MCAA Government Affairs Update for the Week of November 3, 2025: The Latest Developments Impacting Our Industry

As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting your livelihood and setting the stage for a bright future, MCAA has secured the services of Longbow Public Policy Group to advise our MCAA Government Affairs Committee (GAC). GAC Chair, Jim Gaffney will be passing along information relative to our industry on a regular basis.

On Monday, November 3, 2025 MCAA Lobbying Firm, Longbow Public Policy Group provided the following information:

Trump Administration

• After returning from his trip to Asia, last Thursday President Trump called on Senate Republicans “to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option—Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump argued that “Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them.” Senate Republican leadership quickly swatted down the President’s push to eliminate the filibuster, with spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) saying the lawmakers’ positions against ending the filibuster had not changed. Still, Trump’s post threw a monkey wrench into nascent bipartisan talks to end the shutdown that began in the Senate last week. Those talks center around sequencing a new continuing resolution—possibly through mid-December or into 2026—with a three-bill appropriations package containing the Agriculture-FDA, MilCon-VA, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills, and a vote to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. Amid these discussions, Senate appropriators are also continuing work on additional full-year funding bills, hoping to make progress on a second “minibus” package composed of the Defense, Labor-HHS, Transportation-HUD, and Commerce-Justice-Science funding bills consisting of $1.2 trillion in appropriations. Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats are contending that if their party does well in the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia tomorrow, congressional Democrats should declare a political victory and begin to finalize the endgame for reopening the government. While Republicans say Democrats could agree to end the shutdown as soon as this week, Thune said longer-term negotiations—potentially including an ACA “working group”—would follow once the government is back open. Meanwhile, the economic toll of the shutdown continues to mount as illustrated by a new U.S. Chamber of Commerce report showing that more than 65,000 small business that are federal contractors have lost a combined $12 billion in October alone—roughly $3 billion a week. As last week ended, several Republicans were alarmed by the impending expiration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, including Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Susan Collins (R-ME). But late Friday federal judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts issued separate rulings barring the Administration from ending SNAP benefits set to expire on Saturday. The judges also ordered the Administration to use a $5 billion contingency fund to continue the food benefits while the government shutdown continues. Heading into the weekend it was not clear if the Administration would appeal the rulings, and if it did not, how quickly the debit cards that SNAP beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded to comply with the court orders.

• During President Trump’s trip to Asia last week, the U.S. finalized a series of trade and investment agreements with China, South Korea, and Japan. Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last Wednesday produced a temporary truce in trade tensions as the U.S. cut fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods from 20% to 10%, reducing the average rate on Chinese imports to roughly 47%, and delayed for one year implementation of the “50% rule” that would have subjected more Chinese-owned firms to onerous licensing requirements on exports and technology transfers for violating labor standards and persecuting Uyghurs. Beijing, in turn, agreed to resume U.S. soybean purchases, pledged in general terms to take action on fentanyl precursor chemicals, and postponed for one year its new export controls on rare-earth minerals, but left in place opaque licensing systems for rare earths. No progress was made on China’s trade surplus or industrial subsidies.
  
  Under the trade pact the President finalized with South Korea, Seoul will invest $350 billion over the next decade to bolster U.S. shipbuilding and other critical industries—beginning with $150 billion in direct funding for shipbuilding and $20 billion annually for other industries—while the U.S. lowers tariffs on Korean cars and auto parts to 15%. Profits from joint ventures will now be split 50/50, a change from the 90/10 framework in favor of the U.S. proposed in July. Trump also approved the construction of nuclear-powered submarines by South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard.
  
  Last week’s deal between the U.S. and Japan includes $500 billion in Japanese investment for U.S. energy and technology infrastructure, including new nuclear projects with Westinghouse, AI data-center power systems with Mitsubishi Electric, and facilities for fertilizer and copper refining. Both countries also signed accords to expand cooperation on fusion energy research and to secure critical-mineral and rare-earth supply chains.

