HR 2892 to President Obama

This afternoon the Senate Appropriations Committee posted a press release on their web site announcing that HR 2892 had passed today in the Senate by a vote of 79 to 19. The bill now goes to the President for signature. The President effectively has 10 days to sign the bill to avoid having the Department of Homeland Security budget tied up in another potential continuing resolution. For the chemical community the most important provision in this bill is, appropriately, §550 that extends the current CFATS authorization until October 4th, 2010. The Administration proposed this provision in their DHS budget request to allow Congress to continue working on the development of permanent authorizing legislation. I’ll do a detailed look at the other provisions of the legislation that will apply to the chemical security community at a later date.