House and Senate Action

The House and Senate are both in session this week.

House

House members return to Washington this week to continue their negotiations aimed at reopening the federal government following a lapse in funding that triggered a partial shutdown over the weekend. Lawmakers are expected to ease back into the legislative session by first considering a slate of noncontroversial bills focused on improving veterans’ benefits, employment readiness, and access to care before turning to the Senate-passed funding package.

Senate

Across Capitol Hill, the Senate will focus on nominations, while negotiations continue behind the scenes on potential immigration enforcement reforms.

Partial Shutdown Continues as House Weighs Senate-Passed Funding Deal

The federal government has been partially shut down since Friday night, and as of this writing, a Senate-passed funding deal negotiated with the White House faces a challenging path in the House. Late last week, the upper chamber approved a package to fund most federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year, along with a separate two-week stopgap for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intended to allow additional time for negotiations over immigration enforcement reforms.

The minibus spending package could reach the House floor as early as Tuesday, but its path forward remains uncertain as GOP leaders struggle to line up sufficient support. Many House Democrats oppose the DHS component of the deal, while a bloc of Republicans are resisting both the short-term DHS extension and the broader compromise. Complicating matters further, the House must vote on the Senate package as a single measure rather than considering individual bills. With little margin for defections on either side, congressional leaders are under increasing pressure to assemble the votes needed to reopen the government and avoid a prolonged shutdown.

For his part, President Trump has urged House Republicans to support the agreement, emphasizing the need to reopen the government.

It should be noted that nutrition assistance programs such as SNAP/CalFresh are not at risk, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture is operating under a full-year appropriation. However, funding uncertainty continues for several critical functions, including air traffic control, TSA staffing, and FEMA response.

Agencies affected by the lapse include the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Defense, Treasury, State, Labor, and Education.

Streamlining Federal Grants Act Reintroduced 

Last week, Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and James Lankford (R-OK) reintroduced the Streamlining Federal Grants Act (S. 3709). The legislation, which was approved last Congress by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with bipartisan support, would direct federal agencies and the White House Office of Management and Budget to take steps to simplify discretionary grant application procedures.

Among other reforms, S. 3709 would direct federal departments and agencies to use "plain language" in grant announcements and to include concise summaries of all grant opportunities. Additionally, the legislation would require agencies to implement common data standards for grant reporting and improve the quality and availability of technical assistance.

Looking ahead, Senate bill sponsors will be working to build bipartisan support for S. 3709. A companion bill may be introduced in the House in the near future.

Senate Dems Push Back on EPA’s Proposed WOTUS Changes

Last week, a group of 15 Democratic senators - including Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) - sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging them to abandon a newly proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The lawmakers argue the proposal would significantly weaken federal water pollution protections by narrowing the types of waterways and wetlands subject to Clean Water Act oversight, leaving many streams, wetlands, and seasonal waters more vulnerable to pollution and increasing risks to drinking water quality, flooding, and downstream communities.

The senators also contend the proposal goes beyond the Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett decision. They warn that reduced federal oversight would shift cleanup, enforcement, and water treatment costs to states, local governments, and water utilities. The letter calls on EPA and the Army Corps to halt the rulemaking and refocus on policies that protect public health and the nation’s water resources.

FEMA Review Council Floats Major Overhaul

The FEMA Review Council is reportedly considering a major shift in how federal disaster assistance is delivered. The draft recommendations by the panel, which are not yet public, call for FEMA to move away from traditional damage-based assessments and toward a “parametric” disaster aid model, under which funding would be triggered automatically based on objective conditions such as wind speed, flood depth, acres burned, or earthquake magnitude. Aid amounts would be determined using pre-set triggers and modeled loss estimates, with the goal of providing faster and more predictable cash flow for response and recovery.

The framework would also reduce the federal minimum cost share from 75 percent to 50 percent, although states could qualify for higher reimbursement by demonstrating investments in mitigation and infrastructure resilience.

It should be noted that the report acknowledges tradeoffs, noting that while parametric triggers could significantly reduce delays, designing workable triggers across the full range of federally eligible disasters - including floods, wildfires, earthquakes, droughts, etc - would be complex and could leave some high-impact events underfunded.

Beyond disaster aid delivery, the report recommends cutting FEMA staffing, forgiving $20.5 billion in National Flood Insurance Program debt, and updating outdated flood maps.

Looking ahead, the future of these recommendations remains unclear. A planned December vote on the report was abruptly canceled, and although the council has been extended into March, no public action has yet been scheduled.