Scott Braddock
February 8th, 2018
In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called for a massive $1.5 trillion initiative to “rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.”
January 19th, 2018
Construction associations are among the business groups this year encouraging employers and their employees to get out the vote in the Texas primary elections.
November 22nd, 2017
Business groups are raising concerns about a proposal in Austin aimed at requiring employers in the city to provide paid sick leave for workers. It’s a discussion that’s playing out before the Austin City Council.
November 15th, 2017
With an expedited scheduled described as “unprecedented,” a special Texas House committee on Wednesday got down to work examining a wide variety of challenges facing the state as lawmakers study ways to preserve its economic...
September 4th, 2017
This Labor Day comes at a moment when Houston and the Gulf Coast will need more blue-collar tradesmen and women than ever before thanks to the devastation left by Hurricane Harvey over the last week.
July 27th, 2017
Throughout his ascendancy at the Texas Capitol, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has proven time and again the ability to adapt to the political environment. Unlike many in the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party from which he...
July 13th, 2017
Republicans on Capitol Hill have now proposed spending $1.6 billion of your tax dollars – not Mexico’s money – for construction of a physical barrier along the international boundary with Mexico.The Hill reports:
July 6th, 2017
Lawmakers in North Carolina are taking very seriously something that's been described as a “cancer eating at the heart" of the construction industry: The misclassification of craft professionals paid as subcontractors when,...
May 31st, 2017
As the campaign of Corsicana businessman Thomas McNutt for the Texas House begins in earnest tonight with a fundraiser at the home of Dallas megadonor Doug Deason, the Vice President of the Collin Street Bakery is once again...
May 9th, 2017
Apparently taking a page from the playbook of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott has called on the pastors of megachurches across the state asking for their help in passing the bathroom bill, according to the sermon of a...
January 26th, 2018
It’s not just the areas along the Gulf Coast that are feeling the pinch of an even tighter labor market following last year’s devastating hurricanes and the rebuilding efforts that followed.
December 19th, 2017
Texas construction executives told state lawmakers this past week that there is an urgent need for more legal workers in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a storm that worsened an already acute labor shortage along the Gulf...
November 22nd, 2017
SAN ANTONIO – Facing uncertainty brought on by President Donald Trump’s talk of scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement, Texas business leaders on Monday asked Sen.
October 24th, 2017
In a move many business leaders called “long overdue,” Texas House Speaker Joe Straus has announced a new panel of lawmakers will consider what policies need to be in place – and what kind of policies should be rejected – in...
August 8th, 2017
With time running short in a special session of the Texas Legislature, a couple of bills aimed at expediting construction permits in cities seem to be languishing along with other controversial proposals.
July 24th, 2017
Criminal justice advocates and fiscal conservatives are pointing to a program in Louisiana aimed at skills training for prisoners at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola as a model for how states should go about designing...
July 12th, 2017
A political tug-of-war is about to break out at the Texas Capitol as Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session kicks off Tuesday.
June 20th, 2017
Ahead of red meat special session, Straus says Texas House remains laser-focused on public education
To thunderous applause by school board members from around the state gathered in the Alamo City, the presiding officer of the Texas House of Representatives last week said that despite a laundry list of red meat special...
May 18th, 2017
Steel and iron producers in Texas are hoping that before the legislative session ends this month, lawmakers will approve a bill prohibiting the use of cheaper foreign steel in taxpayer-funded construction unless a certain...
April 26th, 2017
As the Texas Senate was getting down to work on the “bathroom bill,” Dr. Steve Hotze, an anti-gay activist and longtime business partner of Lt. Gov.