The 118th Congress begins today, January 3rd, 2023, bringing divided leadership to Washington, D.C. The Republican party is now in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, which is made up of 222 Republicans and 212 Democrats (and one vacancy). The U.S. Senate will continue to be led by the Democratic party, which has 48 Senate …
Continue reading 118th Congress Begins Amid Leadership Uncertainty
The federal government is currently on the precipice of finalizing a sweeping, $1.7 trillion omnibus funding package, just in time to prevent a looming government shutdown, which would have begun at midnight tonight. Funding the government through the end of the current fiscal year was the final item on the 117th Congress’s agenda. The omnibus …
Continue reading Omnibus Heads to Biden’s Desk for Signature
A few of the participants outside the office of Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) This week, crop insurance agents from PIA affiliates from North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Minnesota came to Washington, D.C. to advocate on a variety of issues related to the federal crop insurance program. Crop insurance provides our nation’s farmers with the …
Continue reading PIA Agents Fly in to Advocate on Crop Insurance
After months of campaigning, the midterm congressional and state elections concluded yesterday. At the federal level, all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats were up for grabs, with the outcome to determine who will control Congress for the next two years. At the time of this posting on Wednesday morning, the …
Continue reading Outcomes of Key Races Remain Unclear, House and Senate Majorities Uncertain
Recently, PIA joined a coalition of trade associations in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressing our opposition to the Establishing New Authorities for Business Laundering and Enabling Risks to Security (ENABLERS) Act, which passed the House as part of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act …
As reported earlier this week, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is set to expire at 11:59pm September 30 unless Congress extends it. The authority to fund the federal government also must be extended by tomorrow as well. This afternoon, the Senate passed a short-term government funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to …
Continue reading Senate Passes NFIP Extension to December 16
John Boozman was elected to the United States Senate in 2010. Prior to serving in the Senate, he represented the people of the Third District of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years. Before his service in Congress, Sen. Boozman was an optometrist, owning a private practice with his brother. Sen. Boozman attended …
As we noted last week, the House recently passed its Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, which included several troubling directives to the Federal Insurance Office (FIO). The bill would have directed the FIO to gather data on property damage exclusions in homeowners’ and renters’ insurance policies, examine the impact …
Continue reading FIO Directives Excluded from Senate Funding Bill—For Now
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) recently introduced S. 4533, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Extension Act of 2022, with Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) as cosponsors. The legislation would prevent the NFIP from expiring on September 30, 2022 by extending it for one year until September 30, 2023. Throughout …
Continue reading Bill Introduced in Senate to Extend NFIP for One Year
When we announced the passage of a cannabis safe harbor bill as a 2022 legislative priority again this year, we did not expect the SAFE Banking Act to pass the House a third time this Congress and still not make it out of the Senate, but here we are, at least today. As you may …
Continue reading Cannabis Safe Harbor: Up for Grabs … or Up in Smoke?
PIA Advocacy Blog 