• Download the ABC Action app (Apple or Android) and respond to action alerts, learn about elected official's voting records and get detailed briefs on important ABC issues.
• Become active with ABC of Michigan or your local chapter's Government Affairs Committee. 
• Visit the Politics and Policy section of abc.org to stay up to date on ABC's legislative agenda. Coming soon: a useful ABC of Michigan-only Politics & Policy page.
• Attend ABC's Legislative Conference and meet your members of Congress in their Capitol Hill offices.
• Use the ABC staff resources - Chris Carroll at ABC National or Chris Fisher at ABC Michigan.

• SCHEDULING: Send a written invitation and schedule the tour well in advance. Don't forget to follow up the written invitation with a phone call and, if accepted, a written confirmation. Do not schedule a jobsite visit during inspections by the owner or government or during critical lifts or concrete installation.
• PARTICIPANTS: Make sure you invite your local ABC chapter, your employees and any subcontractors and their employees. It's also a good idea to provide those attendees with highlights about the elected official's background.
• PREPARATION: Check your jobsite before the tour and choose a route that will reinforce the image you want to convey. Have appropriate personal protective equipment available for visitors and avoid dangerous areas of the jobsite.
• MESSAGING: Decide on three key points and messages you want to convey to avoid overloading the elected official with information.
• MEDIA: Tours are an excellent opportunity for media coverage; however, that should be left to the discretion of the elected official.
• TOUR DETAILS: Have a definitive schedule but allow enough time to tour the jobsite and enjoy informal discussions. The CEO should greet the elected official but on jobsite tours, a project manager or someone else who can answer questions and introduce field staff, should lead the tour.
• FOLLOW UP: Don't forget to send a letter of thanks that also reiterates key points from the visit. Provide any photographs taken during the event. Make sure you keep employees informed about the elected official's position on key issues and encourage them to express their opinions to this elected official. Also, be sure to keep ABC up to date by sending a brief description of the meeting to  carroll@abc.org.

• Use the ABC Action App when you receive alerts about key issues.
• Email your elected officials. When a bill is coming up for a vote and there isn't enough time for a personal meeting, email is a great way to voice your opinion.
• Pick up the phone. Elected officials' offices almost always count the number of calls received for and against certain pieces of legislation and consider these calls an informal gauge of their constituents' opinions. You can get their contact info in your Action App.

The Rick for Michigan campaign launched a new interactive webpage that allows you to take a drive down Michigan's Road to Recovery: RoadToRecovery.RickForMichigan.com.

The webpage allows you to choose a region in Michigan to explore on the Road to Recovery. From Grand Rapids to Detroit, up to Flint, Traverse City and Marquette, the site details the regional effects of our Road to Recovery and allows you to share these facts with your social networks.

"This dynamic webpage shows the economic growth around the state of Michigan and shares the Governor's record with Michiganders across the state. Whether it's through the elimination of the billion and a half dollar deficit, the billion dollars invested in education since the Governor took office, or the fact that the unemployment rate is at its lowest point in six years thanks to the creation of nearly 300,000 new private sector jobs Michigan is moving forward," said Emily Benavides, Communications Director. Take a look!

The Obama administration has recently issued several heavy-handed executive actions that affect the federal contracting community, particularly the construction industry. These actions cover everything from potential blacklisting to super-minimum wage to overtime. In addition, to learn more about how these actions will impact federal contractors, join ABC General Counsel Maury Baskin Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014, at 2 p.m. (ET), for an ABC member-only webinar as he discusses how federal contractors should prepare for these forthcoming changes.

The new blacklisting executive order

On July 31, President Obama issued Executive Order 13673 that may lead to additional costs and the blacklisting of some federal contractors. The executive order instructs newly appointed bureaucrats at federal agencies to determine whether a business is "responsible" enough to receive a federal contract based on a subjective review of each company's recent compliance history with 14 federal and similar state workplace laws. Learn more.

Super-minimum wage rule

The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) proposal to implement Executive Order 13658, issued on Feb. 12, also creates confusion for federal contractors. Beginning Jan. 1, 2015, the minimum wage for federal contractors will rise to $10.10 per hour. ABC's primary concerns, expressed in the comments submitted to DOL, aren't related to the wage rate itself, but to the methods used to raise the rate and the order's applicability to employees. Learn more.
 
Requirement to report summary data on employee compensation

President Obama issued two executive actions in April that deal with employee compensation, including Executive Order 13665 and an April 8 presidential memo. Learn more.
 
"Modernizing" overtime regulations

 On March 13, the president issued another presidential memo instructing DOL to "modernize" overtime regulations. In his memo, the president seeks to overhaul the Fair Labor Standards Act's "white collar" overtime exemption. This memo has the potential to affect all federal contractor employers and private employers covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Learn more