Following a flurry of activity, Congress is scheduled to adjourn for the August recess today. Both houses have addressed a number of important federal issues to date; however, final resolution to most of these issues remains in question. Congress will return after Labor Day with an expected adjournment date in late September or early October as members are eager to return home to campaign for the November General Election.
One of the most important issues that must be resolved is a comprehensive spending package before the end of the fiscal year, which concludes on September 30, 2014. While there is time in September to adopt some of the 12 annual appropriations bills, Congress is not expected to reach agreement on individual bills with 7 of the bills completed in the House and none in the Senate. With a variety of funding decisions left for Congress, RCRC anticipates that Congress is likely to pass a short-term funding measure, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), to keep government programs running through the end of the calendar year. Unless Congress takes action to appropriate specific funding levels for each program, passage of a CR would maintain funding levels from the previous year, and apply across-the-board funding reductions mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011, known as sequesters.
Of particular importance to RCRC member counties are several key federal programs that must be funded/reauthorized. These include an extension of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, and funding for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Associated with financing the HTF is an overall extension to the federal transportation funding program known as MAP 21. In late July, Congress enacted legislation to fund the HTF through May 31, 2015. Congress will likely begin work on a multiyear reauthorization in MAP 21 in early 2015, although additional sources of revenue still need to be found in order to fully fund the program. Another matter to be decided early in September is wildfire funding and authorization to allow the most costly fires to be funded by emergency appropriations rather than by diverting funds from other natural resources and public lands accounts.
RCRC and our federal advocates are monitoring all of the activities surrounding our federal priorities, and will report on developments when Congress returns in September.
For additional information on federal issues, please contact RCRC Legislative Analyst Randall Echevarria at (916) 447-4806 or rechevarria@rcrcnet.org.