Late last night, the 118th Congress drew to a close as members of the House and Senate concluded their legislative business for the year. In the Senate, lawmakers failed to act on the Special District Grant Accessibility Act (SDGAA; H.R. 7525), which means the bill will need to be reintroduced in the new 119th Congress.

Despite broad bipartisan support for the legislation, a combination of politics, timing, and process considerations prevented H.R. 7525 from advancing in the Senate. In short, with very few bills moving through “regular order” in the upper chamber this year, the champions of SDGAA – Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and John Cornyn (R-TX) – had to rely on achieving full consensus among their Senate colleagues in order to advance the legislation by what’s known as a “Unanimous Consent” agreement. Those efforts fell just short of the mark in the waning hours of the legislative session.

Looking ahead, the National Special Districts Association (NSDA) will be working early next year with our House and Senate champions and bill sponsors to reintroduce SDGAA. NSDA would like it express its sincere gratitude to our special district partners across the country for their tireless work on this critically important bill.

Background:

The bipartisan Special District Grant Accessibility Act would codify a first-ever formal definition of “special district” in federal law. Additionally, the bill seeks to ensure that special districts are eligible for all appropriate forms of federal financial assistance.

Specifically, the legislation would require the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidance to federal agencies requiring special districts to be recognized as local governments for the purpose of federal financial assistance determinations. Moreover, H.R. 7525 establishes the following definition of ‘special district’ in Federal law:

“The term ‘special district’ means a political subdivision of a State, with specified boundaries and significant budgetary autonomy or control, created by or pursuant to the laws of the State, for the purpose of performing limited and specific governmental or proprietary functions that distinguish it as a significantly separate entity from the administrative governance structure of any other form of local government unit within a State.”

H.R. 7525 was introduced by Representatives Pat Fallon (R-TX) and Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) on March 5, 2024. Shortly thereafter, the legislation was approved by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and was subsequently passed by the full House on an overwhelming 352-27 vote.

On July 11, Senators Sinema and Cornyn introduced an identical companion bill to H.R. 7525 (the Senate bill number is S. 4673). The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) approved the legislation on a 10-1 vote. The ranking member of HSGAC, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), was the lone “no” vote on the bill.