Governmental Affairs
December 4, 2020
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WFRC's final governmental affairs email for 2020... and my final governmental affairs email for WFRC. See below for some personal news as well as a few federal and state updates. Stay safe and healthy everyone.
Thanks for reading,
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Starting with personal news, I’m equally sad and excited to share that I'll be leaving my role as Government Relations Manager for the Wasatch Front Regional Council on December 17, 2020. I'm incredibly grateful for the progress that we’ve accomplished together during my tenure at WFRC as well as the lessons, opportunities, and so much more that WFRC has provided me over the last 19 years. I’ve built some amazing friendships and lasting memories with many of you and I’m so grateful and thankful for that! Together we’ve accomplished some pretty amazing things for our communities. I’ll always be proud of this work.
Our professional circles may still intertwine as I’ll be serving as Community and Economic Development Director for Holladay City. I'm excited to explore this new path in my career journey and look forward to possibly collaborating and working with you in this new capacity. If you haven’t already, take note of my personal email and cell phone number and we can remain in touch.
This means that WFRC has an amazing job opportunity! If you have an interest in policy, legislation, planning, infrastructure, collaboration, and serving your community, let Andrew Gruber know! Please keep an eye on the Careers page of the WFRC website for the job announcement.
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At the end of September, Congress passed a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR), HR 8337, that funded the federal government through December 11, 2020. This expiration date is only 7 days away and Congress has yet to pass any appropriations. Washington insiders do not anticipate a federal government shutdown, rather, it is likely that during this post-election Lame Duck session, Congress will pass another funding extension in the form of a large omnibus spending agreement as a way to deal with the 12 pending federal agency FY’21 appropriations bills. The question remains, will the spending agreement include COVID-19 relief?
Of course, our nation is still dealing with a pandemic and Congress continues to work toward passing another COVID-19 relief package. Movement has been made but an agreement remains elusive. A $908B proposal was offered this week by a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and endorsed by the House Problem Solvers Caucus, which includes aid for transit and for state and local governments. Senate Leader McConnell then circulated a new draft framework for COVID-19 relief, but the new draft does not include relief for state and local governments, which means it is a non-starter for many. There is great pressure on both parties to pass another round of COVID-19 relief, and many observers are feeling more confident in a potential COVID deal before the end of the year.
A quick note on federal transportation legislation, President-elect Biden has indicated that infrastructure will be one of his top priorities - he’s expressed support for a wide range of critical infrastructure programs and priorities to include clean energy, autonomous vehicles, transit and rail, smart cities, school modernization, broadband, and climate change. President-elect Biden did not commit to raising revenue in order to address the infrastructure funding shortall for the Highway Trust Fund - a fund that relies on fuel taxes that haven’t been increased since 1993. We remain optimistic that the new year will ring in new motivation to finish a transportation bill. Check out this op-ed by Andrew Gruber that discusses the bipartisan opportunity to rebuild America's infrastructure. As we’ve noted in prior emails, the success of transportation legislation will hinge on the ability of Congress and/or the President to find a way to pay for it all.
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Lots of changes at the state level this year. We’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to Governor-elect Spencer Cox and Lt. Governor-elect Deidre Henderson! And, to all the other incumbent and newly elected officials! WFRC looks forward to working together on transportation and related issues and opportunities as we serve our communities and as we continue to deal with the challenges of long-term recovery from the pandemic and from rapid population growth..
The 2021 Legislative Session begins a week earlier than normal, on January 19, 2021. We understand that the session will allow for both virtual and some limited in-person participation.
Like in past years, with just a few adjustments given the unique circumstances we are in due to the pandemic, here is what you can expect from WFRC staff during the legislative session:
- A weekly (or so) email that provides an update on legislative activity that impacts WFRC and/or local governments.
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Weekly legislative meetings with our members and key partners to discuss and prioritize relevant legislation. These will be held virtually beginning Thursday, January 28, 2021 at 8:00 am. If you would like an invitation, please click here and let Katie know you would like to be added to the weekly legislative list.
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WFRC will track relevant transportation legislation and related items like economic development, air quality, and land use legislation and share via our bill tracker. The tracker will be shared in our email updates and will be posted on the Governmental Affairs page of the WFRC website.
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"Celebrate endings - for they precede new beginnings." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Thanks for everything - keep up the good work!
LaNiece Davenport, lanieced@gmail.com or 801-809-6828 (cell)
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LaNiece Davenport
ldavenport@wfrc.org
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