TRIA's Latest Advocacy Efforts in Washington, D.C. - August, 2025

Tile Roofing Industry Alliance Lobbyist, Craig Brightup, has provided the latest government relations update and activities on the following from August 2025:


Trump Nominations
Breaking with precedent, Senate Democrats have dragged out confirmation votes for subcabinet Trump nominees for as long as possible under Senate rules.  Thus, Majority Leader Thune and Republicans are poised to change the Senate rules (“go nuclear”).  The nominations of Dave Keeling for Asst. Sec. of Labor for OSHA and Jonathan Berry for DOL Solicitor are two examples of Democrats’ stalling tactics.  Both were approved by the HELP Committee on June 26 and should have been confirmed by now.
 
DOL Regulatory Agenda
In mid-August, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs briefly posted a regulatory agenda for the Dept. of Labor on its website before taking it down.  Agenda items included DOL’s Wage and Hour Division revising Biden-era regulations on what constitutes joint-employers for minimum wage and overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and what determines whether a worker is an independent contractor or employee under the FLSA.   The independent contractor test is especially important for construction and in May the Trump DOL directed staff not to enforce the Biden-era regulations.  Regarding OSHA, the agenda indicated the heat rulemaking will continue and an “OSHA Standards Improvement Project 2025” was listed with no details.                    
 
NLRB Preemptive Authority and Constitutionality
An August memo from the National Labor Relations Board’s Acting General Counsel warned that state laws to adjudicate disputes between workers and businesses are preempted by federal law.  This was done in response to Democrat-run states introducing bills to police labor disputes while the NLRB operates without a quorum.  Also, on August 18, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with SpaceX by upholding judicial orders blocking the NLRB from taking actions against it.   SpaceX is challenging the Constitutionality of the NLRB’s structure.             
 
EPA to Rescind GHG Endangerment Finding
On July 29, EPA proposed to rescind its 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding.  Per EPA’s website, the agency never had authority under the Clean Air Act to prescribe standards for GHG emissions.  The attached one-pager explains this important deregulatory action. 
 
SBA Proposes Increasing Small Business Size Standards
On August 22, the Small Business Administration issued the attached proposal to increase monetary-based small business size standards for 263 industries, but the threshold for roofing contractors (NAICS code 238160) appears to have been kept at $19 million (page 41238).


​For more information on the TRIA Alliance and our Government Relations efforts, please visit our website at www.tileroofing.org.