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Engage with the 118th Congress to achieve key county priorities and strengthen the intergovernmental partnership.
County Advocacy Opportunities in Washington, D.C.
Eighty former county elected officials will serve in the 118th Congress: 67 in the U.S. House, including 12 first-term Representatives, and 13 in the U.S. Senate. This will provide county leaders with a unique opportunity to leverage existing relationships and institutional knowledge to advance county priorities in Washington, D.C.
These early months of this congressional session are a key time for county leaders to build relationships with members of Congress, demonstrate the impact of your county’s efforts in your communities and advocate for the federal programs that help to strengthen local programs and initiatives. These opportunities to interact with your Representatives and Senators are especially critical because they coincide with the development of the policy priorities that Congress will work to achieve over the next two years. With a split Congress and the slim majorities held by both Democrats in the U.S. Senate and Republicans in the U.S. House, bipartisan compromise will continue to be necessary to advance county priorities through legislation.
Data center legislation surges as states shift from incentives to oversight
NACo tracked 97 state bills that became law between 2024-2026 governing the new class of hyperscale facilities designed for generative AI and cloud computing.
Congress makes progress on data center legislation
NACo has endorsed data center-related bills aimed at providing electricity cost relief to ratepayers - the House's Ratepayer Protection Act and the Senate's American Affordability and Jobs Act.
County government veterans eye statewide, higher office
Dozens of current and former county officials are running for governor, lieutenant governor and Congress in 2026.
The quiet shift from courthouse to statehouse
NACo CEO Matt Chase writes: “Taxation policy and service delivery decisions are being moved, state by state, from the courthouse to the statehouse. The accountability lands on us. The authority to meet it increasingly doesn’t.”
Census Bureau proposes permanent changes to the 2030 Decennial Census
On September 10, the U.S Census Bureau published a proposed rule to the 2030 Decennial Census that would create two new parts of the 15 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) that among other changes would a) define “usual residence” that excludes foreign persons previously counted that are not U.S. citizens or lawful residents, and b) would eliminate any questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation from the census questionnaire used to enumerate the population. The proposed ruling outlines only 30 days for public comments, which are due on October 13.
Supreme Court allows new SAVE citizenship voter verification system to proceed
On Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court granted an emergency appeal from the White House to pause a lower court’s ruling blocking its use of a new SAVE system ahead of the midterms.