Posts by Matt Zuiderhof

This Week in Congress Both chambers of Congress returned to Washington this week following their Thanksgiving break, and they have three weeks of work before the end of the 118th Congress to finalize government spending and wrap up negotiations on the annual defense policy bill.  Speaker Johnson (R-LA) is pushing for a short-term funding extension…

Congressional Members Joining the Trump Administration To date, President-elect Trump has tapped the following members of Congress to join his new administration. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL): Secretary of State Expected to resign from Congress on January 20th Four years remaining in his term Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) will appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy…

2024 Election Finally Over? Democrat Adam Gray has won California’s 13th congressional district by 187 votes. This was the last race to be called, leaving Republicans with 220 congressional seats to Democrats’ 215. But, with the three House departures listed above, Republicans would have just 217 members for the first few months of 2025, leaving them…

Immigration Update The Republicans will likely have a slim House majority (potentially with no room for error) to pull off immigration changes and will struggle to win over Senate Democrats, who could filibuster legislation from the minority. Republicans have a potential procedural tool for sidestepping the filibuster, a process known as budget reconciliation, but it…

OSHA Extends Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Proposed Rule OSHA has provided a 15-day extension to the comment period for its heat injury and illness prevention proposed rule. The comment period now ends on January 14, 2025. We requested an extension until March 31, 2025, at least this extension gets us past the holidays. Return to the ASAtoday…

DOL Appeals District Court Ruling on Overtime Rule On November 26th, the Department of Labor appealed the District Court’s ruling vacating the overtime final rule to the 5th Circuit. It remains to be seen whether they will seek a stay pending appeal or move to expedite the appeal. We will keep you updated as we learn…

The 2024 Election Impact on Washington, D.C. Now that November 5th is behind us as we move forward with President-elect Trump and the Republican control of both chambers of Congress, it’s only natural during a time like this to begin playing what-ifs, taking past statements, genuine policy concerns, and anxieties about the road ahead, and…

The Case for and Against the Annual Year-End Christmas Bonus It is a traditional practice that most businesses, no matter how small, will provide their employees with a year-end “production” or Christmas bonus. There are many different reasons for doing so and in this article, we will explore the pros and cons of this traditional…

This Week in Congress Congress returned for the last week of work before the Thanksgiving-week recess.  The House voted on bills that would boost government geothermal lease sales (H.R. 1449) and to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that support designated terrorist groups and ensure that American hostages will not face tax penalties for late…

Government Funding? Government funding runs out on December 20th and last Sunday, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) said that the House will pass another temporary spending bill before the end of the year to extend current levels of government funding into March of next year. This is the same approach Republicans took going into 2017. The GOP…