End the Year on a High Note!

The end of 2021 is approaching, and we all have had a busy year. In addition to the surety services that we provide our clients, many of us also provide insurance and risk management programs for our clients, and December 31 is always a busy work date on the calendar. We should all remember to take some time to reflect on our accomplishments this year and celebrate the successes and achievements we attained both personally and organizationally.

NASBP has had an outstanding year in 2021. The year started mired in the pandemic, but we persevered and were able to build momentum as the year progressed and have continued to provide outstanding services to our members and effectuate some industry goals that were not completely expected.

Many of you look to NASBP as the source for industry gatherings, which we all enjoy, but we do so much more for our members and the surety and construction industries as a whole. Many NASBP members may not be aware of or use the numerous services NASBP provides. That is why I would like to remind you of several and encourage you and your teammates to avail yourselves of this information and education.

Five years ago, NASBP initiated a PR campaign to help share good stories of what surety bonds do to protect our tax dollars, help our clients become successful, and guarantee the completion of construction projects. As part of this PR Campaign, we generated multiple videos to share a positive “surety story,” and we also created the NASBP Producer Communications Toolkit 2.0 to help our members share this information with clients and prospects to promote the use of surety bonds. The resources of our Be Guaranteed to Succeed Campaign can be found here: https://www.nasbp.org/guaranteed/home. I invite you to check out the videos and the tools available on this site!

Another great benefit for our members is the NASBP Podcast, Let’s Get Surety–Let Me Hear Your Bonding Talk. We have released 52 podcasts covering many topics, such as court bonds, recent legal rulings affecting the surety and construction business, and potential issues regarding the False Claims Act. A recent podcast, titled “Tribal Sovereign Immunity and Surety Considerations,” is especially informative on a subject that most of us don’t experience daily. These podcasts give us the opportunity to hear experts discuss specific subjects and share information that is not readily available from any other source. You can find these podcasts here: https://letsgetsurety.org/episodes/. The NASBP Podcast episodes are available to easily download via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. These Podcast episodes are great opportunities to learn more about our business as you drive to appointments or as you work around your home on the weekend listening to NASBP podcasts and virtual seminars with your earbuds, or, if you are lucky enough to travel this year, while you relax around the pool sipping your favorite drink!

A key NASBP focus is Government Relations. The political environment, both nationally and locally, is of great concern for our industry. A major effort each year is the Legislative Fly-in, often held in the springtime. The Fly-in has become a joint effort between NASBP and the Surety and Fidelity Association of America (SFAA). The 2021 Fly-in was reorganized as a virtual event with the meetings held in individual Zoom environments, and I feel it was amazingly successful. As we prepared for the 2021 Fly-in, the joint effort required creating a list of key topics to discuss with our senators and representatives. The main topics we wanted to discuss with members of Congress were items that we targeted as part of our legislative agenda. We asked NASBP members to address these four major talking points when meeting with their members of Congress:

1) Surety bond products provide vital protection on construction projects for public entities as well as U.S. small business subcontractors, workers, and suppliers tasked with building public works;

2) Request support for S. 638 and H.R. 1641 to require performance and payment protections when federal loans are provided through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Act (TIFIA) Program;

3) Request support for legislation to maintain bonding protections by exempting the Miller Act from periodic threshold increases to ensure small construction businesses and U.S. taxpayers are not unnecessarily exposed to the risk of contractor default; and,

4) Advocate for performance bonds as an alternative form of security to letters of credit, as currently required for bidders participating in the Federal Communications Commission’s rural broadband auctions, so small business internet service providers can better compete for awards. Advocate for the use of performance and payment bonds when states and/or localities receive federal grant funds for the construction of rural broadband infrastructure projects.

I am excited to announce that with our joint efforts with SFAA, we have been exceptionally successful in our legislative agenda! The second item on our list above, the “TIFIA” legislation, has been passed and signed into law! Also, our third item on the list, the decoupling of the Miller Act from automatic inflationary indexing, is included in the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and will be before President Biden for signature. Both of these are huge wins for the surety industry and are a perfect example of my theme this year: Better Together. I believe actions by both organizations played major roles in advancing these industry legislative priorities.

Be on the lookout for information regarding the 2022 Legislative Fly-in, which will again be held in a virtual environment. The 2022 Joint NASBP SFAA Virtual Fly-in will be held on Wednesday, May 25. Please consider signing up and joining the 2022 Legislative Fly-in meetings. They are an easy way to support NASBP’s and the surety industry’s legislative efforts. In addition, some in-person fundraising events for Members of Congress may be scheduled in 2022. NASBP will provide more details in the New Year. View the NASBP 2022 Government Relations Agenda.

As this year winds down, we should celebrate our successes and enjoy the holiday season. We come from many backgrounds and faiths, and I wish you a joyous holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

Tracy Tucker is President of Tucker Agency, Ltd. in Fort Worth, TX. He can be reached at tracy@tuckeragency.com or 817.336.8520.