Both chambers remain out until after the November 3 elections. The Senate is holding pro forma sessions, brief meetings with no votes that keep the chamber technically in session, including today, and returns for business on Monday, November 9. The House is also expected back the week of November 9.

LIHEAP Release:

HHS has not announced any release of fiscal year 2027 funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, (LIHEAP). On September 25, Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire led 116 House members of both parties in a letter, asking HHS to distribute the funds as soon as possible and no later than November 1. Citing a history of repeated funding delays, the House letter also asked how many staff HHS still has working on the program.

On the Horizon:

November 3 and 9, Election Day and the lame duck. Congress returns November 9, with the Senate back at 3:00 p.m. This opens a lame duck session, the stretch between the election and the start of the new Congress in January, with government funding, LIHEAP, and the farm bill all still open.

November 15, Jones Act waiver. The current waiver, which lets foreign flagged vessels move fuel between U.S. ports, expires on November 15. NEFI has asked the White House to extend the waiver through the end of the year to keep product moving into the Northeast through the heating season.

December 11, government funding. The continuing resolution runs out on December 11. None of the 12 appropriations bills are finished, so Congress will have to pass and package them together by this date or pass another stopgap. The final LIHEAP number, any emergency supplemental, and funding for the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve will all be settled there.

December 31, dyed diesel relief. The relief period under the executive order ends on New Year’s Eve. Two questions remain open: when the deferred tax comes due, and what happens to dyed fuel still in tanks after that date.