Tis’ the Season of State Legislatures—Know Your Resources

The legislative season for state legislatures is well underway, so I hope you receive the Focal Point, NASBP’s e-bulletin which profiles the latest legislative and regulatory developments occurring during the typically busy season. It is a great resource framing what surety professionals need to know regarding recently introduced legislation impacting surety interests. Focal Point issues frequently include links to items, such as comment letters, that NASBP has written to educate legislators and public officials about bonding matters. If you do not receive Focal Point, you can subscribe right from the NASBP website at https://www.nasbp.org/news-resources/news-library/focal-point/.

Additionally, the NASBP website includes substantial informational resources to supplement grassroots advocacy efforts. Available to members on the NASBP website are surveys, such as those addressing state bond thresholds and state public-private partnership laws. Further, many of the position papers and comment letters that NASBP has authored to address bonding issues at local, state and federal levels—everything from bond waivers, bond threshold increases, overly stringent financial strength ratings requirements, onerous warranty provisions, and more—are aggregated on the website. These materials offer valuable baselines or templates to address matters which may arise in members’ jurisdictions.

The NASBP website also includes member access to bond forms published by the major construction organizations, such the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), the Design-Build Institute of American (DBIA), the American Institutes of Architects (AIA), and ConsensusDocs. Go to https://www.nasbp.org/resource/construction-industry-library-of-bond-forms/. These forms are useful resources and valuable advocacy tools, as they include standardized clauses representative of accepted, industry best practice approaches on critical risk allocation matters. Recently, NASBP made reference to the inclusion of mutual waiver of consequential damages provisions in standardized construction contracts in written testimony in support of a legislative measure to include such provisions in public works contracts being considered by the Kansas Legislature. NASBP further references clauses in these standardized forms in comment letters frequently as evidence of broadly accepted practices.

Need more? The Be Guaranteed to Succeed microsite is accessible from the NASBP website. This microsite is replete with materials, including videos, blogs, and articles, explaining the importance of surety bonds to multiple surety stakeholder audiences, including owners, lenders, architects, and contractors. To educate project owners, for example, the microsite includes downloads for NASBP documents: “Answers to 32 Questions Public and Private Owners Ask About Contract Bonding” and “9 Things Savvy Owners Should Know About Surety Bonds.” Further, videos of a medical center executive and of a private school executive explaining their reasons for requiring contract bonds on their construction projects are available. And there is much more.

Please don’t forget the tremendous article resources that have been published in NASBP’s magazine, Surety Bond Quarterly (SBQ). Articles from past issues are archived on the magazine’s website at https://www.suretybondquarterly-digital.com/sbpq/library/.

You may find that past issues of SBQ already have addressed a subject in an article or articles that would be perfect educational handouts to stakeholders, including public officials.

If you become aware of a state or local development—beneficial or detrimental—impacting surety bonding interests this legislative season, please let us know. Although we track legislative and regulatory introductions at state level, we may not be aware of all important matters. You may contact me at mmccallum@nasbp.org or Larry LeClair, NASBP’s Director, Government Relations at lleclair@nasbp.org. We may have resources above and beyond what is described above to help you advocate for or against such measures, and we are happy to help in any way we can.