By Kyle Packham
After 21 days without a Speaker of the House, the United States House of Representatives elected Congressman Mike Johnson, R-La., to take on the Speaker’s Chair.
The 220-209 vote on October 25 brought an end to a historic spectacle and halt in House business following Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., removal. For three weeks, newly introduced legislation could not be referred to committees, and legislation could not be passed out of the Chamber. Now, Speaker Johnson must tackle and negotiate major issues from federal agency reauthorizations and appropriations to keep the government open past November 17.
Speaker Johnson laid out his plan for the House in a letter circulated October 23 for House action through the end of this year and beyond. Johnson plans to pass the remaining seven (out of 12) appropriations bills necessary to fund discretionary aspects of the federal government. To do so, his plan includes full House consideration of bills already passed out of the Appropriations Committee, and he is seeking support for a discharge petition on two bills still stuck in the Committee. Doing so would skip the bills’ final committee consideration and fast track the measures to the Floor, but it would take majority support of the entire House to succeed.
The House on October 26 passed H.R. 4394, the Fiscal Year 2024 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 210-199 – one of the seven remaining appropriations bills. The Energy-Water appropriations bill funds the U.S. Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Reclamation. The legislation would allocate $57.96 billion to the agencies including $945 million in Community Project Funding, otherwise known as earmarks. The House FY24 Energy-Water includes a $2 billion reduction in overall FY23 funding levels but boosts the Army Corps’ funding by $910 million. Notably, the FY24 legislation includes a Reclamation title exclusively addressing water infrastructure and allocations on federal water projects in California.
Yet, a $120 billion difference in price tag remains between the House and Senate appropriations packages. The vast difference between the two result from spending cuts included across the House’s 12 appropriations bills, which are twice as stringent than called for in the debt limit deal brokered this past summer. However, in a shift since the Speaker election, some “fiscal hawk” Republicans who have been pushing the deeper cuts are beginning to reconsider their hardline positions, which could be beneficial for programs such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, which face a combined 63 percent cut in funding from FY23 allocations in the FY24 House Interior-Environment appropriations bill. The National Special Districts Coalition (NSDC), of which CSDA is a founding member, is closely watching this bill, as it could be brought to the House Floor for consideration any day.
The House and Senate must each pass their appropriations packages, negotiate, and ultimately compromise on their differences ahead of the current continuing resolution’s expiration on November 17 to prevent a government shutdown. Speaker Johnson has acknowledged to House members that another continuing resolution may be needed through either January 15 or April 15 to give appropriations leaders time to negotiate a full FY24 appropriations package.
Passing a continuing resolution to extend government funding past January 1 would lead to a 1 percent across-the-board cut in discretionary program spending due to a provision in the debt ceiling bill aimed to inspire congressional action on funding bills before years’ end. This would lead to a cut in the vast majority of federal programs providing funding opportunities that special districts are able to access to enhance their local government services.
Meanwhile, lawmakers must consider either a reauthorization or extension of the Farm Bill, which authorizes major federal hunger, agriculture, conservation, forestry, and rural development programs. The Farm Bill must be passed, usually, every five years; however, programs within the 2018 Farm Bill began expiring on September 30. Senate Agriculture, Forestry, and Nutrition Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is calling on Congress to include a brief extension in the likely continuing resolution to be introduced ahead of November 17. Safe from programmatic lapses are many of the Farm Bill’s conservation programs, which received authorizations in the Inflation Reduction Act thought FY31. Otherwise, Stabenow said she is committed to passing the benchmark legislation in 2024, but the path forward on the Farm Bill remains murky at this point.
Congress must also pass reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration by the end of the year. FAA’s taxing authorities and programs were extended with the current continuing resolution through December 31.
This article was contributed by NSDC. As Congress’ urgent list of action items remain, NSDC will continue to monitor developments and share updates with CSDA members as warranted. Contact Cole Arreola-Karr, NSDC Federal Advocacy Director, for questions at colek@nationalspecialdistricts.org.
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