Lawmakers in both Washington, DC and Raleigh are back to work after the holiday break. The General Assembly started its long session on January 13th, when it decides the two-year state budget and key priorities, which are expected to include COVID relief, healthcare, broadband and transportation. Centralina has launched a new effort called Raleigh Relations to monitor legislation and strengthen relationships with the elected officials representing our region.
Washington is in the final stretch of the 116th Congress. Two items remain in negotiations that must be resolved before lawmakers can head home for the holidays â FY21 appropriations and coronavirus relief. Congress was forced to pass a one-week extension of the continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels through December 18. The measure aims to give policymakers more time to strike a deal on a comprehensive FY21 spending bill, which may include coronavirus relief funding provisions if a separate aide package cannot be agreed upon.
With an estimated 144 million votes cast, this Novemberâs elections broke a century-old record for percentage of registered voters who voted and recorded the highest number of votes to support a presidential candidate on both sides. The Biden-Harris ticket is the declared winner by the Associated Press based on expected Electoral College votes, exceeding the 270 needed.
Most of our attention may have been on the presidential or even state elections this year, but we should also look at what happened in our local elections. In the nine-county Centralina region, 51 total member seats were on the ballot in the 2020 local government general election.
The 2020 elections brought very few changes to the stateâs legislative landscape. In the Centralina region, there were 27 races for seats in the N.C. House of Representatives, 24 of which had an incumbent seeking re-election.
The House voted 214-207 along party lines to pass the Democratic $2.2 trillion stimulus measure. The legislation is a slimmed-down version of the HEROES Act, the $3.4 trillion stimulus bill that passed the House in May. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the measure still too expensive to pass the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin continue negotiations. The proposal contains $436 billion in aid for states and cities.
Centralina has applied for nearly $499,560 in planning assistance under U.S. DOTâs Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, Transportation Discretionary Grant Program.
The U.S. House of Representatives is readying an infrastructure bill with plans to consider it on the House floor in late June or early July.
The Senate resumed at the end of April and the House will start back May 11. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that her starting point for next relief package (Phase 4) is up to $1 trillion in aid for states and local governments that allows making up for lost revenues.
In early March, what now seems like an eternity ago, two of the primary national organizations for local governments â the National Association of Counties and National League of Cities â held their annual legislative conferences in Washington, DC.