NECA Legislative Top Three 6/26/20: NECA Monitoring Progress of INVEST in America Act
1. INVEST in America Act Moves to House Rules Committee
Last week, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a legislative markup on H.R. 2,Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America) Act. The markup took the committee over two days to complete with over 250 amendments offered. The final section by section summary text of the bill can be found here.
NECA’s Look Ahead: The bill is expected to be reviewed by the House Rules Committee, where an additional round of amendments will be decided on for a vote on the House floor. A full vote on the House passage of the bill is expected sometime in July. The Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, John Barrasso (R-WY), is championing an opposing highway reauthorization bill that was unanimously approved by his committee in July 2019. The full House bill is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate without significant changes. NECA will continue to monitor this bill as it moves through Congress.
2. NECA Weighs in on Net Operating Losses
NECA, along with a coalition of over 75 industry groups, sent a letter to the U.S. Senate concerning net operating losses (NOLs).
NECA’s Look Ahead: The letter was sent to encourage Senators to maintain the NOL provisions in the CARES Act, since there is an effort by some Senators and outside groups to significantly change or remove the provisions in upcoming legislation.
3. NDAA Continues Through Legislative Process
The Senate voted on June 25, 2020, to invoke cloture, a process by which debate can be limited on certain pieces of less controversial legislation, on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), S. 4049. While this is a major step towards processing the nearly 1,200 page bill, it is the first step of many for the must-pass legislation, which has broad authorization power for the Department of Defense. Both the House and the Senate must pass their own versions of the legislation and then meet in conference to reconcile the two pieces.
NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA remains encouraged that this must-pass legislation will continue to be just that, and that numerous DOD contracting and other positive construction reforms will come from S. 4049 and the House companion bill.