With Congress set to recess next week for Rosh Hashanah, less than four legislative days remain this month for Congress to agree on a stop-gap funding measure needed to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30. But with both parties still jockeying for political advantage, a federal government shutdown – if only short-term – seems all but inevitable.
The “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” containing much of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ domestic agenda, and which has bedeviled House Speaker Mike Johnson for most of the year, finally appears to be headed for a vote on the House floor.
Recent legislation in California expands design and siting requirements for logistics facilities and restricts truck routes to and from such facilities. A session at I.CON West this week in Los Angeles addressed the impact of this anti-warehouse legislation on industrial infill development in California . Audience members heard from several panelists about the requirements of the law and its effects on a number of areas ranging from design changes required in projects, impact on land values, implications for the entitlement and permit process, and the road ahead for advocacy efforts to make needed changes in the law.
Whether at the local, state or federal level, the commercial real estate industry is accustomed to being targeted for tax increases. As the saying goes, “commercial real estate doesn’t vote.” It should not be a surprise to anyone, then, that we are an attractive place for politicians to look to when they are seeking more money to address a problem. The latest example of this is at the federal level, where members of congressional tax-writing committees are seriously considering eliminating or capping the current tax deduction for state and local taxes paid by businesses.
This week will see scores of NAIOP members from the U.S. and Canada attend NAIOP’s Chapter Leadership and Legislative Retreat (CL&LR) in Washington, D.C., with U.S. members scheduling meetings with their senators and representatives to educate elected officials on the issues important to the commercial real estate industry. Our annual CL&LR is an important event and is the kickoff to what is certain to be a consequential year for commercial real estate in terms of federal legislation.
Congress is expected to close out the year this week with an agreement to pass a continuing budget resolution that will avoid a government shutdown before Christmas. That will push the funding debate to at least March 2025, when NAIOP will again be advocating on behalf of its members in what will be the biggest tax reform fight of the last decade. But a strong year for advocacy in 2024 prepares us well for the future.
On Sept. 10, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr announced that the central bank would be revising and re-proposing its bank-capital rules proposal commonly referred to as their Basel III Endgame Regulation. In a clear victory for NAIOP and real estate, Barr made clear in his speech that the Federal Reserve (Fed) would be scaling back the regulation.
Just prior to leaving for this week’s congressional recess, Republicans and Democrats in Congress worked together to introduce bipartisan legislation furthering one of NAIOP’s top legislative priorities. The Revitalizing Downtowns and Main Streets Act (H.R. 9002) was introduced last Thursday with 12 original cosponsors – six Republicans and six Democrats, all members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
The Supreme Court has certainly garnered its share of attention for several of its rulings this last term, but none is likely to have more of an impact on business, including commercial real estate, than its opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, issued on June 28.
NAIOP Colorado filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the legality of building performance mandates found in the Energize Denver citywide program and the statewide mandates found in Regulation 28 issued by Colorado’s Air Quality Commission. The outcome of the litigation could have significant national implications.