Advocacy
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS/RELATIONS
Representing more than 1,100 members as the concrete paver industry’s trade association, ICPI continues implementing legislative and regulatory lobbying initiatives, designed to benefit ICPI member business interests. 
US Capitol
A central feature of ICPI’s lobbying activities is to indelibly brand PICP – permeable interlocking concrete pavements – as an environmentally friendly, “green” technology that can provide substantial stormwater runoff reduction, reduce flooding, improve water quality by enhancing filtration of stormwater runoff, retain local hydrology, and facilitate municipal low impact development objectives.
ICPI is urging Congress and key federal agencies that PICP can play a major role in emerging, evolving federal policies to improve the environment in business-friendly, construction-friendly ways, and should be promoted and integrated in federal policy.
To that end, ICPI is lobbying Congress to pass legislation to help overcome institutional “barriers to adoption” that block the use of innovative pavement technologies like PICP. Congress has held hearings -- in which ICPI offered testimony – verifying that state and local officials often fail to adopt new pavement technologies due to their relative unfamiliarity and lack of technical understanding compared to conventional pavements. ICPI advocates a solution to this problem that would provide grants to university pavement “centers of excellence” to conduct technology transfer to state and local transportation officials, helping them to adopt PICP.
ICPI is offering an ICPI-originated redraft of “Green Transportation Infrastructure” legislation that might be more acceptable on Capitol Hill in a challenging budget environment. In addition, ICPI seeks to lobby Congress on a range of issues that would affect operations and the bottom line for ICPI members. ICPI:
- Supports a comprehensive Transportation Authorization Bill, a primary vehicle for new transportation infrastructure funding, and possibly a Green Transportation Infrastructure provision to benefit PICP.
- Has alerted Congress of a pending regulation on silica, and urged congressional oversight to reduce the economic impact of a silica regulation on ICPI interests.
- Opposes an onerous and highly-flawed regulation that would designate fly ash as a “hazardous” waste.
- Successfully helped defeat union efforts to make it easier to force open shops to unionize.
- Supports efforts to relax restrictions on the H-2B worker visa program to benefit ICPI contractor members, and to de-link improvements to the program from other, more intractable immigration issues.
- Supports free and fair trade, primarily to protect cross-border markets for ICPI’s Canadian and U.S. members, and has advocated the same to the U.S. Trade Representative.
- Is monitoring new stormwater policy developments that could expand demand for permeable pavements as a means to facilitate construction while retaining local hydrology.
- Is closely watching developments on issues such as noise abatement and ergonomics, urging Congress to stand ready to defend ICP industry positions against OSHA over-regulation
PAVERPAC
The ICPI PaverPAC provides the opportunity for members interested in the future of the interlocking concrete pavement industry to contribute to the support of select Members of Congress. PaverPAC is the political voice, and the political asset, of ICPI members in advancing their legislative and regulatory agenda in Washington DC. PaverPAC solicits and accepts voluntary personal contributions for expenditures that influence the selection, nomination, or election of such representatives.
Building from its recent inception, PaverPAC operations are underway via successful efforts to generate initial contributions. PaverPAC has already achieved “qualified” status while building its coffers and contributing to a growing list of political candidates who demonstrate leadership, support business and construction, show an interest in transportation issues that impact ICPI members, and share views of ICPI members.