Beltway Buzz, September 20, 2024

Congress Spins Wheels on Funding. Another week, and still no progress on government funding. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 220–202 to defeat legislation that would have funded the federal government through March 28, 2025, and would have enacted a measure to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. This voting measure add-on was the death knell for the legislative package. Congress has until September 30, 2024, to pass funding legislation—most likely a continuing resolution that maintains current spending levels—to avoid a federal government shutdown on October 1, 2024.

Ports Strike Looming? Also expiring on September 30, 2024, is the collective bargaining agreement covering about 25,000 workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at major East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. The ILA is demanding higher wages and protections against automation and is threatening to strike in the absence of an agreement. A strike would obviously have major ripple effects in the economy, particularly ahead of the holiday shopping season. Members of the business community have been sounding the alarm and encouraging the parties to come to an agreement—and these calls will grow louder as the deadline fast approaches. The situation is strangely similar to the freight rail negotiations that threatened the economy ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Trump Wants No Taxes on Overtime. The Buzz recently discussed the dueling proposals from Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump to exempt tips from workers’ income taxes. Well, the former president took the tax cut issue a step further late last week by also promising to exclude pay worked during overtime from income tax reporting. Only time will tell if this is a serious proposal or campaign trail bluster. One thing is for sure, though: with many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expiring at the end of 2025, Congress will spend much of next year debating and negotiating over tax policy, no matter who wins in November.

Hot Tips on Capitol Hill. The Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) tip credit provision continues to be a subject of debate among policymakers and lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

• This week, the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing, “Examining the Biden-Harris Attacks on Tipped Workers.” The hearing examined the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2021 tip credit rule, which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down last month. Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA), chair of the subcommittee, described the rule as “essentially a requirement on small businesses to track their employees’ every movement minute by minute,” and he called the rule “burdensome, invasive, and altogether out of touch with the realities of working life.” Republican members and their witnesses advocated for passage of the “Tipped Employee Protection Act” (H.R. 1612), which would clarify and streamline the FLSA’s definition of “tipped employee” and prevent future DOL regulators from splitting hairs over how to categorize the various tasks performed by tipped employees.

• Representative Steven Horsford (D-NV) has introduced the “Tipped Income Protection and Support Act” (TIPS Act) (H.R. 9624). The bill would allow workers in specified industries who earn up to $112,500 per year to deduct tips from their income. The bill would also eliminate the FLSA’s aforementioned tip credit provision.

Cassidy Questions CMS Contract Rebid That Favors Labor Unions. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is pressing Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra over his decision to rebid the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) call-center contract to require the new successful bidder to maintain a “labor harmony agreement.” A labor harmony agreement—essentially a gag order on employer speech—would tilt the organizing landscape in favor of labor unions. In a September 17, 2024, letter to Becerra, the senator wrote that “it appears that there is no reason to rebid this contract except to force unionization on the call-center employees.” Among other requested information, Senator Cassidy asked Becerra to provide the legal justification for rebidding the contract, as well any communications CMS has had with labor unions regarding the call-center contract.

Congress Honors NASA Pioneers, Part II. This week, Black scientists Katherine Johnson (1918–2020), Mary Jackson (1921–2005), Dorothy Vaughan (1910–2008), and Dr. Christine Darden (1942– ), along with other pioneering women, were honored with Congressional Gold Medals for their groundbreaking service as mathematicians and engineers at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the “Space Race” of the mid-twentieth century. According to the ‘‘Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act,’’ which was signed into law in 2019,

These four women, along with the other African-American women in NASA’s West Area Computing unit, were integral to the success of the early space program. The stories of these four women exemplify the experiences of hundreds of women who worked as computers, mathematicians, and engineers at NACA beginning in the 1930s and their handmade calculations played an integral role in—

(A) aircraft testing during World War II;

(B) supersonic flight research;

(C) sending the Voyager probes to explore the solar

system; and

(D) the United States landing the first man on the

lunar surface.

Last week, Congress passed a resolution authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for the ceremony.