After a highly charged partisan debate on April 24, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee approved the Local Empowerment and Flexibility Act (H.R. 2086) by a vote of 21–19, along party lines. Representative Jim Moran (D-Va.) was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the bill.
From the moment members began deliberating the measure, Democrats, led by Representative Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), criticized the bill claiming it would undermine the enforcement of environmental, public health and job safety standards. In rebuttal Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), the key sponsor of the legislation, pointed out that the bill is very similar to bipartisan legislation cosponsored in the last Congress by former chairman, Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) and ranking Republican member William Clinger (R-Pa.).
According to Shays, the key difference between the two bills is the new language added to H.R. 2086 to ensure the enforcement of environmental, public health, job safety and other essential standards that Democrats have expressed concern about.
Under the proposed legislation, state and local governments will be allowed to combine two or more categorical grants and receive a waiver from statutory and regulatory requirements that impede the effective delivery of services. Since there are more than 600 different federal financial assistance programs, proponents of the measure believe it will allow state and local governments to save administrative dollars by combining related programs, waive unnecessary, “one-size-fits-all” burdensome grant requirements, and use alternative approaches when they can demonstrate that services can be provided more efficiently.
NACo and other state and local groups are backing the legislation and working together to urge broad bipartisan support. The Administration has expressed concerns similar to congressional Democrats over the waiver provisions and has indicated it will oppose the legislation unless a number of changes are made, including exempting a long list of statutes.
State and local groups are hopeful an agreement can be reached that attracts broad based support before the bill is scheduled for action on the House floor, which could be in late May or early June. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is expected to take action on a similar bill, S. 88, this month.