• Over the course of three days last week, the Senate adopted resolutions expressing disapproval of President Trump’s tariff measures and his reliance on emergency authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to implement those actions. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 51-47 to overturn Trump’s sweeping emergency “global tariffs” of 10%-50% on nearly every country. Last Wednesday, senators voted 50-46 to terminate his authority to impose emergency tariffs on Canada. In both cases, four Republicans—Sens. Rand Paul (KY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME), and Mitch McConnell (KY)—joined with all Democrats supporting the resolutions. Last Tuesday, these four senators, along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), voted with all Democrats 52-48 to reject Trump’s 50% emergency tariffs on Brazil. The votes preceded this week’s Supreme Court arguments over an appellate court ruling that Trump’s IEEPA-based “Liberation Day” tariffs exceeded his authority. Earlier last week, Alaska Sen. Murkowski joined 35 Senate Democrats in filing an amicus brief urging the Court to uphold the lower court’s decision. Several other groups and individuals—including former federal judges, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the libertarian Cato Institute—also submitted briefs supporting the appellate court’s ruling against the President.

• Last Wednesday, President Trump acknowledged that “it’s pretty clear” he can’t be elected to a third term. His comments come after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) last Tuesday dismissed the notion of a third term for President Trump, saying that he does not “see a path” given the “constrictions of the Constitution,” adding “I don’t see a way to amend the Constitution because it takes about 10 years to do that.”

• As part of the MCAA’s advocacy supporting development of large-scale energy infrastructure projects, the Energy Department published an interim final rule last Tuesday amending its loan guarantee regulations to implement the “Energy Dominance Financing” (EDF) authority established by the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The EDF replaces the Inflation Reduction Act’s “Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment” (EIR) program. The new EDF authority allows DOE to guarantee up to $250 billion in loans through September 30, 2028 for projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure; expand capacity or output; or enhance grid reliability. Unlike the IRA’s EIR program, the new EDF authority is not limited to projects that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions, the EDF authority broadens eligibility to include midstream fossil fuel infrastructure, baseload generation, and grid-stability resources. Relatedly, the Energy Department last Wednesday closed its second loan under the EDF program, lending $1.5 billion to Wabash Valley Resources, LLC to restart and repurpose a coal gasification plant in West Terre Haute, IN as an ammonia fertilizer facility. The plant, which has been idled since 2016, is expected to produce 500,000 metric tons of anhydrous ammonia per year using coal from a nearby southern Indiana mine and petcoke as feedstock.
  
  
• There were several developments last week that may interest Administrators of MCAA pension and health plans. For pension plans, last week the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation set the 2026 multiemployer flat-rate premium at $40 per participant—a $1 increase from 2025. MCAA plans with a 401(k) component may also be interested to know that Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) warned that President Trump’s Executive Order on “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors” could expose retirement savers to risky private funds and cryptocurrencies. The Senators called the move “dangerous” amid rising living costs and said it raised conflict-of-interest concerns after reports that the Trump family gained billions in paper wealth from recent crypto ventures. On the healthcare front, last Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Plan Year 2026 Marketplace Plans and Prices Fact Sheet ahead of the November 1–January 15 open enrollment period, projecting that tax credits will cover 91% of the lowest-cost plan premium next year compared to 85% in 2020—the last year unaffected by temporary ACA subsidies set to expire absent Congressional action. Following the release, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee accused the Trump Administration of concealing rate information to mask “the biggest premium hike in history,” while the Kaiser Family Foundation and other experts said CMS’s figures are misleading because they highlight the lowest-cost bronze plan rather than the benchmark silver plan that determines tax credits. According to KFF, enrollees could pay about 114% more to keep the same plan if ACA subsidies expire, while actual insurer rates are expected to rise about 26%. Meanwhile, senators from both parties last week reported progress on bipartisan legislation to reform the 340B drug pricing program, which requires drugmakers to sell discounted drugs to hospitals and clinics serving low-income patients but has been criticized for contributing to higher overall costs. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is also preparing a separate measure addressing hospitals’ use of drug savings and transparency around contract pharmacies.
  
