HR 2892 Status 10-01-09

Today at 10:18 am EDT the House took up the matter of HR 2892 and the issue of the Senate’s version of the bill. The House declined the Senate’s amendments and agreed to a conference committee. They voted to provide the following instructions to the conferees:

1) Recede to subsection (a) of section 567 of the Senate amendment; 2) Insist on subsections (b) and (c) of section 552 of the House bill; 3) Recede to the Senate position on subsections (a) and (d) of section 552 of the House bill; and 4) Not record their approval of the final conference agreement unless the text of such agreement (as such term is used in clause 12(a)(4) of rule XXII of the Rules of the House of Representatives) unless the text of such agreement has been available to the managers in an electronic, searchable, and downloadable for for at least 72 hours prior to the time described in such clause.

None of these instructions have any affect on the chemical security provisions of the bill. The provision for the one year extension of the CFATS program remains unchanged. At 11:46 am EDT the Speaker appointed the following members of the Appropriations Committee to represent the House in the conference committee: Price (NC), Serrano, Rodriguez, Ruppersberger, Mollohan, Lowey, Roybal-Allard, Farr, Rothman (NJ), Obey, Rogers (KY), Carter, Culberson, Kirk, Calvert, and Lewis (CA). No word yet on when we can expect the conference report.