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Midterm Election
House of Representatives: 220 Republicans, 213 Democrats, majority 218 – 2 remaining races - both likely GOP. Historically, on average, 27 House seats have been lost by the party in power – that is, the party that controls The White House - in the midterm election. As examples, the Republicans lost 40 seats in the Trump midterm, the Democrats 63 in the Obama midterm and the Democrats 54 in the Clinton midterm. Also, when the President is below 50% approval rating – which Biden is – the historical midterm average loss since 1982 is 46 seats. In this month’s midterms, the Democrats’ likely loss is 9 seats.
Senate: 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans, 1 result outstanding (Dec. 6 George runoff)
Historically, on average, 4 seats have been lost by the party in power in the midterm election. In this month’s midterms, the Democrats gained 1 seat with George pending.
Leadership
House of Representatives:
Speaker – Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-23-CA) nominated pending Full House vote
Majority leader – Congressman Steve Scalise (R-1-LA)
Minority Leader – Hakeem Jeffries (D-8-NY)
Minority Whip – Katherine Clark (D-5-MA)
Senate:
Majority Leader – Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Majority Whip – Senator Dick Durbin (D-ILL)
Minority Leader – Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Minority Whip – Senator John Thune (R-ND)
Committee/Subcommittees
Committee and subcommittee assignments will be a work in progress for some time although
expect continued activity on this through the rest of the year. Last Congress, the Senate
Commerce Committee did not finalize its subcommittee assignments until March of the next
year.
Priorities
We haven’t heard anything form the Senate or House Democrats on priorities for the new Congress. We have in the House from Congressman McCarthy.
He has identified three:
1) repeal Biden policies although no specifics on which policies;
2) cut spending with the focus on the appropriations process but also including entitlement reform such as Medicare/Medicaid; and,
3) investigations including the Afghan withdrawal, Ukraine funding, COVID cause and treatment, immigration including the border wall and reform, and Hunter Biden. Also, Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO), the incoming chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced that he wants to hold hearings on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Impacts
Relationships - there will be new Members in key positions and new staff and with that the need to pursue new relationships while continuing to build on existing ones.
Repeals - in terms of the McCarthy announced priorities (if these hold), does repeal of Biden’s policies include revisiting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and, if so, issues of importance.
Spending cuts - will that include the “add-ons” to the BIF that have been included in the annual appropriations bills. levels. Will it also end earmarks like the Republicans did when they last took the House?
Lame Duck Session
Areas of focus:
1) “Build Back Better” Bill: Round Two?
It has been reported that some Democrats are planning in the lame duck session to bring back the expanded child tax credit or a smaller version of it. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Michael bennet (D-CO) want to pair it with the renewal of an expired R&D tax break for businesses and other non-controversial items. This could be the vehicle for revisiting the “Build Back Better” Bill effort as the Democrats will still hold the majority in both Houses until the end
of the year. If so, we would continue to advocate for funding for the Alternative Water Source
Program and large scale water recycling projects, inclusion of H.R. 5118 or some variation, and any other items of interest.
Included in the House-passed “Build Back Better” bill of interest to the Coalition (see bold):
· $30B for Safe Drinking Water SRF lead service line replacement projects;
· $100M for state public water systems;
· $700M to reduce lead in school drinking water;
· $100M for large scale water recycling projects;
· $1.15B for emergency drought relief;
· $125M for Alternative Water Source Program grants;
· $2B for sewer overflow and storm water reuse grants:
· $4B for reduction of carbon in the surface transportation sector;
· $4B for affordable and safe transportation access; and,
· $6B for local surface transportation projects.
No funding for the Clean Water SRF is included in the House BBB. It does include new taxes. Unofficially, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its BBB title which includes $9B for SDWSRF-funded lead remediation projects, $225M for rural and low- income water assistance grants, $125M for Alternative Water Source Program grants, and $500M for sewer overflow and storm water reuse municipal grants.
2) WRDA 2022 – both passed bills include only Corps of Engineers issues. Conference still
pending. Will continue to monitor for possible inclusion of issues of interest.
3) FY23 Appropriation Bills
Congress/the government is operating under a Continuing Resolution until at least Dec. 16. Pending that, work continues on the individual FY23 appropriations bills. To date, 6 of the 12 bills have passed the House, none in the Senate. The Federal government has operated under CR’s in all but three of the last 46 years. This may not be the last CR for FY23.
House and Senate “Water” Appropriations Bills:
Included in both the House passed and the Senate announced FY23 Interior and Energy and Water Appropriation Bills are @$1.7B for the Clean Water SRF, $1.1B for the Safe Drinking Water SRF and $20M for WINN grants.
The House Transportation Appropriations Bill includes:
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$775M for national infrastructure investments (RAISE/TIGER/BUILD), including $30M for grants to assist areas of persistent poverty and $100M for the Thriving Communities program;
- Research and technology funding to create more equitable access to transportation systems, combat climate change, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
- $18.7B for the FAA, including $1.6B for aviation safety and $273M for airport improvement grants and projects;
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$61.3B for the FHWA formula programs including $1.8B for discretionary highway programs and projects;
- $874M for FMCSA and $1.2B for NHTSA to make cars, trucks and roads safer;
- $3.8B for FRA including $555M for the Intercity Passenger Rail grant program, $630M for the CRISI grants program, and $2.3B for Amtrak, including $882M for the Northeast Corridor and $1.5B for National Network grants;
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$17.5B for the FTA, including $13.6B for buses, $3B for capital investment grants, and $646M for transit infrastructure grants; and,
- $987M for MARAD.
On July 28, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its FY23 Transportation
Appropriations Bill that includes:
- $1B for the RAISE grant program, $3.2B for the Federal Highway Administration to support additional funding for PROTECT grants for resiliency projects, tribal high priority projects, bridge formula funding, and development of the
- Appalachian Development Highway System;
- $2.6B for Amtrak;
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$200M for the Federal-State Partnership for State-of-Good-Repair (SOGR) to fund the replacement, rehabilitation, or repair of major infrastructure assets providing intercity passenger rail service;
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$535M for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) program;
- $2.51B for the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants program;
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$527M for Transit Infrastructure Grants to advance investments into Bus and Buses Facilities, the Low or No Emissions Vehicle Program, Areas of Persistent Poverty, ferry programs, and research to accelerate zero emission technology;
and
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$234M for the Port Infrastructure Development program.
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