Meeting_Body
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
OCTOBER 17, 2019
Subject
SUBJECT: STATE AND FEDERAL REPORT
Action
ACTION: RECEIVE AND FILE
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
RECEIVE AND FILE State and Federal Legislative Report.
Discussion
DISCUSSION
Executive Management Committee
Remarks Prepared By Raffi Haig Hamparian
Government Relations Senior Director, Federal Affairs
Chair Butts and members of the Executive Management Committee, I am pleased to provide an update on several federal matters of interest to our agency. This report was prepared on October 3, 2019 and will be updated, as appropriate, at the Executive Management Committee meeting on October 17, 2019. Status of relevant pending legislation is monitored on the Metro Government Relations Legislative Matrix, which is updated monthly.
Surface Transportation Reauthorization
As reported to our Board of Directors through a Legislative Alert, on July 30, 2019, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) unanimously approved a five-year reauthorization of our nation's highway programs. The bill, popularly referred to as the America's Transportation Improvement Act (ATIA), was authored by Chairman of the EPW Committee John Barrasso of Wyoming and Ranking Member Tom Carper of Delaware. Last month, our Board moved to adopt a work with author position on this bill.
The Senate's action on the ATIA was the first action taken by either chamber of Congress to pass a new surface transportation bill prior to the expiration of the current surface transportation bill - The FAST Act next September. Beyond this effort, no other committees of jurisdiction in either the House or Senate have announced any plans with respect to reauthorizing surface transportation programs.
Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 2020
As we previously shared with the Board, Congress and the White House negotiated - just prior to the August recess - a two-year budget deal that set spending levels, among other provisi...
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