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NATaT December 2024 Annual Meeting
Jerry B. Crabtree, Heidi Fought (Ohio ED), Past President Neil Sheradin (Michigan Ed), and NATaT President Dave Sanko (PA ED)
NATaT Weekly Legislative Report
September 1, 2026
Congressional Outlook
The House returned to Washington, D.C. Monday evening, after Members were back home in their districts over the past five weeks during the chamber’s summer recess. The Senate remains out on its recess until September 14, leaving the House to work on several pieces of unfinished business before Congress I scheduled to break again beginning October 1, more than a month ahead of the November midterm election.
Topping the list of items for the House this week is voting to keep the federal government funded past Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, which ends on Sept. 30; converging on that same Sept. 30 deadline are the expiration of surface transportation authorizations under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the current extension of many 2018 Farm Bill authorities. With only a handful of legislative days remaining before its own pre-election recess, and with the Senate not due back for two more weeks, House GOP leadership has little runway and little appetite for a lengthy floor fight heading into a midterm cycle in which control of both chambers is on the ballot.
Government funding is the most urgent legislative item for House lawmakers to address. On August 8, the Senate passed its version of a stopgap spending bill, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 (H.R. 6500) by a bipartisan vote of 90-6-1, funding the government at current FY 2026 funding levels through Friday, December 11 and averting a shutdown roughly five weeks before Election Day. The Senate bill differs from the House-passed version the lower chamber passed on July 21 in several ways: it extends funding for one additional week (through Dec. 11, rather than Dec. 4), it includes the IIJA's surface transportation authorizations (while not including advanced appropriations for transportation programs), adjusts WIC nutrition assistance and Disaster Relief Fund allocations, and, at Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins' (R-Maine) insistence, blocks the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from issuing or finalizing, through Dec. 11, a proposed rule that would require political appointees rather than career staff to sign off on federal grant awards. House GOP leadership is expected to bring the bill to the floor on Tuesday, under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority for passage and all but guarantees that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will need a substantial number of Democratic votes to get it across the finish line, given Republicans' narrow four-seat majority. That math has drawn criticism from the House Freedom Caucus, which is pushing instead for a longer-term CR that runs past the November election and holds discretionary spending flat, warning that a short-term CR just sets up a bigger “lame-duck omnibus” fight in December. House Democratic leadership, meanwhile, has signaled openness to the Senate's version of the CR; senior appropriator Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) called it “a clear improvement” over the House GOP's earlier bill, while still pressing for a permanent fix to the OMB rule and a return to full-year appropriations bills. The White House indicated in early August that President Donald Trump would sign H.R. 6500 into law if presented to him.
Two other Sept. 30 deadlines are converging without a clean resolution in sight. Surface transportation funding authorized under the IIJA lapses that day; with the Senate's own five-year reauthorization still unwritten and the House's $580 billion BUILD America 250 Act (H.R. 8870) stalled since the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee marked it up in late May, Congress (as detailed above) is expected to rely on the CR's short-term extension rather than pass a full reauthorization this fall. The Farm Bill faces a similar time constraint, the current extension of the 2018 law also expires Sept. 30, and while the House passed its five-year rewrite, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567) by a vote of 224-200 back in late April, the Senate Agriculture Committee's companion bill, the Agricultural Act of 2026, failed to advance out of committee on August 6 by a vote of 10-11, with SNAP administrative cost-sharing the central sticking point. Separately, the House is expected to consider the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 (H.R. 5334) later in September, which the Senate passed on August 7 by a vote of 86-11 and which imposes steep tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian energy.
The House returns Monday and is scheduled to consider 18 bills and resolutions under suspension of the rules, including the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 (H.R. 6500), which extends funding for the federal government from Oct. 1 through Dec. 11 and extends various expiring programs through Dec. 11; H. J. Res. 1, which proposes a constitutional amendment requiring the U.S. Supreme Court to be composed of nine justices; the Kayleigh’s Law Act of 2026 (H.R. 8481), which requires federal courts to impose injunctions on individuals convicted of sexual abuse and related offenses to prevent them from contacting their victims; and the Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act of 2026 (H.R. 1869), which requires the Department of Justice to launch a criminal task force to investigate and prosecute trade violations. The House will also consider four bills and resolutions pursuant to a rule, including the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026 (H.R. 9436), which extends a pause on new Commerce Department marine fishing regulations aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whale populations for an additional seven years, through Dec. 31, 2035; a resolution (H. Res. 1490) denouncing socialism and calling for the enactment of the SAVE America Act; the Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025 (H.R. 1501), which provides statutory authority for federal agencies to expedite the environmental review of certain mining infrastructure projects; and the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of 2026 (H.R. 4795), which prohibits institutions of higher education that participate in federal student aid programs from engaging in boycotts against Israel. The chamber will also likely vote on a motion to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), following a House Ethics Committee report detailing harassment and hostile work environment claims against the Congressman.
Throughout the week, the House will hold 24 committee hearings and markups; including a Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on Sanctuary Polices; an Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education hearing on Supporting Working Families: State-Led Child Care Solutions; a Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare hearing on Welfare Reform at 30: Restoring the Promise of Work and Personal Responsibility in Federal Welfare Programs; a Financial Services Committee hearing on Strengthening the American Economy: Promoting Growth, Opportunity, and Prosperity; an Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs hearing on No Flame, More Pain: How State and Local Bans on Natural Gas Increase Costs; an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment hearing on Reliable Water in the Digital Age: Examining Legislation to Strengthen Drinking Water Systems and Protect Ratepayers; and an Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections hearing on Less Red Tape, More Opportunity: Unleashing American Workers and Job Creators.
Representatives-elect Aisha Wahab (D-Calif.) and Everton Blair (D-Ga.) will likely be sworn-in to the House later this week after winning special runoff elections in late August in California’s 14th congressional district and Georgia’s 13th congressional district, respectively. Wahab succeeds former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in mid-April in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations made against him; Blair succeeds former Rep. David Scott, who died in late April at the age of 80. Once Wahab and Blair are sworn-in, House Democrats will hold 214 seats, while the House Republican Conference will continue to number 219 for the remainder of the 119th Congress; two vacancies remain in Texas’s 23rd congressional district and Florida’s 20th congressional district.
Voters in Massachusetts head to the polls on Tuesday to vote in Republican and Democratic primary elections for U.S. House and Senate seats.
Week in Review
House comes back to crowded agenda
US military has ‘no plans’ to be at polling places in November, Caine says
US strikes deal for 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves
Postal Service appeals order blocking plan for Trump's push to restrict mail voting
States sue Trump administration over family planning grant changes
Big hemp is betting Republicans roll over on ‘diet weed’ ban to avoid shutdown
US and Iran exchange fire for the first time in over a month