What to Watch for in the 118th Congress.

• Author: Belarmino, Michael
• Position: FEDERAL UPDATE - 2023-2025

January 2023 marked the beginning of the 118th Congress. Let's look at what's on the horizon.

Short-term

The first 100 days of a new Congress are always critical in setting the tone for the year. Having managed to flip control of the House, the Republicans will need to notch some legislative wins--although that will be important for both parties because 2024 is a presidential election year, and both parties need wins for the campaign trail. The start of this session was rocky for Republicans, who had a historically difficult time electing a speaker--a vote that happens on the first day of the session. Without a speaker, the representatives-elect were unable to take their oath and begin official business for the first week of the session. This doesn't bode well for the party, given their slim majority; for any given piece of legislation over the next two years, the House speaker cannot afford to lose five votes. Otherwise, the legislation faces defeat or would require Republican concessions to garner Democratic support.

Nonetheless, despite the uncertainty around how productive the divided 118th Congress might be, there is still plenty for GFOA to focus on in the first 100 or so days. For one, GFOA's Federal Liaison Center will be making every effort to meet with each of the 80-plus freshmen members. Many are coming into office without prior governmental experience or background in public finance, so it is critical to meet with them and their staff to introduce them to the vital role that public finance officers play and what our priorities are.

Education will be needed in other areas as well. The House flipping to Republican control means that the composition of committees will change. The powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over many public finance issues, will not only have a new committee chairman, but there will also be approximately ten new members for the majority. GFOA will need to work with these new committee members to explain public finance priorities and why these priorities are important to their constituents. And even though control of the Senate did not flip, a number of senators retired or departed from the Senate Finance Committee at the end of the 117th--so we will need to meet with new members on that side of Capitol Hill as well.

These meetings will likely last well into 2023. And that brings us to the mid-term legislative focus. While it would be ideal to have our legislative priorities...