Archive for November 2024

This Week in Congress Congress returned for the last week of work before the Thanksgiving-week recess.  The House voted on bills that would boost government geothermal lease sales (H.R. 1449) and to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that support designated terrorist groups and ensure that American hostages will not face tax penalties for late…

Government Funding? Government funding runs out on December 20th and last Sunday, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) said that the House will pass another temporary spending bill before the end of the year to extend current levels of government funding into March of next year. This is the same approach Republicans took going into 2017. The GOP…

Budget Reconciliation / Tax Code / and the 119th Congress Republicans have won 218 seats in the House, giving the party a majority in both chambers of Congress next year.  The Republican’s electoral sweep will allow it to use a special “budget reconciliation” process to pass tax, spending, and debt limit legislation in the Senate…

Recess Appointments? President-elect Trump is pushing Senate leaders to allow for recess appointments. Article II, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the Recess Appointment Clause, provides that, the President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate. These recess appointments are valid through, in this case,…

President-Elect Trump’s Cabinet Nominations and Appointments I will continue to update cabinet nominations and other appointments as they are announced. The nominations and appointments, to date, are as follows: Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick, the chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and is also currently serving as co-chair of the Trump transition. Secretary of Defense:…

Click Here to Register for this Webinar! Upcoming Webinar – Trust but Verify: Prequalifying Project Owners and GCs Join us on January 9th, 2025 at 1pm Eastern for the upcoming webinar, “Trust but Verify: Prequalifying Project Owners and GCs.”   Be sure to register for this valuable webinar on a critical risk management action—prequalifying owners and…

  The Developing America’s Workforce Act On Thursday, November 14, 2024, Reps. Good (R-VA) and Miller (R-IL) introduced H.R. 10122, The Developing America’s Workforce Act. Notably, the bill text would reinstate the Trump Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Rule (IRAP) rule with one important change—it eliminates the “construction exemption,” which was accepted in the first Trump Administration.…

Overtime Rule Declared Invalid On Friday, November 15, 2024, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Department of Labor’s 2024 overtime rule is invalid.  The Department of Labor (DOL) released the rule earlier this year that attempted to implement a new overtime regulation and salary threshold increase.  The rule would have required employers to…

Potential Immigration Enforcement and I-9 Audits While much of the incoming administration’s policy agenda for the immigrant workforce is still unknown, I am informed that employers are gearing up for a dramatic increase in worksite enforcement, as outlined by President-elect Trump’s Transition Team.  This could include a return of surprise raids of companies suspected of…

This Week in Congress The House returned with votes planned this week on three measures under a rule, requiring a simple majority vote for passage: (1) the Critical Mineral Consistency Act, H.R. 8446, would amend the Energy Act of 2020 to include certain critical materials in the definition of critical minerals; (2) the HEATS Act, H.R.…