HR 2918 Status

I never thought that I would be paying much attention to a spending bill supporting the legislative operations of the House and Senate, particularly in this blog, but the House leadership decided that HR 2918 would make the ideal vehicle for the continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through October 31st. This will allow the House and Senate an additional month to finish work on the spending bills. The House passed HR 2918 again last Friday. The Senate can be expected to take up the bill early this week. It should pass without any major problems. The continuing resolution will not have any impact on the support for this legislation. Adding it was a parliamentary maneuver, but certainly not an underhanded or devious one. It was just the least disruptive method of getting the job done. The continuing resolution language provides for the “continuing appropriations for all agencies and activities that would be covered by the regular fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills, until enactment of the applicable regular appropriations bill, or until October 31, 2009, whichever occurs first”. This language should support the ISCD understanding that the continuing resolution would allow for the extension of the CFATS rules pending the passage of HR 2892, the DHS appropriations bill that will specifically extend CFATS for one year.