  
• President Trump signed a proclamation on October 24^th granting two years of regulatory relief from a May 2024 Biden EPA rule on “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Primary Copper Smelting Residual Risk and Technology Review and Primary Copper Smelting Area Source Technology Review,” which imposed new emissions-control mandates on domestic copper smelters. The Trump Administration argued that the Biden-era “Copper Rule’s” uniform compliance deadlines failed to reflect the technical constraints and high retrofit costs faced by U.S. copper smelters, risking shutdowns that would further tighten global supply. Industry analysts say that the suspension could stabilize domestic refined copper output and ease price pressures, since stricter controls were expected to reduce U.S. production by up to 10% and boost dependence on imports from Chile and China.

• At the end of last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright formally directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to assert jurisdiction over large electrical loads—such as AI data centers and major industrial facilities—that connect directly to the interstate transmission grid and to fast-track new rules standardizing and expediting those interconnections. The directive included a draft Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking suggesting changes for “large loads” of 20 MW or more and hybrid facilities where load and generation co-locate. Notably, both Democratic FERC Commissioners Allison Clements and David Rosner signaled support for the proposal. If implemented, the rule could streamline approvals for large computing facilities and the power plants that serve them, reshaping how grid operators integrate high-capacity loads and reinforcing DOE’s push to align energy infrastructure growth with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and digital industries.
  
  
• This week, there was lots of discussion in D.C. about an October 21^st directive to federal agencies issued by acting White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Jeffrey Clark to speed up efforts to repeal existing regulations as part of the Trump Administration’s broader deregulatory push. The memo tells federal agencies to treat repealing rules differently from creating new ones and allows them to skip certain procedural steps, such as conducting impact analyses on energy supply and small businesses or consulting with state and local governments. The memo also shortens OIRA’s review periods to 14 days for rules deemed unlawful and 28 days for other repeals, down from the usual 90 days. The issuance of this memo to speed deregulatory activities during the shutdown is being viewed as “priming the pump” for a wave of deregulatory activity intended to help agencies meet the President’s goal of repealing 10 regulations for every new regulation issued.

Congress

• Last Thursday, the Senate voted 52-45 in favor of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution overturning a Biden-era plan restricting drilling in the Arctic. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only Democrat to join Republicans in the vote. The House must still pass the CRA before it is sent to President Trump for his signature. The vote came after the Trump Administration last week ruled out selling offshore oil and gas leases along the East Coast after its initial plan for auctioning them drew alarm from Republican members of congress from GOP strongholds in the Southeast. Administration officials are still preparing to include a draft proposed program for developing a new five-year schedule for offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of America and in waters off the West Coast and Alaska.

• The MCAA attended last Wednesday’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee markup of several nominees and bills of interest to our association. Among the notable nominees, the committee approved Jeffrey Hall to lead EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) and Douglas Troutman to serve as EPA Assistant Administrator for Toxic Substances, each by a 10–9 party-line vote. Ho Nieh was approved 13–6 to join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, while the nominations of Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood, Randall Jones, and Arthur Graham to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors advanced 10–9. Most of the discussion during the markup occurred in relation to Mr. Hall’s nomination to lead OECA, which is responsible for ensuring that companies and other regulated entities are following environmental laws, including the phase down of HFCs pursuant to the AIM Act, and referring criminal violations of EPA standards to the Justice Department for prosecution. Committee Chair Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said that the Biden Administration put too much emphasis on penalizing regulated entities, rather than helping them to ensure compliance, and that she believed Hall would take a more balanced approach. Committee Ranking Member Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) objected to Hall’s nomination, calling him “another industry crony, here to serve the big polluters who have occupied this administration.” Whitehouse also noted that the Justice Department has filed fewer environmental enforcement complaints under the second Trump Administration than in any previous presidential administration.
  
  In addition to advancing nominees, the committee also voted 16–3 to favorably report the bipartisan Nuclear REFUEL Act (S. 2082), which clarifies that nuclear fuel recycling facilities producing fuel for advanced reactors would follow the same regulatory path as uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication plants. MCAA members in the DC metro area should know that during the markup, Republicans approved a resolution on a party-line vote authorizing the Trump Administration to relocate the new FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C. instead of the previously selected Greenbelt, Maryland site. The General Services Administration will use roughly $844 million in previously appropriated funds, while the FBI will contribute $555 million toward the move. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) sharply criticized the decision, arguing that the administration provided “minimal planning and zero transparency,” noting the proposal lacks a completed security plan and includes only a partial cost assessment.

