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!
In the month of July, we worked with the AWFS team to identify the new priorities for our advocacy, now that the Perkins Bill has passed.
Advocacy Update
During the month of July, the focus in DC began to shift more and more towards the upcoming elections. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t work left to be done but more that with each vote and bill introduced, the calculations are more complicated and tend to weigh more heavily towards what will play well in the election. That is why in July House Republicans began circulating draft language that would serve as a tax cut 2.0 bill package. This would deal with issues that they feel will help them in the election, including the child tax credit and increasing the charitable contribution deduction. A big bipartisan accomplishment in July was the passage of the Perkins Act which reauthorized and reformed career and technical education funding in the US. This had broad support on both sides of the aisle and after a breakthrough in negotiations about some unrelated issues, the bill passed and went to the President’s desk for a signature.
The Administration also introduced a plan that would reorganize the federal government. Among the changes the plan laid out was the merger of the Education and Labor Departments. This plan obviously sparked backlash from all sectors, with members on both sides of the aisle indicating that it was unlikely to ever see the light of day in Congress, which would have to approve such monumental changes to the structure of the federal government.
On the health-front, the Administration continued its efforts to undermine and rollback the Affordable Care Act with the rollout of short-term limited duration health plans and association health plans. Neither were received extremely well, including among groups that have historically supported friendlier regulations of these plans, particularly association health plans. In addition, multiple states came out them and said that they would impose additional restrictions on these plans than the federal government would and that enrollment in these plans would drive up rates as more healthy people pulled out of existing plans. Additional reports point to the fact that they may not offer the cost savings that the President has promised, especially when taking into consideration the fact that coverage provided could be quite minimal.
Finally, two purely political documents were released, one by the House Democrats and the other by the House Republicans. The GOP released an infrastructure framework that will likely serve as a starting point for negotiations in the new Congress. The plan includes raising the gas tax and fully funding the Highway Trust Fund in the next decade. The House Democrats released their version of higher education reauthorization. After House Republicans were unable to get sufficient votes to pass their version, everyone has accepted that negotiations on this issue will start up again in January and the Democrats have taken this opportunity to lay out their vision for how higher education should be restructured and funded in the US.
For AWFS, during the month of July we participated in the Public Policy Committee call. During this call we provided updates to the Committee about what is happening in DC and what we anticipate for the fall and the election. Additionally, we touched on future opportunities for our public policy engagement, including next year’s hill day. A big win from our engagement this year was the passage of the Perkins Reauthorization Act. Sufficient pressure finally moved the Senate to get past their hang-ups and meetings like the ones that we took during the hill day earlier this year were key. Looking forward we are examining the direct impact that tariffs are taking on AWFS member’s businesses.
Additionally, we are examining some of the other workforce initiatives that are available. As part of this analysis, we met with Congresswoman Speier’s office to discuss what her priorities are regarding veteran separation and the reform of the transition assistance program. There is a lot of bipartisan support for legislative improvements for this area and opportunities exist for us to secure funding and benefits for AWFS members. We are going to continue taking meetings over the next couple months to determine the best priorities for us to have that will likely see movement either this year or next.
Until next month,
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