In this week’s updates:

• The View from Washington
• Supporting Reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools & Community Self-Determination Act
• Streamline to Demo NSDC Website and Portal & Hear from NSDC Affiliate Members
• DMTD Student Video Contest Update

Let’s get started:

The View from Washington

The House is in Monday through Wednesday this week while the Senate is in Tuesday through Friday.

After months of bipartisan talks, key Senate negotiators unveiled Sunday a border security and immigration package that also includes $118 billion in emergency spending for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and others.

Pursuant to the legislation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be required to close the border to illegal crossings if the daily average of encounters surpasses 5,000 migrants, or if a one-day total surpasses 8,500. However, DHS would have the authority to shut down the border at 4,000 encounters per day. Once the mandatory shutdown is enforced, it would require two weeks of significantly lower illegal crossings in order to reopen the border to crossings, other than asylum appointments, at ports of entry. Notably, the package does not include provisions that would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented individuals.

While Democratic and Republican leadership in the upper chamber have embraced the proposed reforms, it remains unclear whether the package will muster support to meet the 60-vote threshold required to move forward in the Senate.

For starters, a number of conservatives have criticized the bill for not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants at the southern border, while progressives believe it goes too far. While the path forward remains murky, the Senate will take its first procedural vote on Wednesday. Even if the measure does ultimately advance through the Upper Chamber, it faces even more obstacles in the House. For his part, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has warned that the bill is dead-on-arrival in the Lower Chamber, while Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., has stated that the measure would not receive a vote in the House. Further complicating matters, former President Trump recently declared that he could not support any immigration-related agreement that comes out of the Senate.

How does this immigration debate factor into NSDC? The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee members and staff are among leads for immigration talks. The same committee would have jurisdiction over the future special districts’ definition bill, providing a further distraction among Senate stakeholders. The NSDC Advocacy Team will continue to keep Members updated on progress.

Senate Panel Ready to Consider FAA Reauthorization

Later this week, the Senate Commerce Committee is tentatively scheduled to mark up its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, S. 1939. Consideration of the legislation comes after months of debate over several disputed provisions, including potential changes to pilot-training requirements. For its part, the House passed its five-year aviation rewrite, H.R. 3935, last July. Lawmakers have until March 8 to approve a new long-term reauthorization of aviation policy.    

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Improve Disaster Recovery to Rural Communities

Senators Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and James Risch, R-Idaho, introduced last week S. 3683, which would improve coordination between local, state, Tribal, and federal agencies to deliver resources faster after a wildfire.

Specifically, the bill would ensure that rural communities receive recovery assistance by requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to work in coordination with state or Tribal leadership to provide guidance to local emergency managers on developing a recovery team. FEMA would also be directed to assist in identifying short and long-term recovery resources, including resources to prevent secondary natural disasters like flooding, mudslides, and rockslides. Finally, the bill would Instruct FEMA to work with the state or Tribal emergency management agency to make case workers available for rural communities in the event that a request for Individual Assistance is made and denied.

Legislative insights are provided through NSDC’s partners at Paragon Government Relations.

NSDC Supports Reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools Program for USFS Communities

February 5, 2024

The NSDC Legislative Committee approved Coalition support for a federal program that, in part, provides counties funding for fire mitigation and emergency response activities on covered federal lands in their service area.

Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sponsors S. 2581 and Congressman Joe Neguse, D-Colo., sponsors H.R. 5030, both known as the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2023.

NSDC supports the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act for a portion of the program that allows county governments utilize, including through transfer to special districts, the fund as authorized under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, to cover eligible activities under performed on federal lands, such wildfire mitigation, search and rescue, and firefighting. The program is administered through the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

A June 2023 Congressional Research Service report offers a deeper dive on the program.

Contact Cole Arreola-Karr, NSDC Federal Advocacy Director, at colek@nationalspecialdistricts.org.

DMTD Student Video Contest off to Great Start

February 5, 2024

The Districts Make the Difference (DMTD) public awareness outreach kicked off the year with a robust campaign that includes the student video contest advertising and state-specific paid media to continue to promote positive special district stories to educate and shape the public’s understanding of special districts.

We are ahead of our normal curve for the student contest, as we have already received five videos from three states whereas we usually do not receive anything until March! The deadline is March 31, and students aren’t known for submitting their content much before it’s due!  

Here are key analytics our NSDC partners will be interested in:

• Across all platforms, we have 11, 184 followers.
• Our content received 583,493 impressions (the number of times our content appeared on screens)
• Content received 16,666 engagements (comments, likes, shares, etc.).
• We spent about $1,275 in January on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and Audiogo (ads on podcasts).

To help spread the word, please encourage districts to follow @localDistricts on their social media platforms. If they would also look up a post from one of our platforms and engage with it or share it, those posts will have a broader reach and our content will more often appear on the district’s feed for continued engagement with DMTD. 

Thank you to our partners and their districts that have already interacted with DMTD online and have been sharing the student video contest. Our goal is 50 videos from 25 states in 2024. Let’s keep working together to spread positive special district vibes!

For questions, contact Kristin Withrow, DMTD Coordinator, at kristinw@csda.net.

Join a Live Demonstration of the new Streamline-Powered NSDC Website and Hear from NSDC Affiliates

All NSDC Members are encouraged to join a series of NSDC Affiliate presentations before a live, hybrid meeting of NSDC Regular and Executive Members on Friday, February 16.

Mac Clemmens, Streamline Chief Executive Officer, will demonstrate the new NSDC website and NSDC Member Platform/intranet. Members will also hear from NSDC Affiliates EveryLibrary Institute and Citizenly.

Presentations will begin just after 10:30 a.m. ET / 7:30 a.m. PT. Register for the meeting here.