Biden Administration Broadcasts 12 Additions to Mega Development Challenge Program

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Biden Administration Broadcasts 12 Additions to Mega Development Challenge Program


WASHINGTON, DC The US Division of Labor has introduced the designation of extra federally funded building initiatives for participation within the Mega Development Challenge Program.

Launched by the Workplace of Federal Contract Compliance Applications in March 2023, the program fosters equal alternative within the building trades workforce, serving to to broaden entry to the thousands and thousands of good-paying jobs being created by the administration’s Investing in America agenda.

Megaprojects

The Mega Development Challenge Program brings the private and non-private sectors collectively on a choose group of “megaprojects,” for which OFCCP gives contractors and subcontractors compliance help to strengthen recruitment, hiring and employment practices. The help focuses on eradicating obstacles to alternative for underrepresented communities together with girls, individuals of coloration, veterans and people with disabilities.

Megaprojects are giant federal building initiatives valued at $35 million or extra—some a part of which should be federal funding—and that final multiple 12 months.

For every of those initiatives, OFCCP engages a variety of group stakeholders—together with unions, community-based organizations, pre-apprenticeship applications and registered apprenticeship applications—to offer contractors with connections to various recruitment sources, together with in underrepresented and underserved communities, in order that initiatives can totally faucet into the native workforce and get the wanted expertise.

The company additionally gives technical help on how contractors can foster workplaces free from harassment and discrimination and deal with ongoing obstacles to recruitment and retention. As well as, OFCCP conducts compliance opinions to guage contractors’ equal alternative practices.

For the 12 newly designated megaprojects, OFCCP partnered with the Division of Transportation, Division of Power, Common Providers Administration and Environmental Safety Company. OFCCP utilized a set of impartial standards to designate megaprojects from a wider pool of eligible initiatives. These newly designated initiatives construct on OFCCP’s designation earlier this 12 months of 12 megaprojects funded by the Division of Transportation and GSA.

OFCCP appears to be like ahead to designating extra megaprojects sooner or later, doubtlessly together with initiatives funded by the Division of Commerce by means of the CHIPS and Science Act, in addition to initiatives funded by the Division of the Inside and the US Military Corps of Engineers. The strong participation on this program by a variety of federal businesses demonstrates the whole-of-government method that the Biden-Harris administration is taking to fight discrimination and advance equal alternative for all employees and communities. 

Increasing Entry

“The Biden-Harris administration is dedicated to increasing equitable entry to the great jobs being created throughout the nation because of the President’s Investing in America agenda,” mentioned Performing Secretary of Labor Julie Su. “By means of the Megaproject Program, the Division of Labor is unleashing its full energy to advance equal alternative for certified employees of all backgrounds, together with those that have been traditionally disregarded or left behind.”      

“President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda is creating a brand new era of good-paying careers nationwide and we’re working to verify everybody has a good shot at these jobs,” mentioned Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “This compliance help from the Division of Labor will assist make sure that those that have traditionally been underrepresented in building and the trades, together with girls and folks with disabilities, are a part of the nationwide effort to assist construct the important infrastructure we’ll all want within the coming a long time.”

“President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda is constructing a thriving clear power economic system that’s delivering high-quality, good-paying jobs in each pocket of the nation whether or not within the power sector itself or for the development initiatives that help it,” mentioned Secretary of Power Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Division of Power is proud to associate with the Division of Labor to help the Biden-Harris administration’s whole-of-government method to eradicating obstacles to equal employment and increasing alternatives for employees throughout America.”