Federal Updates Regarding Congress Activities

Message from ANCOR: 

Dear ANCOR Members,

The to-do list for Congress this week is quite massive and hugely significant. Speaker Pelosi’s list includes passing the bipartisan infrastructure package, the reconciliation, and a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government. We wanted to give you a Monday overview of what we are following, planning and how you can help in the coming days!

First up, the Continuing Resolution or CR: If you’ll recall, the House did pass a CR, but it included provisions to raise the debt limit, disaster relief funding and Afghanistan refugee resettlement funding. The Senate is not going to pass the CR with all of that attached. There should be a party line vote today, primarily with Republicans refusing to raise the debt limit. (This is a drama that plays out in Congress all the time, no matter the party in power…haven’t we all seen this movie before?) Once that Senate vote fails today, both chambers will need to go back to the drawing board in order to pass a “clean” CR that can be signed by President Biden by midnight on September 30 to avoid a government shutdown.

Next up, the Bipartisan (hard) Infrastructure Package: Speaker Pelosi announced the House will vote on this package Thursday, September 30. Originally the date was set for a vote on both this package and the human infrastructure package TODAY in hopes of keeping both the progressive and moderate sides of her caucus satisfied, but things haven’t gone exactly to plan. The risk for Speaker Pelosi is that the progressive caucus has threatened to vote no on the bipartisan infrastructure package without significant progress toward the reconciliation package (where our HCBS funding lives). Speaker Pelosi has promised a “framework” for the reconciliation package in hopes that will be enough to bring the progressives on board to pass the bipartisan package first, but the vote is anything but certain.

Last but not least, the Human Infrastructure Package/Reconciliation: On Sunday, the House Budget Committee (after the markups) packaged the reconciliation bill and moved it to the House Rules Committee. As expected House and Senate Democrats are actively negotiating to develop an overarching framework and legislative text. Leadership is developing a reconciliation package for a potential vote on Thursday in hopes of moving the progressive Democrats to vote on the bipartisan package (see above).  Needless to say, this is a tall order to get this done by Thursday with so many disagreements among Democrats on what should and shouldn’t be included. One thing for sure, whatever happens this week with the reconciliation will not be the last step. There will still be plenty of time for change.

LASTLY, WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP?

• Recent polling shows over 80% of Americans support the HCBS provisions of the bill, even if they don’t agree with other parts of it.
• Congress is hearing from a LOT of their constituents back home supporting HCBS. Keep it up! This is clearly not a partisan issue.
• Tell your stories!
• Take Action Alerts!

On Wednesday, ahead of the vote(s) in the House…we will be releasing a summary brief of our recent Workforce Impact Survey, along with a NEW Action Alert. Please be on the lookout for that, rally your groups and prepare for this important DAY OF ACTION. 

Thank you, everyone! Happy Monday!
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Shannon McCracken
Vice President of Government Relations
ANCOR
606.271.3555
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