Good afternoon and welcome to the Almight County Board of Supervisors Personnel Administration and Legislation Committee for Monday, July the 13th, 2026.

May I have roll call, please?

Supervisor Perdonado Pass.

Supervisor TAM.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

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Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We will start with the legislative update from the federal government side.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

You've got Emily DeSilva here and Curtis Erdman as well.

I know when we spoke last week, we told you that both the House and Senate were in recess for the last two weeks.

So they are both coming back today following that recess.

And one quick item I wanted to bring up.

I know we talked about this last week as well, but the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, that bipartisan housing legislation did become law this weekend.

President Trump, as we talked about last week, chose not to sign uh nor to veto the bill out of protest regarding the Save Act stalling in the Senate, but it did um it did become law over the weekend.

Um I guess you know the big news, and I know y'all have seen it, but it's uh the passing of Senator Lindsay Graham and then of course Senator Mitch McConnell being gone.

Um all of that uh or those two things, um, and no return date announced for Mitch McConnell, uh just has the Senate Republicans operating uh two votes short, 51 to 47.

And so the narrow margin does have immediate consequences for close votes across the agenda.

Um it was just announced uh at four o'clock Eastern that um the governor of South Carolina will appoint um Senator Graham's sister to fill the seat through the current term, and I just heard that could be as soon as Wednesday.

So there could be some delays earlier in the week, but it's our understanding that she will um uh was nominations and attorney general nominee Todd Delanch needs unified Republican support on the Judiciary Committee where Democrats plan united opposition so um and Senator Graham was among one of his strongest backers.

Um that will likely be delayed until um his sister is seated as uh the senator for for the remainder of the term.

But again, we expect that to be on Wednesday.

I think the bigger issue is um Senator McConnell's absence and how that plays out with appropriations.

And I know we had talked to a good bit about that um last week uh in that Senate Appropriations Committee is unable to mark up its appropriations bills with him gone, and of course he chairs defense appropriations.

So we'll see how that kind of plays out.

It was our understanding that Senator Collins, the chair of the full committee, would end up uh simply posting all of the appropriations bills.

Uh they would just simply be drafts uh as opposed to actually marking up uh in committee and then trying to work out um differences with the house uh in the fall, really after the midterms.

Um, in terms of the House floor, uh kind of switching gears from the Senate.

If you recall, House Republican leaders have not passed a rule in three weeks due to the conservative blockade led by Representative Luna over the Save Act.

And basically, as we talked about last week, the House has been able to pass it.

It's um, you know, the Senate, where there just are not the votes to move it.

Nothing appears to have changed over the recess, but leadership will attempt for a third time this week to move a rule covering national security state appropriations, um, a veterans package, uh, and a couple other bills.

Uh, President Trump did meet with Speaker Johnson at the White House at 3 o'clock today, so there may be a plan moving forward uh to kind of break that impasse.

Um, in terms of appropriations, again, if they're able to break that impasse, uh, they will pass uh national security state on the House floor.

And then we expect the House to take up several other bills before they leave for the August recess.

Um, again, you know, we don't see them reaching uh final deals on any bills until after the midterms.

The bigger piece right now is the defense supplemental.

And I know we mentioned last week that OMB did send up a request to Congress seeking 67 billion in near term supplemental funding for the Iran conflict and has warned that it needs the money by August.

So the vehicle for that, the legislative vehicle remains unsettled.

Uh Speaker Johnson favors moving the funding through reconciliation, while Leader Thune has preferred a standalone measure passed with Democratic support.

Um both paths face some challenges.

Uh Democratic support for additional war funding has eroded since further since uh strikes resumed this weekend.

Uh, and the reconciliation process is unlikely to deliver funds uh on the timeline the Pentagon is saying that it needs, since there are only eight House legislative days before the August recess.

So I think we need to see, you know, once the House and Senate come back this week and see kind of how things can get uh kind of unlocked on the House floor and start to move.

But I mean, there is some concern that that bills are piling up and there it will be difficult to get much done uh before the August recess.