Your Congress in Action: Vol. 3

04/29/2020 2:32 PM | ACRAsphere Blog Team


Your Congress in Action is a new series that highlights the Capitol Hill news that affects CRM firms the most. This information is sourced from the Coalition for American Heritage, news articles, and more. Be sure to subscribe to the ACRAsphere to ensure you don't miss an update.

  • The House and Senate were both scheduled to return to Washington, DC on May 4, but House leadership has announced that their recess has been extended. The Senate still plans to reconvene next Monday.
  • Congress is wrestling with how to conduct its operations remotely. Most of the concerns focus on how to make the system secure and workable for Members who are not very tech-savvy. In the absence of an existing platform for conducting remote voting, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) put forward a plan to allow Members of Congress to proxy vote on behalf of their colleagues. Many House Republicans pushed back against the plan and said that they are ready to vote in person. They also are refusing to wear masks on the House floor, though most Democrats are doing so.
    • Some lawmakers are experimenting with conducting hearings via Facebook Live and there have been discussions regarding webcasting Congressional hearings. However, significant concerns remain about the possible legal challenges to remote voting (i.e. determining whether courts could overturn the results of House votes if they are not conducted in person).
  • Because Congress has been out of DC for a significant period of time and most efforts are focused on relief legislation when they are in session, there has been little movement on legislation that directly or indirectly affects heritage preservation. One item of interest is that Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) introduced a bill, HR 6499, to study the creation of a national heritage corridor along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  • A number of preservation organizations have sent letters concerning funding in the CARES 2 package. More information on the efforts of ACRA and the Coalition for American Heritage in this area will be available soon.
  • A lawsuit has been filed aimed at preventing Alaska Native Corporations from accessing $8 billion in CARES Act monies. Congress used a definition of “Indian tribe” in the CARES Act from P. L. 93-63 - The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which covers ANCs. Therefore, the Treasury Department contends that the language of the CARES Act did not exclude ANCs from being eligible for the money, and that the court should not second-guess the executive branch’s “time-pressed determination” about how to distribute the funds. A federal judge issued an injunction barring Secretary Mnuchin from distributing any of the funds to ANCs while the Court considers the issue.
  • The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) announced the findings of a task force charged with formulating recommendations to improve the availability of digital and geospatial information about historic properties in an effort to inform federal project planning. More information is available on our ACRAsphere post regarding the announcement.
  • The ACHP sent a letter to Sen. Murkowski and Sen. Manchin concerning the legislative exemption to NEPA and NHPA that was included in the CARES Act. The letter states:

“The ACHP maintains a policy against such exemptions and has done so because the regulations that implement Section 106 of the NHPA, found at 36 C.F.R. Part 800, provide for a variety of tools to adapt the process to the needs of particular programs. They have been used effectively to address the concerns of agencies and stakeholders in a wide variety of federal programs.”

  • Army Corps districts apparently cannot extend the deadline for public comment or permitting deadlines without permission from headquarters, a new procedure. In the past, regional offices were empowered to make this decision.
  • A Montana court ruled against the Corps’ EIS for Keystone Pipeline and ruled that they must go back and revisit it to address such issues as cumulative effects.
  • There has been no news on Council on Environmental Quality’s proposed revisions on the implementing regulations for NEPA.
  • There has been no mention of including funds for to address infrastructure in the CARES bills. Infrastructure will likely not be addressed until after the election and the next Congressional session convenes.


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