NCA Survey on Workplace Safety
After the Thanksgiving holiday, the National Club Association will circulate a survey among members requesting information about best workplace safety practices. This survey will include questions about worker protections member clubs have in place to address extreme internal and outdoor temperatures.
Situational Awareness
Lawmakers left Washington, D.C., last week after a tumultuous two weeks characterized by intra-party elections in both chambers and President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for his cabinet. While the configuration and legislative agenda of the 119th Congress is quickly taking shape, a long list of “must-pass” items remains unresolved.
The question of how to move forward on this to-do list will be determined in part by the incoming Trump 2.0 White House, particularly as it pertains to completing work on all 12 FY 2025 spending bills. President-elect Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) have signaled preference for a short-term spending measure that would punt funding into March. Meanwhile, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine) have both advocated for passing a spending bill in the near-term that would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. This would give the 119th Congress a clean slate for advancing Trump’s 100-day agenda.
Both chambers must also finalize the details of what will be included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and pass a package of extenders for the Farm Bill’s expiring programs. Congressional appropriators could also use the remaining weeks of the 118th Congress to pass a supplemental natural disaster relief package–a top priority for a group of bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers whose constituents were affected by back-to-back hurricanes.
Trump Picks Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump selected outgoing Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) as secretary of Labor. Chavez-DeRemer, a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, was one of the few Republican lawmakers to co-sponsor sweeping pro-union bills including the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would restrict employer influence in union elections and make it harder for employers to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. She has also supported legislation that would expand options, increase flexibility and improve the affordability of small business health care coverage.
While opposed by several business groups, such as the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, whose members include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Chavez-DeRemer received the support from Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, signaling a potential shift by Trump after making inroads with union voters in the November election.
Trump Picks Russell Vought as OMB Director
President-elect Donald Trump also selected Russell Vought to reprise his role as director of the White House Office and Management and Budget (OMB), the agency responsible for overseeing the development of the president’s budget proposal and enacting the President’s regulatory agenda across the Executive branch. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), housed under OMB, is responsible for reviewing the costs and benefits of all federal regulations promulgated by the federal agencies.
Vought wrote a chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint in which he argued that the president must rein in a “sprawling federal bureaucracy” and described how the OMB could help consolidate the president’s executive power: “The modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people. This challenge is created and exacerbated by factors like Congress’s decades-long tendency to delegate its lawmaking power to agency bureaucracies [and] the pervasive notion of expert ‘independence’ that protects so-called expert authorities from scrutiny.”
EPA Releases New WOTUS Implementation Memos
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released two new jurisdictional determination (JD) memorandums that help inform the agencies’ ongoing implementation of the post-Sackett ‘waters of the United States’ (WOTUS) rule. In April 2024, the agencies released a coordination process update that includes an explanation on how, if a jurisdictional determination is elevated to agency headquarters for review, a policy memorandum may be issued providing guidance to the respective EPA regional and Corps district offices. However, the agencies clarify that memorandums don’t impose legally binding requirements on the regulated community and may or may not apply to a particular situation based upon the circumstances.
The first JD memorandum indicates that the wetland in question exhibits a continuous surface connection to a Clean Water Act (CWA)-covered lagoon via a “discrete, man-made ditch,” affirming that certain non-relatively permanent ditches, other non-relatively permanent channels and culverts are features that can serve as all or part of a continuous surface connection because they have physical indicators of flow.
The second memorandum details a draft JD detailing how water flows from the wetland in question through a 45-foot long well-defined drainage swale that connected with a stream in the review area, which was deemed as a non-relatively permanent tributary. The stream, which flowed outside the review area, connected to a relatively permanent tributary that then connected to a traditional navigable water. Similarly to the first memorandum, the second memorandum affirmed that non-relatively permanent swales and non-relatively permanent streams are features that can serve as all or part of a continuous surface connection depending on the factual context because they also have physical indicators of flow between the wetland and the CWA-covered water.
Mark Your Calendars! NCC25 Registration Opens in December!
Registration opens soon for the 2025 National Club Conference (NCC), held April 27-29 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City! NCC brings together more than 250 general managers, board members, industry suppliers and other leaders from the top private clubs in the country for insightful education, exclusive networking opportunities, club tours and visits, great food and fun. Here’s a preview of NCC25.
- NCA Chair’s Reception and Dinner—open to all attendees and includes food and drinks.
- Excellence in Club Management® Awards Dinner & Gala—event included in your Conference registration. Includes food & drinks. Sponsored by KOPPLIN KUEBLER & WALLACE.
- NCA’s Annual Golf Tournament.
- Two days of education sessions, CEUs available.
- And much more!
Learn more here.