By: National Special Districts Coalition
The United States Senate is slated to begin a hiatus from the Hill for the Presidents’ Day holiday after a breakdown of major legislative initiatives forced extended action into Monday. The U.S. House of Representatives flies in on Tuesday and exits Friday to begin its two-week Presidents’ Day break.
Last week, the Senate attempted to move a vehicle for supplemental appropriations package, H.R. 815 (McMorris-Rodgers), designed to address immigration and border issues as well as aid for Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East. After failing to advance the legislation due to a lack of consensus on immigration and border policy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that the Senate will take up the foreign-aid portion of the supplemental spending bill, without immigration-related provisions.
Of note, months of negotiations on the border package were primarily among those on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which is the Senate committee of jurisdiction over forthcoming legislation to federally define “special district.”
In other Senate news, the Senate Commerce Committee approved its reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, S. 1939 (Cantwell), last week. The House’s version of the reauthorization, H.R. 3935 (Graves, Mo.), passed in July 2023. Currently, the FAA is operating on an extended reauthorization through March 8, 2024.
Looking ahead to this week, the House schedule is relatively light. The full Chamber is expected to vote on nine measures mostly pertaining to foreign policy on a suspension of the rules – a common procedure for non-controversial legislation on Tuesday evening. The House will also debate and take action on a measure, H.R. 7176 (Pfluger), to loosen restrictions on liquified natural gas import and export, and is also expected to do a ‘re-vote’ on the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Specific House actions on issues of special districts’ specific concern are also light this week; however, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Dianne Criswell is scheduled to appear before a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee for hearing on the use and quality of expanded FEMA resources. Check that hearing out on Wednesday, February 14, at 10 a.m. ET.
Both House and Senate are planned to be on recess next week. The National Special Districts Coalition (NSDC), of which CSDA is a founding member, will continue to follow updates on these and other priorities.
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