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This Week in Congress This week, the Senate was not in session, but the House returned to elect a new Speaker, along with debating the one-person motion to vacate rule, which became an issue in the race for the gavel, with some Republicans insisting on changing the rule to strengthen the next speaker’s ability to…

Update: FY24 Appropriation Funding Bills In the Senate, twenty Republican senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Schumer demanding that the Senate act on all FY24 appropriations bills before taking up any other legislation.  Per their letter, “with less than 40 days remaining until government funding once again expires on November 17th, there is no…

The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)’s Impact on Small Business Starting on January 1, 2024, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) would impose new reporting requirements on certain small businesses (specifically corporations and limited liability companies with twenty or fewer employees).  The legislation will require companies to disclose their beneficial owners to prevent bad actors from using…

Transforming Construction Contracts with Generative AI: Opportunities and Challenges By Dan Broderick, CEO of BlackBoiler In recent years, generative AI technology has made a significant leap forward with the release of OpenAI’s GPT-4, which has impressed the world with its ability to generate realistic and creative text, images, audio, and synthetic data. This technology exhibits…

The Eight Who Voted Against Speaker McCarthy Per last Thursday’s Bloomberg News Article, “the eight Republican House members that voted against Speaker McCarthy hail from mostly Sun Belt districts with a distinct demographic profile, areas with exceptionally low unemployment, lots of newcomers, high numbers of homeowners and newer homes.  Circumstances in those areas make their…

Vaccine Cards Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they will no longer distribute COVID-19 vaccination cards. Instead, the CDC recommends individuals contact the state health department’s immunization information system (IIS) to record new vaccinations.  Per their website, “your state’s IIS cannot issue you a vaccination card, but they can provide…

This Week in Congress Despite passing short-term funding legislation this past weekend to keep the federal government funded until mid-November, this week both chambers continued working on a series of appropriations bills to fund the government throughout FY24.  Each chamber must adopt 12 bills, either separately or in a package, to fully fund the government…

Federal Government Funded Until November 17, 2023 Under H.R. 5860, the federal government will be funded through November 17th, which also provided $16 billion in emergency disaster aid.  This continuing resolution (CR) will generally extend fiscal 2023 funding levels for federal agencies and programs that otherwise would have shut down on October 1st.   The measure…

The House Ousts Speaker McCarthy For now, Rep. McCarthy (R-CA) is no longer Speaker of the House.  A small group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Gaetz (R-FL) joined with Democrats to oust him.  Tuesday marks the first time the House has ever voted to remove a sitting Speaker, a historic development that will catapult…

New California Senator California Democrat Laphonza Butler was sworn in on Tuesday as the newest senator, replacing Sen. Feinstein. Butler will become the first Black woman in the Senate since fellow California Democrat Kamala Harris left the chamber in 2021 to become vice president. Butler will also be the first openly LGBTQ California senator. Butler’s…