• Last Wednesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced a hearing this Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 10AM entitled, “Registered Apprenticeship: Scaling the Workforce for the Future.” The witnesses for the hearing are not yet available. The MCAA policy team is planning to cover this hearing and will report back on developments in next week’s Government Affairs Update. The hearing comes as the Trump Administration continues work on implementation of President Trump’s April Executive Order on “Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future” and as the tech industry is increasingly raising alarms about a lack of skilled construction workers to buildout the data centers and related energy infrastructure they are planning as part of their efforts to scale AI technologies. For example, last Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy warning that the company’s $500 billion Stargate project—now under construction in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin—is at risk due to a shortage of skilled trade workers and insufficient new power generation in the United States. Altman wrote that “the country will need many more electricians, mechanics, metal and ironworkers, carpenters, plumbers, and other construction trade workers than we currently have,” and said OpenAI plans to launch a Certifications and Jobs Platform in 2026 to expand workforce training pipelines. He also cautioned that limited domestic electricity generation threatens U.S. AI competitiveness and national security, noting that China added 429 gigawatts of new power capacity in 2024, compared with 51 gigawatts in the U.S. Altman said OpenAI’s goal is to establish a technical and financial framework to build one gigawatt of new AI infrastructure capacity per week at a cost of roughly $20 billion per gigawatt, and reported that the company has already spent about $1.4 trillion on infrastructure, equivalent to approximately 30 gigawatts of data center capacity.
  
  
• Last Monday, a group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. requesting details on the TrumpRx initiative, raising questions about the transparency and effectiveness of the White House’s new direct-to-consumer prescription drug platform. In a separate letter to BlinkRx, lawmakers sought information about the company’s role in the development of TrumpRx, citing concerns over potential conflicts of interest following reports that Donald Trump Jr. joined BlinkRx’s board earlier this year after his investment fund, 1789 Capital, led a $140 million financing round for the company. The letters come amid intensifying scrutiny from both Congress and the Trump Administration over pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their role in driving up prescription costs. That pressure coincided with Cigna’s announcement of a new rebate-free model through its PBM Express Scripts, beginning in 2027, under which manufacturer discounts will go directly to patients at the pharmacy counter—an approach the company says will reduce average out-of-pocket costs by about 30% and respond to growing bipartisan demands for greater transparency in drug pricing and PBM rebate practices.
  
  
• There were several developments last week in the fight for control of the U.S. House, as redistricting battles intensified in several states. In Ohio, a bipartisan redistricting commission unanimously approved a new congressional map that represents a bipartisan compromise by state legislators in the redistricting fight over next year’s midterms. Under the new maps, Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) will see their seats in Ohio’s 1^st and 9^th congressional districts become slightly “redder,” while Rep. Emilia Sykes’ (D-OH) 13^th congressional district seat will become more Democratic but remain competitive. In Virginia, the House of Delegates advanced a constitutional amendment allowing the state to redraw its congressional lines if another state does so outside the regular 10-year census or due to litigation. In Maryland, Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson said he would not pursue a midcycle redistricting push, warning that the legal and political risks would be “catastrophic.” In Kansas, the state’s mid-decade redistricting effort stalled after GOP leaders failed to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s objections, while in Indiana, Gov. Mike Braun (R) called a November 3 special session to consider new congressional maps despite warnings from GOP legislators that Republicans lack the votes to pass a plan adding two seats. In New York, Democrats sued over the Staten Island-based congressional seat held by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), alleging her gerrymandered district unconstitutionally dilutes minority voting power. Meanwhile, the American Action Network, a GOP-aligned group tied to Speaker Mike Johnson’s Congressional Leadership Fund, launched a $5 million ad campaign targeting 15 vulnerable House Democrats. In Illinois, the Justice Department indicted progressive candidate Kat Abughazaleh for allegedly obstructing ICE during a protest—an action she called “a political prosecution.” And in Iowa, Rep. Randy Feenstra’s (R-IA) 4^th Congressional District seat became an open-seat race after he announced a 2026 gubernatorial bid.

