Washington Report – June 1, 2026

June 1, 2026

Latest News

FY27 Transportation Funding Bill Mark-up this Week

The full House Appropriations committee is scheduled to mark-up its FY27 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) and Related agencies appropriations bill this week, the link to the mark-up is included in the On the Horizon section;
If enacted, the bill would provide $92.22B and be a 10.4% cut from FY26 levels, and for transportation the proposal prioritizes highway infrastructure, aviation, and safety over public transit and passenger rail, highlights include:
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) would receive $64.5B in total budgetary resources that includes $63.4B for Highway Trust Fund programs
- Federal Transit Administration would receive $16.5B
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would receive $22.7B
- Federal Railroad Administration would receive $3.04B
- $2.5B for transportation safety agencies including the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA)
- Proposes redirecting $7.9B from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for safety and freight related programs.

Road Weather Management Stakeholder Meeting

FHWA will hold a virtual stakeholder meeting June 9;
The agenda:
- Daily Download: Pooled fund study updates, winter operation plans, capability maturity framework, Pathfinder, and National Snow and Ice Data Center
- Updates and innovations focusing on winter weather, operational and research updates, social media and crowdsourcing, tornadoes, weather safety and education, hurricane preparedness, and notable storms
Register here;
Questions? Email sarah.whitlock@icf.com.

House Appropriations Committee Passes Environmental Budgets

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (I&E) passed its FY27 I&E budget;
Proposed FY27 numbers compared to enacted FY26:
- Clean Water SRF: $1.19B ($500M less)
- Drinking Water SRF: $910M ($2M less)
- WIFIA: $64.6M ($10M less)
- Water industry workforce funding: $5M
- Assistance for small and disadvantaged communities: $28.5M
Takeaways from the House I&E budget:
- The committee rejected the President’s FY27 budget proposal for EPA
- The committee’s proposed budget is very similar to its FY26 budget, which the Senate rejected in favor of higher funding levels
- Most IIJA funding is not being replaced in this budget
A full committee vote is expected June 3;
The Senate has not announced dates for hearings.

APWA to Lead On-line Workforce Webinar, June 9

APWA’s Associate Director of Education Deanne Walters and Career and Workforce Development Manager Corinne Watts will deliver the Engineering Workforce Consortium (EWC)’s second webinar focused on our nation’s workforce challenges;
The webinar will highlight APWA’s micro-credentials and how these enhance professional skill sets and can lead to greater workforce opportunities;
Register here for the June 9, 12 p.m. ET event;
Click here to learn more about the Engineering Workforce Consortium.

FEMA Resumes In-Person Training Courses

Following the end of the recent partial federal government shutdown, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) announced that in-person courses for emergency management professionals are resuming;
Requirements and the list of courses offered during June and July are here.

FEMA Releases FIFA Stakeholder Toolkits

FEMA released two FIFA stakeholder toolkits to provide resources to help communities stay safe and prepared for FIFA activities:
- FIFA World Cup 2026 Stakeholder Toolkit is for local emergency managers, fire or police departments, city officials, and faith leaders;
- FIFA World Cup 2026 Safety Messaging Toolkit for Businesses, for private-sector companies across industries, includes an overview on business continuity, crisis communications, emergency response, and information technology resources.

NOAA Releases 2026 Hurricane Forecast

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its annual hurricane season prediction calling for a below-normal number of the storms for the Atlantic basin this year;
NOAA’s outlook, which runs June 1 through Nov. 30, predicts a 35% chance of a near-normal season, a 10% chance of an above-normal season, and a 55% chance of a below-normal season;
NOAA is also predicting 8-14 named storms (39 mph or higher wind), 3-6 are forecast to become hurricanes (74 mph or higher), including 1-3 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5 with 111 mph or higher wind);
An average season has 14 named storms with seven hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.

FCC Votes to Modernize its Disaster Information Reporting System

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to update its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) which collects and reports communications outage information before, during, and after emergencies;
The updated rules seek to streamline reporting requirements and allow providers to emphasize efforts on service restoration immediately following disasters;
DIRS is a web-based system that collects infrastructure status and service restoration information from communications service providers;
This information allows state, Tribal, territorial, and federal emergency management officials to more efficiently prioritize disaster response efforts.

APWA Participates in NASTO Emergency Management Peer Exchange

APWA Region I Director Rich Benevento, APWA New England Chapter member; Beverly, MA, Public Works Director Mike Collins; APWA New York Metro Chapter member Jeffrey Coleman, Superintendent of Public Works, Scarsdale, NY; and APWA Sr. Government Affairs Manager Marty Williams participated in the 2026 Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials (NASTO) Emergency Management Peer Exchange in New Haven, CT;
The event focused on the vital role that state departments of transportation (DOT) professionals play during emergencies impacting transportation infrastructure;
Sessions included:
- A panel discussion with Mike Collins, an APWA Emergency Management Technical Committee member, on debris operation, debris management following disasters
- Augmenting existing resources to respond to and recover more effectively from emergencies
- Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) “Mission Ready Packages”
- Procedures utilized by transportation agencies when required to deploy temporary structures
- Asset management strategies for critical infrastructure
- Updates from FEMA and FHWA
- Director Benevento introduced Vermont Agency of Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn for his keynote address
Some 200 state transportation and emergency management officials from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, along with representatives from FEMA, FHWA, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) participated.

On the Horizon

(All times ET)

June 2 at 2 p.m., the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee is scheduled to review the President’s FY27 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS);
June 3 at 10 a.m., the House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to review the President’s FY27 budget request for DHS;
June 3 at 10 a.m., the Senate Environment and Public Works committee is scheduled to hold a hearing with Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster about the FY27 proposed budget for the agency;
June 3 at 11 a.m., the House Appropriations committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on FY27 appropriations for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies funding bills;
June 4 at 10 a.m., the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing, The AI Security Landscape-How Frontier Models, Agentic AI, and AI Coding Tools Are Reshaping Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Resilience;
June 4 at 10 a.m., the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to review the FY27 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, the FY27 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, and the FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act;
June 4 at 10:15 a.m., the House Natural Resources Committee Federal Lands Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing, The State of Our Nation’s Federal Forests and Outlook for the 2026 Wildfire Year;
June 4 at 10:15 a.m., the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, is scheduled to hold a hearing, Where Are We- Examining Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Capabilities in the United States.