and Congress because New York enacted S. 8034A to fill the vacuum created by the NLRB lacking the three-member quorum necessary to issue decisions in cases concerning violations of the NLRA after President Trump dismissed without cause former NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox, who continues to challenge the legality of her firing. President Trump’s nominees to fill the vacancies on the NLRB remain pending in the Senate, so it is unclear when the Board will have a quorum to decide cases.
  • MCAA is continuing to engage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) following its abandonment of the Biden-era non-compete rule that MCAA began registering concerns about when it was proposed in January 2023. In following up on the FTC’s plans to replace the Biden-era rule with a case-by-case enforcement approach, last Wednesday we learned that the Commission will hold a workshop on October 8, 2025 entitled “Moving Forward: Protecting Workers from Anticompetitive Noncompete Agreements” to explain its new approach. The workshop will be hosted by the FTC’s Labor Task Force created by FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson to prioritize prosecution of deceptive, unfair, and anticompetitive labor-market practices. The workshop follows last week’s FTC enforcement action against noncompete agreements in the pet cremation industry; a broad request for information seeking tips that could lead to further enforcement actions; and a series of letters from the FTC to healthcare companies warning them to review and eliminate any anticompetitive noncompete agreements they may be using. The October 8th workshop will include FTC Commissioners, victims of unfair and anticompetitive noncompete agreements, and leading legal experts. A full agenda and list of speakers, as well as virtual access information will be made available here. There is no requirement to register to attend.
  • There was an important development on the decarbonization front last Monday when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a sweeping proposal to eliminate Obama-era greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting requirements for all source categories under the Clean Air Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), except for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems covered under subpart W of 40 CFR 98 (subpart W facilities). The EPA wants to permanently eliminate the GHGRP for most sectors because of high regulatory costs coupled with the lack of clear statutory authority for it. The agency estimates the rule could save businesses up to $2.4 billion in compliance costs. The proposed rule stems from the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution (H. J. Res. 35) that the MCAA helped to pass earlier this year nullifying the Biden-era EPA final rule that would have implemented a waste emissions charge (WEC) on methane emissions starting in September 2025. The WEC is an annual fee imposed by the EPA on certain oil and gas facilities that emit excessive amounts of methane. Rather than fully eliminating reporting requirements for all subpart W facilities, the EPA proposes to suspend reporting for most of them until January 1, 2034 when they are scheduled to take effect under a delay included in the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Comments are due by November 3, 2025 and should be submitted through the federal eRulemaking portal using Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0186. The EPA will host a related public hearing on October 1, 2025 from 8am to 6pm ET, with additional details including location and access information available here.
  • Last Monday, Department of Energy contact shared with MCAA an interesting decarbonization development in an unexpected place—the Trump-appointed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We were told that the SEC approved a proposal from Exxon to help the company counteract shareholder proposals from activist investors pushing the company to diversify away from fossil fuels by allowing Exxon to request that its thousands of individual investors, who own 40% of the company’s stock, to sign up for a free program that would cast their votes on shareholder proposals in lockstep with the company. Exxon is the first non-financial public company pursuing such a plan. The SEC’s decision clears a path for other companies to follow suit. Exxon’s plan and the SEC’s approval are being taken as signs that the Trump SEC will support companies’ more emboldened strategies for taking on activist investors, particularly with regards to environmental and social issues that have increasingly fallen out of favor.
