LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS: December Legislative Update

The end of the legislative year in Washington D.C. is at hand and as of this writing Congress passed a landmark infrastructure bill that President Biden signed into law. This was indeed ground-breaking. The country has not had a multi-year infrastructure bill since President George W. Bush signed the bill into law in 2005.

Billions of dollars will come to New York in rehab, road, bridge, train and tunnel projects. The MTA will also not have to cut service, and can also begin work on future capital projects.

The House passed a “Human Infrastructure” bill worth about nearly $2 trillion. So far, the Senate has not yet passed a version of it. This would affect many aspects of American life including Pre-K, child care, Medicare and climate change. Realtors won an increase in the SALT cap that passed in the House version of the social spending bill. Senator Bernie Sanders and several other members of the majority are not supporting any major changes to the SALT cap in the Senate. Some compromises have been offered such as capping SALT at a higher amount, or tying it to income levels. In addition, 1031-like-kind exchanges were not rolled back in the bill. This was a huge victory for Realtors.

At the state level, the governor’s race is now starting to take shape. U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi announced that he is running for governor, along with current Gov. Kathy Hochul. Letitia James, the state attorney general, and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams announced they are running too. James has since withdrawn from the race and is running for re-election as Attorney General. On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin announced at the beginning of the year that he would run for governor. Andrew Giuliani announced also, along with former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

A host of Congressional candidates have already announced whether or not they are running. One of the key issues to watch out for is which districts the candidates will eventually represent. For the first time in generations Democrats have full control of the redistricting process. This allows them to draw state and congressional district lines for this redistricting cycle which happens once every 10 years. Stay tuned for updates on the candidates running for office in 2022.