Votes are still being tallied nationwide, but we wanted to give you a quick federal update on last night's elections and what it could mean for special districts and the Special Districts Fairness and Accessibly Act. Many races are yet to be called, but Democrats have taken the majority in both the House and Senate in the 120th Congress. 

• The 120th Congress will have a historic number of new members, giving us a unique opportunity to educate them about special districts and our issues.  
• Manatt is tracking at least 13 members of the 120th Congress with prior professional experience working for a special district. We expect this number to grow as we dig into the backgrounds of candidates who unexpectedly won their races last night. 
• 28 House members cosponsored H.R. 2766, the Special Districts Fairness and Accessibility Act (SDFAA) in the 119th Congress. That coalition mostly held up in the election. Twenty-one cosponsors won reelection or are expected to. That group is mostly West Coast Democrats, including Reps. Panetta, Cisneros, Mullin, DelBene, Carbajal, Liccardo, Schrier, Randall, Garamendi, Vindman, Bynum, Whitesides, Hoyle, Salinas, Ruiz, Bonamici, Harder, and Pettersen. It also includes Republican Rep. Vince Fong, while Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Jay Obernolte are expected to win. Three cosponsors lost or are trailing. Rep. Gabe Evans lost to Manny Rutinel in Colorado's 8th District, and Rep. David Valadao lost to Randy Villegas in California's 22nd. Rep. Young Kim is trailing fellow cosponsor Rep. Ken Calvert after California's redistricting put them in the new 40th District, so the bill keeps one supporter in that seat whoever wins. Four more cosponsors left open seats. Two of those seats are expected to stay Republican: Mike Kennedy is favored to replace Rep. Burgess Owens in Utah, and Amanda McKinney (former board member of the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency) is favored to replace Rep. Dan Newhouse in Washington. In California, Democrat Jacqui Irwin will succeed Rep. Julia Brownley, and Democrat Mike McGuire takes Rep. Doug LaMalfa's seat.
• S. 2014, the Senate companion to H.R. 2766 was lead by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and four cosponsors, Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and John Curtis (R-UT). Only Cornyn and Merkley had seats on the 2026 ballot. Merkley won. Cornyn will not return after losing the May Republican primary runoff to Ken Paxton, and Democrat James Talarico won his seat last night. Moreno, Gallego, and Curtis were not up this cycle, so four of the bill's five Senate supporters will be back next Congress. The bill will need a new Senate lead to replace Cornyn. Because Democrats won control of the Senate, Merkley could take over as lead and use his seniority, and Gallego's seat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he will now be in the majority and where the bill is pending, makes him an important ally as well.
• We will be meeting with the 119th Congress leads of the SDFAA to push for inclusion in legislation moving in the Lame Duck Congress (described in more detail below) and plotting a path forward in the 120th. 

The 120th Congress gets sworn in on January 3, 2027.  But before that, Members of the House and Senate return to Washington, DC. On November 9, and the current Continuing resolution expires on December 11th.  The CR is funding not only the federal government but also includes extensions of the surface transportation reauthorization bill, National Flood Insurance Program and a prohibition on OMB’s proposed grants rule.

Legislative items on tap for the lame duck session could be pushed into a new year (2027) and a new Congress (120th) when democrats can exercise their new majority control on spending and authorization measures.  This includes the Water Resources Development Act of 2026, EPA’s State Revolving Fund Reauthorization, Surface Transportation Reauthorization, FY27 Appropriations Bills, Permitting Reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and Data Centers.

Mannat will be diving deeper into election results on November 13th in a webinar that you can sign up for here.