🛑 Brianne Nadeau’s shady attempt to silence D.C. workers and businesses.

UPDATE: The bill was not marked-up on February 8th. Councilmember Nadeau, however, recently told the Washington City Paper that she intends to mark the bill up soon. The same article implied that she still does not intend to hold a hearing on the bill.

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D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau is planning to exploit a loophole in the D.C. Council’s rules to bypass a hearing on Bill 25-469, the Revised Project Labor Agreement Cost Threshold Amendment Act of 2023.  This is unacceptable!

Councilmember Nadeau’s planned mark-up will take place at the Committee on Public Works and Operations’ meeting on February 8, 2024.  The details:

Committee on Public Works & Operations Regular Meeting

Thursday, February 8, 2024, 10:00 a.m.

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 123

Washington, DC 20004

What does the bill do?

Bill 25-469 will lower the cost threshold for the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) requirement on District of Columbia procurements from $75 million to $50 million.  It is anticipated that this will significantly increase the number of D.C. projects with PLAs.

How do PLAs contribute to wage theft and discriminate against local, minority, and woman-owned businesses?

To learn more about PLAs, check out 3 Reasons PLAs are Wrong for DC.

Why is Councilmember Nadeau bypassing a Council hearing?

Councilmember Nadeau is exploiting a Council rule (Rule 501) to ram through a bill benefitting her political supporters in labor unions. Council Rule 501 waives the requirement for a legislative hearing if a bill is substantially similar to a bill that had a hearing in the immediately preceding Council period.  But this rule was adopted for situations in which the Committee’s Chair continues in the same position from one Council period to the next. That did not happen here.

A hearing on a similar bill was conducted by Councilmember Robert White in November 2022.  Councilmember Nadeau did not attend nor participate in that hearing.  She is proposing to move a bill that would have huge negative impacts on D.C. businesses and workers without ever having listened to those who will be affected.  This is simply unacceptable behavior.

What can I do to stop this assault on D.C. workers and businesses?

Email D.C. Councilmembers and explain to them that PLAs discriminate against local, particularly minority- and woman-owned businesses, and steal wages from D.C. workers. 

1.     To start, you should email Councilmember Nadeau at bnadeau@dccouncil.gov.

2.     Make sure to “cc” all other Councilmembers by copying and pasting the following email address in the “cc” line of your email.

bpinto@dccouncil.gov
mfrumin@dccouncil.gov
janese.lewisgeorge@dccouncil.gov
zparker@dccouncil.gov
callen@dccouncil.gov
vgray@dccouncil.gov
twhite@dccouncil.gov
rwhite@dccouncil.gov
abonds@dccouncil.gov
kmcduffie@dccouncil.gov
chenderson@dccouncil.gov
pmendelson@dccouncil.gov