Week Ending October 7, 2022
- Continuing Resolution to Prevent a Government Shutdown
- AFSCME Federal Legislative Scorecard is Now Live Online
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Formally Joins the Supreme Court
Congress has recessed until after the November elections after passing a Continuing Resolution to fund the government. The CR included advanced funding for areas hit by recent natural disasters, including the hurricanes that have devastated Puerto Rico and Florida and the landslides in Alaska. We are sure you will be hearing a lot from your members of Congress over the course of the next month as they sprint toward Election Day, but in the meantime, here’s an overview of some recent happenings in Washington, DC.
Continuing Resolution to Prevent a Government Shutdown
Late last week, President Biden signed a continuing resolution passed by Congress to keep the government funded through mid-December. Included in the package is funding for numerous programs, as listed below:
- Extends funding for vital federal agencies, including education, health, housing and public safety programs, through December 16. This continued funding grows opportunity through early childhood education, invests in our schools and high-quality job training programs, provides critical nutrition assistance and affordable housing opportunities, secures our nation and supports our veterans.
- Extends the increased federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands through December 16, 2022.
- Includes $18.8 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to current and future disasters, including Hurricane Ian. Invests an additional $1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help address pressure on low-income households’ pocketbooks due to inflation.
- Includes $2 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program to aid the long-term housing, infrastructure and economic recovery needs of communities impacted by disasters in 2021 and 2022.
- Provides an additional $400 million to boost spending for the Social Security Administration (SSA), to keep field offices open and to improve customer service to the public.
AFSCME Federal Legislative Scorecard is Now Live Online
We have been working with our colleagues in the AFSCME Communications Department to move our Federal Legislative Scorecard online. Go ahead and check it out and see how your senators and representatives voted on AFSCME priorities like the Inflation Reduction Act, the American Rescue Plan or other critical pieces of legislation.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Formally Joins the Supreme Court
Last Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom AFSCME and our allies worked hard to support and see confirmed to the Supreme Court earlier this year, had her formal investiture. While she was officially sworn in earlier this summer, her formal investiture took place last week with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attending to see her formally take her place in history as the first Black woman and first public defender to sit on our country’s highest court.