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!
As anyone who watches the news knows, the latter half of September was dominated by the Supreme Court confirmation process. After smooth sailing and what seemed to be a sure confirmation, things got much more complicated for Judge Kavanaugh than anyone anticipated. In the end, the Judge was confirmed to the Supreme Court but the scrutiny on law makers and the focus on the upcoming election have not diminished.
Advocacy Update
Entering the month of September, there were a number of things on the Congressional docket that the House and Senate wanted to focus on. In the House, Republicans weighed passing what was called Tax Cut 2.0. After some back and forth, House leadership did decide to do it. The proposal would make the individual changes in last year’s bill permanent, including the $10,000 annual cap for state and local deductions. That passed the House but there is no expectation that it will be brought up for a vote in the Senate, due to not enough support.
Another issue that faced Congress, was keeping the government open past Sept. 30th. The Republicans did not want to face the prospect of shutting down the government just a few weeks prior to an election. The President was also convinced of this viewpoint. The House, Senate, and the White House struck a deal that keeps the lights on until December. At that point, House leadership and the President have already promised to fully hash out the President’s demand for southern border wall funding. Currently, there does not seem to be a clear winning compromise that will satisfy the pushback from Democrats and the funding request from the White House.
With funding the government completed, the House left DC until the election. The Senate stuck around until Judge Kavanaugh was confirmed and left shortly afterwards. Now, all eyes are on the midterms. The final outcome is still in much doubt but it seems that all the polls point to the Senate remaining under the control of the GOP and the House flipping to the Democrats. However, the only thing that has a high degree of certainty is that the Democrats pick up seats in the House, outright control is not guaranteed. The final outcome will have a tremendous impact on the next two years. If the Democrats have control of the House, the GOP-led Senate and President Trump will have to play ball with them. The government needs to be funded, there is a debt ceiling coming, the national flood insurance program needs improvements, and there are many promises that President Trump will want to keep as he looks towards the 2020 elections. If the Democrats fall a few seats short, a smooth legislative agenda is still not guaranteed for the GOP. The House Freedom Caucus is growing increasingly agitated and it remains to be seen which Republican can rise to the leadership with the support of enough votes to not need the support of Democrats. Either way, the next congressional session will be a test for Senate GOP Leadership and President Trump’s deal-making abilities.
During the month of September, we began the process of taking meetings to determine the best legislative agenda for AWFS in 2019. Our goal is to begin building relationships with the best offices to position us to advance an agenda that will benefit AWFS members. We started this process with a meeting regarding a bill that provides financial assistance to state and local organizations to disburse to organizations that help build public-private partnerships. The bill would provide direct funding to companies and organizations like AWFS and its members. The Congresswoman’s staff was very happy to discuss the bill with me and discuss their plan to make this a concerted effort in 2019. The bill brings together industry, education, training, and community-based organizations to help businesses provide apprenticeships and support services to trainees. We will continue to analyze potential priority legislation but this bill seems like a good candidate.
In addition to this process, we are also working with the AWFS team to analyze current trade and tariff issues and determine if it is having a meaningfully negative impact on the membership. To date, we’ve had mixed feedback but still have additional members to follow-up with to determine our path forward.
Until next month,
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