Situational Awareness
The House and Senate are not in session this week. The House will reconvene earlier than planned and return next week to consider the infrastructure package and $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
House Returns Early For Infrastructure and Budget
The House of Representatives was not scheduled to return to Washington until September 20, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) announced last week that the House will go into session on August 23 to dispense with the Senate-passed infrastructure package and the budget resolution. Speaker Pelosi is walking a procedural and political tightrope on both measures with pockets of resistance within the ranks of progressives seeking assurances on the budget reconciliation package and moderates pushing for the infrastructure package. With a thread-bare majority of 222 members, Democratic leadership has few votes to spare on either package, thus creating tension from both sides. House Democrats have a caucus conference call scheduled for Tuesday, August 17, to work out the process for moving forward with both measures. Pelosi has offered a compromise to moderates that would set up a procedural vote on the $550 billion infrastructure package that would precede a vote to move forward on the budget resolution demanded by the progressive members of her caucus. Moderates have pushed to first complete work on infrastructure and then proceed to the budget. Unless a suitable arrangement is made, the Speaker runs the risk of both packages failing due to the Democrats’ slim majority.
Broad Inflation Pressures Raising Concerns
Despite assurances from the Federal Reserve and economists that inflation appears to be transitory in response to supply chain disruptions attributed to the pandemic, there is increasing concern higher prices are likely to stick. Last week the producer price index showed an increase for final demand of 7.8% for the 12 months ended in July, which was above estimates. Producer prices rose by 1% month over month, which was nearly double the estimate of 0.6%. Overall, the inflation rate stands at roughly 5%, which is more than double the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%. While there are short-term effects driving higher prices, such as supply chain issues cited by the Fed, other pressures are pointing to a more permanent increase in the cost of goods. A continuing shortage of labor is driving employers to raise wages thereby increasing labor costs across most sectors of the economy. Adding to the upward pressure are government spending that continues at a record pace and a lax monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, which creates the classic economic supply and demand dynamic of too many dollars chasing too few goods. The Federal Reserves’ meeting notes from June indicate a consensus that inflation is expected to remain elevated into early 2022, but there are some Fed Governors who believe it will last well into the year and possibly into 2023. Of concern to the club community in particular is an increase in the food index, which showed an increase of 3.4% over the 12-month period ending in July. The Biden Administration announced this week that average food stamp benefits will be increased by more than 25%—the largest permanent increase in the program’s history.
OSHA Issues New COVID-19 Guidance
On August 13, 2021 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new guidance for protecting workers in higher-risk workplaces with mixed-vaccination status workers, particularly for industries such as manufacturing; meat, seafood and poultry processing; high volume retail and grocery; and agricultural processing. OSHA’s latest guidance:
- Recommends that fully vaccinated workers in areas of substantial or high community transmission wear masks in order to protect unvaccinated workers;
- Recommends that fully vaccinated workers who have close contacts with people with coronavirus wear masks for up to 14 days unless they have a negative coronavirus test at lease 3-5 days after such contact;
- Clarifies recommendations to protect unvaccinated workers and other at-risk workers in manufacturing, meat and poultry processing, seafood processing and agricultural processing; and
- Links to the latest guidance on K-12 schools and CDC statements on public transit.
NCA Policy Agenda
Prior to the pandemic, NCA’s board of directors approved NCA’s Policy Agenda, which provides a foundation upon which the association can evaluate legislation and regulations at the federal, state and local level. This agenda was developed by the Government Relations Committee and NCA staff and focuses on five key issue areas: taxes, health care, labor, environment and immigration. The Policy Agenda is intended to serve as a guide for members and association staff to more clearly articulate where the club community stands on issues of importance to clubs
Thursday Webcast: How to Communicate with Employees and Members on Vaccines
On Thursday, August 19 at 2 p.m. ET, I will moderate a new Coronavirus Town Hall that will provide best practices for how to effectively communicate with staff and members about COVID-19 vaccines, address questions and concerns about the vaccines and easy hesitancy and create buy-in for them. This webcast is free for clubs.
Experts:
Amesh Adalja, MD, FIDSA, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an Affiliate of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health
Anne Catherine Nielsen, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, HR Consultant and Business Partner, EquaMagna Corp
Register here.