  • As the Trump Administration continues to scrutinize federal programs and the operations of private sector businesses for activities it deems to be discriminatory and unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), on Friday, September 12th, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued OMB Memorandum M-25-33 entitled, “Eliminating Funding of Unlawful Discrimination,” providing that entities receiving federal funding “must adhere to the equal protection principles under the U.S. Constitution and applicable federal antidiscrimination statutes” as set forth in Department of Justice (DOJ) guidance issued in July when managing federal programs and overseeing federal funding recipients. Notably, OMB says all “entities that receive federal financial assistance or that are otherwise subject to federal antidiscrimination laws, including educational institutions, state and local governments, and public and private employers, should review this guidance carefully to ensure all programs comply with their legal obligations.” The DOJ guidance OMB relies on includes several examples relevant to the operation of training, apprenticeship, and similar programs. Among other things, the guidance states: (1) recipients of federal funds should “eliminate diversity quotas” and “focus solely on nondiscriminatory performance metrics, such as program participation rates or academic outcomes, without reference to race, sex, or other protected traits”; (2) recipients of federal funds should “discontinue policies that mandate representation of specific racial, sex-based, or other protected groups in candidate pools, hiring panels, or final selections”; (3) recipients of federal funds must “replace a policy requiring ‘at least one minority candidate per slate’ with a process that evaluates all applicants based on merit”; (4) recipients of federal funds must “prohibit demographic-driven criteria” by discontinuing “any program or policy designed to achieve discriminatory outcomes, even those using facially neutral means” because “[i]ntent to influence demographic representation risks violating federal law” (e.g., a scholarship program must not target ‘underserved geographic areas’ or ‘first-generation students’ if the criteria are chosen to increase participation by specific racial or sex-based groups); (5) recipients of federal funds are required to “use universally applicable criteria, such as academic merit or financial hardship, applied without regard to protected characteristics or demographic goals”; and (6) recipients of federal funds are advised to “scrutinize neutral criteria for proxy effects” and gives the example of a “program targeting ‘low-income students’” warning that it “must be applied uniformly without targeting areas or populations to achieve racial or sex-based outcomes.”

Congress

  • Last Friday, the House voted 217-212 to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government until November 21, 2025. Two Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN)—opposed the bill, while one Democrat—Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME)—voted for it.Shortly after the House passed their CR, Friday afternoon Senate Democrats blocked consideration of it by a vote of 44-48. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) were the only Republicans to vote against the House-passed CR, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only Democrat to vote for it. The Senate also rejected, in a 47-45 vote, an alternative CR introduced from Senate Democrats that would have extended government funding through October 31, 2025 and reauthorize health insurance premium subsidies established by the Affordable Care Act that expire at the end of the year. The failure of the CR in the Senate significantly raises the prospects of a government shutdown when funding expires on September 30th, especially after GOP House leadership sent members home until at least October 1, 2025 in an effort to pressure the Senate to agree to the House-passed CR. The Senate is also scheduled to be out of session next week, but is returning on September 29th—one day before government funding expires.
  • Last Wednesday, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), along with Reps. Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Dina Titus (D-NV), advanced the bipartisan Promoting Innovation in Pipeline Efficiency and Safety (PIPES) Act (H.R. 5301) to the full House for a vote. The legislation reauthorizes Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) pipeline safety programs for the next four years, reinforces the safety oversight of millions of miles of existing pipelines, including new carbon dioxide and hydrogen pipelines, and provides $450 million in dedicated funding to replace aging pipes. The bill also seeks to advance carbon capture and storage by requiring the Transportation Secretary to complete a rulemaking establishing minimum safety standards for the transportation and temporary storage of carbon dioxide incidental to the transportation of carbon dioxide and makes amendments to the United States Code to facilitate responsible regulation of carbon dioxide pipelines. A Committee summary of the PIPES Act is available here.
  • After GOP senators invoked the “nuclear option” to make it easier to confirm President Trump’s Executive Branch nominees, last Thursday, the Senate voted 51-47 to confirm 48 presidential nominees. Of particular interest to MCAA, this vote resulted in the confirmation of some appointees running agencies overseeing issues of great importance to our industry, including: (1) Daniel Aronowitz to lead the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration that enforces ERISA and oversees ERISA-governed multiemployer retirement and health plans; (2) Theodore Garrish to be the Energy Department’s Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy; (3) Kyle Haustveit to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy; (4) Paul Roberti to lead the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration; (6) Jessica Kramer to be the Environmental Protection Administration’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water; (7) Conner Prochaska to be Director of the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency; (8) Leslie Beyer to be the Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management; and (9) Andrea Travnicek to be the Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. MCAA is also seeking to confer with some of these new appointees on issues of concern to our association. 
  • Following the confirmation of the first bloc of nominees under the revised Senate rules, last Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Thune introduced a resolution (S. Res. 412) to confirm a second bloc 108 Executive Branch nominees, including MCAA-endorsed OSHA nominee, David Keeling. This latest tranche of nominees also includes several others of interest to MCAA, including: (2) Andrew Rogers to lead the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division; (3) Jonathan Berry to be Solicitor of the Labor Department; (4) Janet Dhillon to lead the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; (5) Audrey Robertson to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; (6) Timothy Walsh to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management; (7) Laura Swett and David LaCerte to be  members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; (8) Kevin Rhodes to be Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy; and (9) Brittany Panuccio to member of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This latest bloc of nominees is expected to be confirmed the week of September 29th when Congress returns to session.
