AGC: Bans that target contractors unfair
Group urges lawmakers not to penalize contractors bidding on border security projects
A contractor organization is urging state and local officials in California not to pass legislation that punishes companies that work on federal border security projects.
The Associated General Contractors of America recently sent a letter to lawmakers advising them that such laws violate the Constitution and will surely be overturned by the courts.
"While you are welcome to dispute the wisdom of federal border security policy and to express your views, you are not welcome to take our members hostage," said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's chief executive officer. "As surely as you can count on the federal courts to strike down other unlawful forms of discrimination and obstruction, you should count of the courts to strike down measures to discriminate against firms doing lawful work on behalf of the U.S. government."
The state Assembly is considering a bill that would bar state pension funds from investing in firms participating in security projects such as the U.S.-Mexico border wall proposed by the Trump administration.
Local bans on using construction firms that work on federal border projects have already passed in the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, the AGC said.
"The good men and women of the construction industry are entitled to pursue their livelihoods as fully and freely as anyone else, without being drawn into disputes that are not of their making; they are not pawns," Sandherr said
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