Every year, new legislation impacts the way integrators do business. Sometimes, these impacts are positive – but sometimes they’re not. NSCA works year-round as your advocate, supporting integrators through government affairs and legislative tracking and reporting.
External factors, specifically political and legal, are forces that can have major implications for how you run your business. These laws can impact lending, labor, tax, and employee benefits.
When you look at just how important those things can be for recruiting talent, offering competitive wages, providing attractive benefits, and even managing business expenses for profit and loss, you start to see why you shouldn’t depend entirely on accountants and/or lawyers to keep you informed.
As an industry, it’s on us to stay up to date – especially when it comes to some of the highest-impact changes that affect our day-to-day business. That’s why NSCA makes it a priority to track legislation and alert members to possible changes.
To help you keep up with the legislative activity in your area, we unveiled a new, easy-to-use online resource. This site features updates on major public policy and government affairs efforts that focus on:
- Cybersecurity
- Internet of Things
- Jobs, technology, and STEM
- Labor laws and prevailing wages
- Licensing (company and individual)
- Regulations and code compliance
- School safety
- Taxation
- Telecommunications and net neutrality
This page also features an interactive U.S. map where you can click on your state to view current legislative activity (the map may take a few seconds to load and populate – it contains a lot of information!) Blue states indicate current activity; gray states indicate no recent activity.
Once you click on your state, a list of bills appear, along with the date it was introduced, its status, the bill’s sponsor, and the latest action taken on the legislation. By clicking on the bill number, you can get specifics on that bill and what it means for you.
In New Jersey, for example, legislation was filed in January 2018 to regulate the installation, maintenance, and repair of low-voltage alarm systems. In Missouri, in December 2017, legislation was introduced to establish the School Construction Act, which exempts construction and maintenance work done for certain school districts from the prevailing wage requirement (upon the school board’s approval).
This map also provides updates on federal legislative activity; click the lower box marked “U.S.” to see it.
At www.nsca.org/cq-roll-call, you can also find the elected officials in your area, and connect with your legislators about the legislation you do or don’t support. By playing an active role and taking a stand when there’s a call to action, you can be a voice for our industry, too!