  • MCAA is monitoring two employment-related bills introduced in Congress last week. Last Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) reintroduced the Equal Employment for All Act that would prohibit employers from requesting a job applicant’s credit history, obtaining a consumer or investigative report, and disqualifying applicants based on a poor credit rating. The bill also prohibits credit reporting agencies from providing credit reports to employers for use in employment decisions. The bill is cosponsored in the Senate by Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Last Tuesday, Reps. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Pete Stauber (R-MN) introduced the Faster Labor Contracts Act establishing strict deadlines for employers and unions to meet once unions request contract negotiations or following an NLRB election certification, and mandating binding arbitration if a first contract is not reached within mandated time frames. Specifically, the bill provides that after 90 days of bargaining, the parties would be required to go to mediation and after 30 more days, the negotiations would go to binding arbitration, and the resulting arbitration decision would set the terms of an initial two-year collective bargaining agreement. Other cosponsors of the bill are: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA); Chris Deluzio (D-PA); Nikki Budzinski (D-IL); Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY); Tim Kennedy (D-NY); Don Bacon (R-NE); Josh Riley (D-NY); Mike Lawler (R-NY); Angie Craig (D-MN); Michael Rulli (R-OH); Jared Golden (D-ME); Nick LaLota (R-NY); Emily Randall (D-WA); Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ); Rick Larsen (D-WA); Chris Smith (R-NJ); Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA); Rob Bresnahan (R-PA); Seth Magaziner (D-RI); Riley Moore (R-WV); Morgan McGarvey (D-KY); Andrew Garbarino (R-NY); Haley Stevens  (D-MI); and Stephen Lynch (D-MA).     

Across the Country

  • MCAA affiliates in Indiana may be interested to know that last Wednesday, the Energy Department (DOE) awarded $77,217,590 to ENTEK Lithium Separators LLC (ENTEK) to help finance a lithium-ion battery separator manufacturing facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. The ENTEK facility will be the only U.S.-owned and U.S.-based producer of “wet-process” lithium-ion battery separator materials that can be used across industries such as data centers, energy storage, and consumer electronics. The project is expected to create approximately 763 construction jobs.
  • As the MCAA continues to monitor and engage on the Trump Administration’s decarbonization efforts, we wanted to note that last week the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division filed a motion for summary judgement in its litigation initiated in May to invalidate Vermont’s “climate superfund” law seeking to impose liability on energy companies for their alleged past contributions to climate change. In its motion, DOJ says, “Vermont is defying federal law, the Constitution, and binding precedent—all so it can punish disfavored businesses for ill-defined harms, without regard to the real harm to our federal system and the Nation’s energy needs.” The government asks the court to “end Vermont’s lawless experiment.” The motion refers to a case the DOJ filed against a similar New York law, saying that “[l]ike New York, Vermont is usurping the federal government’s exclusive authority over nationwide and global greenhouse gas emissions.”
  • Last Tuesday, MCAA was informed that the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded a $1.5 billion sole-source contract to BWXT Enrichment Operations, LLC, for the licensing, manufacturing, development, facility construction, and operations of a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) pilot plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The DUECE pilot plant is expected to provide a reliable, domestic supply of unobligated enriched uranium for U.S. national defense purposes. This includes providing low-enriched uranium (LEU) for tritium production, and highly enriched uranium (HEU) for naval nuclear propulsion. The DUECE pilot will not be used to produce enriched uranium for the commercial nuclear power industry, but construction of the facility may provide work for some MCAA contractors.
  • MCAA affiliates in New York should be aware that last Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an order pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act directing the City of Syracuse, New York to address lead levels in drinking water by: (1) improving corrosion control to prevent lead from pipes leaching into water; (2) continuing proper lead tap sampling at appropriate locations; and (3) establishing a “robust plan” for educating the public on the health risks of lead and how to reduce their exposure.
  • MCAA affiliates in Texas should be aware that last Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Clean Air Act (CAA) permit to allow Texas GulfLink’s proposed deepwater port about 30 miles southeast of Freeport, TX to move forward using a vapor capture and control technology mounted on an offshore support vessel. Per the EPA, the offshore deepwater port will be able to load very large crude carriers with up to 85,000 barrels per hour, or 365 million barrels a year. This is the first use of the vapor capture and control technology alongside a very large crude oil carrier while it is being loaded and tethered to a single-point mooring buoy at a deepwater port. The permit is valid for five years from the effective date of issuance.
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