Situational Awareness
The House and Senate departed D.C. for a week-long recess after passing a Republican-led continuing resolution that will fund the government through the end of fiscal year 2025. President Trump signed the short-term spending bill into law on Saturday, averting a potential government shutdown. Ten Senate Democrats ultimately joined their Republican colleagues on Friday evening to advance the measure despite a commitment by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) only days earlier saying that Democrats wouldn’t provide the votes to break the Senate’s 60-vote margin filibuster. This backtracking by Sen. Schumer infuriated the majority of House Democrats and a significant portion of the Senate Democratic caucus after Congressional Republicans rejected language offered by Democrats that would require the President to spend congressionally approved funds and curb access by Elon Musk’s DOGE to federal agencies.
With work on the FY 2025 spending cycle completed, Republican lawmakers in both chambers have more bandwidth to move forward with their respective reconciliation budget packages. Both the House and Senate adopted their own budget blueprints, which direct each committee to either propose budgetary increases or decreases. A select number of Congressional lawmakers must now engage in a negotiation process, known as a conference, to iron out any differences in the two versions.
Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee–the House’s primary tax-writing body–held hours-long sessions debating what would be included in the tax portion of their reconciliation bill, which is intended to circumvent the Senate’s filibuster and allow for a simple majority to advance President Trump’s domestic policy agenda. The menu of options includes several of the president’s campaign proposals, including raising the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions as well as removing income taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits.
Judge Upholds DOL Independent Contractor Rule–Again
A federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee tossed a lawsuit filed by a pair of freelancers who argued that the DOL’s final independent contractor rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and would harm them financially. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing. In November, a Tennessee magistrate judge recommended that the District Court judge reject the plaintiff’s request for an injunction of the rule.
Last year, a federal district court judge in Georgia ruled that another group of freelancers didn’t have standing to sue the DOL over its worker classification rule because the plaintiffs weren’t harmed by the policy change: “By definition, the 2024 Rule’s fact-specific approach cannot pose a realistic danger to Plaintiffs’ ability to operate as independent contractors because the ultimate classification may change from case-to-case.” NCA expects the Trump administration will reassess the Biden-era rule.
EPA Announces Revision of WOTUS Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) announced that the two agencies would review the definition of “waters of the United States” to ensure current regulations are in accordance with the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. The Sackett decision confirmed that a wetland needed to have a “continuous surface connection,” with over waters covered under the Clean Water Act (CWA). It’s expected that the agencies will address concerns that the current WOTUS rule doesn’t clarify what features provide a “continuous surface connection” for wetlands and whether “relatively permanent waters” include so-called “ephemerals” (i.e. streams that flow briefly only after precipitation).
According to the EPA’s press release, the agencies will host a series of listening sessions to receive feedback on “key challenges” before engaging in a formal rulemaking that would revise the 2023 Biden-era rule, which was amended without public comment to conform with the Sackett decision.
EPA and the Army Corps also announced a joint memorandum to field staff about implementation of a “continuous surface connection” in accordance with Sackett. The new guidance clarifies that wetlands must be “adjacent” to, or “directly abut” a jurisdictional water. The memorandum will supersede other jurisdictional determinations issued by the two agencies during the Biden administration. Many of those documents–issued on a case-by-case basis–concluded that a wetland could be connected by certain discrete features, such as non-jurisdictional ditches and culverts, to CWA-covered waters.
Bipartisan Lawmakers Reintroduce ‘Sin List’ Bill
On Friday, Representatives Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif) reintroduced legislation that would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to remove private or commercial golf courses and country clubs from section 144(c)(6)(B) of the U.S. tax code. This bill, appropriately named the PAR Act, would allow golf courses to take advantage of various forms of disaster relief and community development programs available to other businesses, such as restaurants, hotels and other leisure activities. This bill is a legislative priority for NCA’s advocacy team.
DOL Announces New Senior Appointees
With Lori Chavez-DeRemer sworn-in as Secretary of Labor, the Department of Labor (DOL) has announced several senior political appointees who will be responsible for shaping the agency’s regulatory agenda:
- Jonathan Snare was appointed as deputy solicitor of labor, the chief legal officer of DOL and the third-ranking officer of the department. He is rejoining the department after serving as partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius in the labor/employment practice group from 2009 to 2024. During his tenure at Department of Labor between 2003 and 2009, Snare served in several roles, including acting assistant secretary for OSHA and deputy assistant secretary, as well as deputy solicitor and acting solicitor in 2007.
- Amanda Wood Laihow will serve as the deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Most recently, she served as a commissioner to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission during the first Trump administration. Wood Laihow was the director of labor and employment policy for the National Association of Manufacturers and served as deputy general counsel on the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and as an assistant general counsel at the U.S. General Services Administration.
- Michael Asplen will serve as OSHA’s senior policy advisor. He previously served as chief counsel to Commissioner Laihow at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Before that, he was a counsel at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, managed Littler Mendelson’s Workplace Policy Institute, and was a policy associate at the National Association of Manufacturers.
Trump Administration Announces USCIS Chief Nominee
The White House formally submitted its nomination for Joseph Edlow to lead US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is responsible for processing immigration applications. Edlow previously served as Deputy Director for Policy of USCIS in Trump’s first administration.
Before joining USCIS, Edlow served as a deputy assistant attorney general with the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice, where he primarily focused on immigration policy matters. Before that, Edlow worked in the House of Representatives from 2015- 2018, including a stint as counsel on the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. Before working at the House of Representatives, he spent six years with the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as an assistant chief counsel in the Baltimore Field Office.
New Webcast: Cyber Insurance Basics: What Your Club Needs to Know
Join us on Thursday, April 10 at 2pm EST to learn how to strengthen your cyber security program.
This session will explore how a club’s cybersecurity measures impact cyber insurance—from the application process to ongoing compliance. We’ll discuss what insurers typically look for, why accurate security disclosures matter and how strengthening your club’s cyber posture can position you for better coverage. Whether you’re considering a new policy or preparing for renewal, understanding the connection between cybersecurity and insurance is key to managing risk and costs effectively. Register here.
