President Trump recently signed into law, H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, which will provide stopgap spending when the new fiscal year begins on October 1.
The “continuing resolution” (CR) is necessary because not one of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year have been signed into law. Under the CR, Congress now will have until December 11 – a week before the scheduled adjournment date for the 119th Congress – to complete action on the appropriations bill or pass another continuing resolution.
The CR passed the House on Tuesday with a 370-48 vote and passed the Senate on August 8 with a 90-6 vote.
Completion of action on the CR could also affect Congress’ schedule, APPA noted.
After the Labor Day Weekend, the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session for the remainder of September.
However, with the CR enacted and little additional “must-pass” legislation on the agenda, House Republican leaders are reportedly considering leaving Washington earlier in the month to allow lawmakers to go home to campaign for the upcoming election.
Grantmaking NOPR Paused
The new law would also block the Administration from taking further action on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance.” Proposed in May, the NOPR would change how grants, cooperative agreements and other discretionary programs are designed, awarded and administered, including requiring that a senior political appointees approve all discretionary grant awards before they are issued.
The NOPR also convert what has been grantmaking guidance for federal agencies into formal regulations.
In addition, the NOPR would:
• Add a “termination for convenience” provision to discretionary awards, allowing an agency to terminate an award that no longer advances the agency’s or the administration’s priorities;
• Transition from fixed-amount awards to a cost-reimbursement model and expand upon unallowable costs;
• Prohibit grants from being used to “fund or promote” initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or “gender ideology”; and
• Impose various “viewpoint-neutrality” requirements on entities that receive federal grants.
Of relevance to public power, the NOPR was released by the Office of Management and Budget and 41 other federal agencies and departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
APPA was one of nearly half a million entities to file comments. APPA’s comments expressed support for the aspects of the NOPR that would streamline the application process, and concern that other provisions would create new burdens and uncertainty for applicants and recipients of federal funding.
CISA 2015 Extended
Also included in the CR is a temporary reauthorization of the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 (CISA 2015). CISA 2015 set up policies and procedures for the voluntary sharing of cybersecurity threat information between and among the federal government and private entities (the definition of which includes public power utilities) and provides limited liability protection for these activities.
APPA strongly supports the long-term reauthorization of CISA 2015.
