National Association of Towns and Townships - www.natat.org
How Townships can access clean energy tax credits in the form of direct pay/transferability
2025 NATAT Policy Platform
NATaT Tax Priorities
NATaT Transportation Reauthorization Priorities
NATaT December 2024 Annual Meeting
Jerry B. Crabtree, Heidi Fought (Ohio ED), Past President Neil Sheradin (Michigan Ed), and NATaT President Dave Sanko (PA ED)
NATaT Weekly Legislative Report
May 19, 2025
Congressional Outlook
The House and Senate are in session this week.
After the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Agriculture Committees passed their portions of the budget reconciliation legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, on party-line votes last week, the package hit a snag when initially considered by the House Budget Committee. A necessary legislative step for the reconciliation package includes a markup and passage through the Budget Committee, where the full bill ran into issues on Friday when five Republican members of the Committee (Reps. Ralph Norman [R-SC], Lloyd Smucker [R-PA], Chip Roy [R-TX], Josh Brecheen [R-OK], and Andrew Clyde [R-GA]) voted with all 16 committee Democrats against the bill. The final vote on favorably reporting the bill to the House failed 16-21 as certain commitments were not yet made to satisfy the five GOP committee members. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House leadership worked over the weekend to make concessions in the budget reconciliation bill to ensure its passage through the House Budget Committee. Eventually, the legislation passed through the Committee on Sunday night by a vote of 17-16-4 when four of the previous “no” votes agreed to vote “present” (as a show of their continued hesitation around the bill) in order to allow the bill to advance out of Committee. House leadership discussed expediting the timing around work requirements for Medicaid to December 31, 2026, instead of 2029, which could lead to $300 billion in additional savings, while taking away additional coverage.
To bring the bill to the full House floor later this week, Republican leadership is also still working through the potential of phasing out clean energy tax credit funding from the Inflation Reduction Act earlier and making changes to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction caps, in addition to the Medicaid-related changes. President Donald Trump plans to attend the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday morning to work through any issues from outstanding House GOP members. Speaker Johnson has vowed to hold members in Washington, D.C. until the reconciliation bill passes, even if lawmakers must work through the weeklong Memorial Day holiday recess. On Wednesday, the Rules Committee will meet at 1:00 am to work through the final steps needed to bring reconciliation to the House floor later on Wednesday or Thursday.
The House will also consider 14 bills under suspension of the rules, including the Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act of 2025 (H.R. 1453), which requires the Energy Department’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to report semiannually to Congress on the state of its supported projects; the No Wrong Door for Veterans Act (H.R. 1969), which reauthorizes a VA grant program for entities providing veterans with suicide prevention services; and the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research Act (ANCHOR) Act (H.R. 1223), which requires the National Science Foundation to submit a plan to Congress to improve the U.S. Academic Research Fleet’s cybersecurity and telecommunications. The House will also vote on repealing two Biden administration rules passed through the Senate under the Congressional Review Act. S. J. Res. 13 would repeal an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rule requiring a more thorough review process to approve bank mergers; and S.J. Res. 31 would overturn an Environmental Protection Agency rule imposing stricter emissions requirements on facilities formerly designated as “major sources” of hazardous air pollutants.
This week, the Senate will vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act (S. 1582), which requires federal and state regulators to issue tailored capital, liquidity, and risk management rules for federal and state stablecoin issuers, however, it exempts stablecoin issuers from the regulatory capital standards applied to traditional banks. The Senate will also vote on Charles Kushner to be Ambassador to the French Republic and Ambassador to the Principality of Monaco.
The House will hold several hearings including an Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs hearing on “Mandates, Meddling, and Mismanagement: The IRA’s Threat to Energy and Medicine;” an Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections hearing on “Empowering the Modern Worker;” and an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade hearing on “AI Regulation and the Future of US Leadership.” The Senate will hold several hearings, including a Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing on “The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated with the COVID-19 Vaccines.”
Multiple House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees will hold FY26 budget oversight hearings this week with agency heads, including: the Department of the Interior; Department of Health and Human Services; Transportation Security Administration; Department of State; Department of Education; the Federal Communications Commission; Army Corps of Engineers (Civil Works); Bureau of Reclamation; Small Business Administration; Department of Energy; Department of Labor; Food and Drug Administration; and National Guard and Reserves Forces.
Week in Review
House Budget panel approves reconciliation package on second try
House Passes Bipartisan Improving Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness Through Data Act
Senate Confirms Katharine MacGregor as Deputy Interior Secretary
Senate Confirms James Danly for Deputy Energy Secretary Role
Senate confirms Trump’s nominee for EPA top lawyer
Senate Confirms Eric Ueland as OMB Deputy Director for Management
Senate confirms former Uber executive as Pentagon’s chief technology officer
Senate Bill to Promote Music Tourism Passes Unanimously
Trump signs order aiming to cut some U.S. drug prices to match lower ones abroad
United States and China Agree to Partially De-escalate April Tariffs