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Association & Industry News
The Portland Cement Association has scheduled a webinar on the outlook for the cement market for tomorrow, July 29, from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern time. Ed Sullivan, PCA’s senior vice president and chief economist, will present a five-year outlook regarding the economy, construction and cement markets. The presentation will focus on the near-term scenario and the risks contained in it. Click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar. If you have any questions, please contact Megan McKee at mmckee@cement.org. Being an NRMCA Producer or Associate member has many benefits, including participating in the Member to Member (M2M) Program. With an ever growing list of Associate members that provide discounts to Producer members on business solutions, maintenance, technical services and mixer trucks, NRMCA’s M2M Benefits Program can result in achieving a true return on your membership investment. Click here to view the listing of participating companies offering discounts. The fine print: Neither membership in NRMCA nor participation in the M2M Benefits Program can in any way be construed as an endorsement, explicit or implicit, of any company, product or service by the Association. NRMCA accepts no responsibility in any dispute between supplier and customer. The M2M Benefits Program is intended solely as an informational service. Participating companies are responsible for insuring all M2M benefit information is correct and up-to-date. For more information, contact Jacques Jenkins at jjenkins@nrmca.org or 703-706-4865. 
SEO
NRMCA’s Annual Safety Award acknowledges the significant contribution that safe work practices give to the growth and success of individuals and individual companies and the ready mixed concrete industry as a whole. The NRMCA Annual Safety Award is presented to an individual or company whose actions represent the very highest in the advancement of safety in the ready mixed concrete industry. The award program is generously sponsored by the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau (TMMB). Farmer Companies CEO Kirk Farmer wrote, “When Mr. Mingucci took over the safety program for Farmer Companies, the Recordable Incident Rate was 3.39 with an Experience Mod Rate 0.59. Pat has led the safety department and loss control teams with passion and executed on our strategic goals of keeping safety fresh and real. With his leadership we have seen a tremendous reduction in our RIR; down to 2.00 with our best EMR of 0.49 in 2020. We couldn’t be more thrilled for Pat in receiving this well-deserved honor.” Four years ago, Mr. Mingucci began a unique Stand Up for Safety campaign at Farmer Companies. In 2017 it was called Crossroads 2017, the following year it was Target Safety 2018, then Drive for Safety in 2019, Humility in 2020 and Loyalty Makes Us a Team in 2021. He will be honored at the awards presentation ceremony during the 2021 NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks in Orlando, FL, this October. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org. Next week, August 2 through 6, is National Mixer Driver Appreciation Week. Please help NRMCA in celebrating our industry’s concrete delivery professionals and thanking them for all that they do. Next week will bring an influx of social media posts, a note from NRMCA’s chairman and president, along with Appreciation Week swag. And don’t forget to visit the NRMCA Appreciation Week webpage to review the NRMCA chairman and president open letter and to access a template letter for your own use. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Treasury recently announced that they would no longer apply retroactive necessity criteria to applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans above $2 million. SBA rolled out the necessity questionnaire late last year for loans of more than $2 million. This criteria was not part of the congressional intent of the CARES Act and NRMCA opposed applying this to companies that in good faith applied for and received PPP loans of any size. Last year, NRMCA aggressively advocated for the creation of a program that would support small businesses’ need for liquidity and certainty through the pandemic, and applauded the passage and implementation of the PPP. NRMCA held webinars and provided its members with the education and tools to take advantage of PPP loans; and nearly one-third of NRMCA companies applied for and received these loans. Over the past year, NRMCA consistently advocated for fair treatment of companies that received Paycheck Protection Program loans of all sizes without the retroactive application of new standards for forgiveness. The announcement from the SBA and Treasury is a significant win for the industry and the many NRMCA member companies that applied for and received PPP loans. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
Buildings
Speakers have been selected for the opening sessions of the 2021 Global Concrete Summit on Wednesday, August 18. The theme for the opening sessions is concrete sustainability with experts representing some of the largest and most influential decision makers in the design and construction industries:
NRMCA, Grey Matters and Build With Strength are proud sponsors the 2021 Global Concrete Summit, online conference and expo scheduled for August 1 – December 31. This year’s conference will take place over five months, with live webinars each month. The conference will feature speakers and product manufacturers from all over the world to discuss the latest innovations in concrete technology and construction. Architects, engineers, contractors and product manufactures are invited to attend. Click here for schedule, speakers and free registration. For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at Llemay@nrmca.org or 847-922-7995. Build With Strength invites you to attend a free webinar titled Resilience 2021: The Case for Resiliency in the Wildland-Urban Interface on Wednesday, August 11, at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Panelists for the webinar include NRMCA’s Shamim Rashid-Sumar, PE, FSFPE, vice president, fire codes and standards, as well as Bruce D. Bouch, fire program specialist with the United States Fire Administration. The session will be moderated by Daniel Kaniewski, public sector managing director for Marsh McLennan Advantage. Hosted by the National Institute of Building Sciences, this webinar will discuss wildfire causes and mitigation efforts, structural resiliency in the wildland-urban interface, building codes and standards for disaster preparedness, and costs associated with resilient design and construction. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 2.2 million acres have already burned in the U.S. this year. This is roughly 500,000 more acres than this time in 2020 when a total of 10.1 million acres burned. As the risk of wildfire continues to threaten our communities and our built environment, these devastating losses make it imperative that disaster resiliency be on the forefront of the recovery efforts. Register now to secure your place for the webinar, which provides American Institute of Architects (AIA) Elective Learning Units and/or Professional Development Hours (PDH) for continuing education requirements. Build With Strength is a coalition led by NRMCA that promotes standards advocacy to leverage policies promoting safety and resiliency and help place more concrete. For more information on fire codes and standards advocacy efforts, contact Shamim Rashid-Sumar at ssumar@nrmca.org.
Government Affairs
On Monday, members of the bipartisan Group of 22 in the Senate had yet to finalize a deal for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. Issues related to water infrastructure, broadband and transit remained unresolved. Senator Schumer is working to advance both the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package in order to give President Biden and moderate Democrats a bipartisan win while also funding the vast social spending that the President set forward in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan. It is unclear whether there are sufficient votes to pass both pieces of legislation in both chambers. In the House, Speaker Pelosi has made clear that she will not bring up a bipartisan infrastructure package without also bringing up a multi-trillion dollar reconciliation package with other Democratic social spending priorities. Members of the House of Representatives have been told to expect to return during the week of August 16 for votes in the House, potentially a calendar marker for an infrastructure and reconciliation vote. NRMCA and many of its state affiliates have urged Congress to act on the bipartisan infrastructure framework, joining with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Associated General Contractors and dozens of other groups and coalitions to urge action. Take Action: NRMCA is calling on its members to urge their Members of Congress to support the bipartisan infrastructure framework. While NRMCA and our allies continue to urge Congress to reach and pass a bipartisan infrastructure package, it is imperative that Congress reauthorize surface transportation programs before they expire at the end of September. Click here to take action. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. The PRO Act is once again gaining momentum in Congress. Last week, the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on the proposed legislation; President Biden included it in his American Jobs Plan infrastructure proposal and House Democrats are pledging to include it in a reconciliation package. This anti-business legislation would reinstate many of the harmful policies that NRMCA has long opposed, including card check and elimination of private ballots, the persuader rule to inhibit employers access to counsel and the ambush elections rule to speed the time for an organizing election, among others. If you have not yet taken action to urge Congress to oppose this harmful bill, please do so by clicking here. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
Calendar
Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. August 3 - 5, 2021Smyrna, TN August 10, Online Webinar August 10, Online Course August 18, Free Virtual Conference September 10 - 17, Online Course September 15, Free Virtual Conference September 29 - October 3, Kissimmee, FL October 13, Free Virtual Conference October 18 - 20, Orlando, FL November 9 - 11, Dallas November 17, Free Virtual Conference November 30 - December 2, Orlando, FL 
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NRMCA has named Patrick Mingucci as the recipient of its 5th Annual Safety Award. Mr. Mingucci is the corporate loss control director for Producer member Farmer Companies of Jefferson City, MO. Mr. Mingucci was named for his work and commitment of safety leadership in the industry.
