AWFS is a client of LobbyIt. Each month, LobbyIt prepares the following report on public policy updates and activity for AWFS and its member companies.
AWFS Monthly Report
Greetings!
The month of October was dominated with the midterm elections, as DC emptied out when Members and most of their staff left to their respective districts for reelection. Now that the election is mostly over (votes are still being counted in some districts), we wait for the dust to settle and see what the agenda will look like for 2019.
Advocacy Update
The election reshuffled power on the Hill and we have yet to determine what the bipartisan goals will be for legislation. Ultimately, bipartisanship is the only way things are going to get done in the new session. There are a number of things off the table for the next two years, one of the biggest being a legislative rollback of the ACA. Quite the opposite will likely be the result, there are going to be some measures passed to strengthen the core elements of the bill.
The immediate future will be dominated by party leadership elections and a handful of legislation that Congress is pushing to pass. The most immediate ones are those needed to fund the government. Current funding only extends for a few more weeks. The risk of a shutdown is not too high right now but there is always a chance. There are other bills that both sides would like to pass if they could get agreement, the biggest one being the Farm Bill.
Early next week the Republicans in both chambers and the Senate Democrats will have their internal party elections which will determine who is going to lead the party. Shortly after that we will know the Chair and Ranking Members in the Senate and the Ranking Members in the House. These individuals will give us clarity on what issues they will prioritize and are willing to work on. The House Democrats won’t have their elections until early December, meaning that the House agenda won’t be fully clear until mid-December.
For now, we will have to go off of public statements to pinpoint what types of bills will be voted on. Because of how the chambers work, the House Democrats will have to agree to anything that becomes law, because they have the majority votes necessary to pass bills and will control what bills even get a vote. They have indicated that they want to pursue infrastructure, lowering the price of prescription drugs, work to shore up the Affordable Care Act, and robust oversight of the Administration. On these issues, there is a chance for bipartisan work to occur or that they will attach provisions to “must-pass” legislation, like funding bills. This will force Republicans in the Senate to negotiate or risk being blamed for a shutdown.
Things will be unfolding quickly over the next few weeks and we’ll have more clarity by the time of our next monthly report.
In the month of October, we participated in another call with the AWFS team to discuss the potential impact of trade negotiations and tariffs on the membership. We talked about feedback we’ve received from membership via survey and direct communication. Our team also met with Congressman Anthony Brown’s staff to discuss a bill that he introduced this session that would allow for a tax credit of up to 40% for job training. This would allow small business to continue to train and improve their worker’s skill set while being able to offset the cost via tax deductions. They plan on reintroducing the bill this next session and were willing to work with us directly this next year.
Over the coming weeks, we plan to continue to monitor developments on the Hill, as committee chairs are assigned and to determine what Congress is likely to do on the workforce development front.
Until next month,
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