Frequently Asked Questions

Are Project Labor Agreements (PLA's) allowed on federally funded projects? We have a grant for building a bus garage. The grant is over one million dollars. We recently passed a resolution stating that if a construction project is over one million dollars we must have a PLA attached. I was under the impression that this would be an illegal use of Federal funds. Is that so?

Prior to February 6, 2009 the use of PLAs would have been prohibited by Executive Order 13202 of February 17, 2001, and Executive Order 13208 of April 6, 2001. However, Executive Order 13502, signed by President Obama on February 6, 2009, revoked those older executive orders. The new executive order does not preclude the use of a project labor agreement for projects receiving Federal financial assistance. The order also encourages, but does not require an executive agency to use a project labor agreement on construction projects. (Revised August 17, 2009)