Around the Country

• MCAA members operating in New York City should be aware that last Thursday the U.S. Transportation Department provided updates on the New York Penn Station “Transformation” Project conducted in partnership with Amtrak. DOT highlighted: (1) the release of a solicitation for the project’s master developer, for which Letters of Interest may be submitted through Amtrak’s Procurement Portal; (2) the selection of Public-Private Partnership advisors to help structure the project approach and agreements, including Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as Legal Advisor, KPMG as Financial Advisor, and AKRF as the project environmental consultant; and (3) the initiation of the project’s Service Optimization Study to analyze how to accommodate passenger service growth at New York Penn Station and the surrounding region.
  

• Last week, MCAA’s lobbying to enact the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act got some notable support from the National Governors Association (NGA). On behalf of the NGA, a group of bipartisan governors from across the country urged Congress to streamline infrastructure project reviews, improve interagency coordination, and modernize the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process to eliminate duplication and provide greater regulatory certainty. These permitting reform prescriptions mirror provisions of the MCAA-supported SPEED Act. The NGA letter explains that “this set of ideas represents areas of potential common ground and would reduce barriers to developing critical energy infrastructure at the pace needed to win the AI race, lower costs for consumers, and responsibly develop the advanced energy sources of the future.” The NGA letter was signed by the governors of Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
  
  
• A new report underscores the importance of the MCAA’s ongoing advocacy for permitting reforms to speed deployment of energy infrastructure and meet growing demand from data centers and emerging AI technologies. Last Monday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected that the 42% of U.S. households heating with electricity will see winter expenditures rise 4% to an average of $1,133, driven mainly by higher retail electricity prices rather than increased usage. With the Northeast facing the highest costs at $1,520 on average.

• As MCAA presses to speed the permitting of major technology and energy infrastructure, we are struck by the continuing stream of major public-private partnerships being announced during the government shutdown to advance artificial intelligence (AI) and data center infrastructure. Last Wednesday, the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico selected HPE and NVIDIA to develop and deploy two new AI supercomputers to help scientists assess and modernize U.S. nuclear security capabilities. This followed the Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory announcing a partnership with NVIDIA and Oracle last Tuesday to build Solstice—the DOE’s largest AI supercomputer, featuring 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs—and a smaller system, Equinox, slated for delivery in 2026. Meanwhile, last Monday, the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee unveiled a new public-private partnership model and two AMD-powered AI supercomputers—Lux and Discovery—representing more than $1 billion in combined public-private investment. Lux is set to come online in early 2026 to expand near-term AI capacity for research in nuclear energy, materials discovery, grid modernization, and advanced manufacturing, while Discovery is expected in 2028. And the U.S. Air Force recently issued a Request for Lease Proposals seeking private developers to construct AI data centers at Air Force five installations—Edwards AFB (CA), Davis-Monthan AFB (AZ), Arnold AFB (TN), Robins AFB (GA), and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (NJ). The land being offered for lease at these five bases totals roughly 3,000 acres, with each project requiring at least $500 million in investment and 100 megawatts of new power.

• Energy Secretary Wright highlighted the need to retain all existing generating capacity while the nation works to build more in issuing an emergency order allowing PJM Interconnection, in coordination with Talon Energy, to continue operating Unit 4 of the H.A. Wagner Generating Station in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, beyond its annual 438-hour limit imposed by the EPA to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions from this oil-fired generating unit. Secretary Wright said the order was necessary to precent blackouts in 13 states that could impact 65 million Americans “in the coming winter months.”

• MCAA members that perform work for the Navy, operate in shipyards, or otherwise support the shipbuilding industry should know that at the beginning of last week, South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and U.S. shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly build U.S. Navy auxiliary ships, with plans focused on establishing production capacity along the U.S. Gulf Coast, including potential expansion near Pascagoula, Mississippi, where Huntington Ingalls already operates its Ingalls Shipbuilding complex. The companies will explore joint investments to build new shipyards or acquire existing facilities to support fleet logistics.