Labor Updates; Tax & Economic Policy Updates; NAW-PAC Updates

To the surprise of many, Congress managed to keep the government’s lights on for the fiscal year 2024. Six months and two Speakers of the House after the fiscal year started, Congress was able to avoid a government shutdown and pass a final omnibus appropriation bill to fully fund government through September. However, the political price for passage continues to add up for the House Republican majority. A solid block of conservatives opposed the spending measure, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to seek Democratic support, and raising the ire of the hard right. Immediately after the House passed the omnibus Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to oust the Speaker, setting up a potentially precarious rerun of the fate faced by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last fall. This intra-party GOP fighting is doing real damage to their physical majority, 21 House Republicans have announced their pending retirement, including several committee chairs. Making matters more difficult, for the Speaker, four members have stepped down before the end of the congressional session (McCarthy, Johnson, Buck, Gallagher) which reduces the majority control to 217-213. Such a tight majority, and the Speaker’s functional loss of control of the Rules Committee makes any pending legislation, including funding for Israel, Ukraine or to address the needs at the southern border, even more difficult.    

Legislatively, the perfect continues to be the enemy of the good, and now threatens even the basic functioning of government. But as you will see below, the gears of government as expressed through agency regulations, and the courts continue, and NAW keeps fighting for your businesses.