HR 1 Moves to Senate

The Senate is set to start their official look at HR 1 this week with the first procedural vote on Tuesday. That cloture vote would allow the actual debate on HR 1 to start. One of the first items to be discussed will likely be the substitute language being offered by the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, Sen. Inouye (D, HI). Senate Amendment (SA)149 is a complete reworking of the bill that falls generally mid-way between the President’s FY 2011 request and the House bill.

Chemical Security Provisions

Once again chemical security programs are too small to show up as line items in this debate. We have to look at the larger program areas and guess the ultimate effects on chemical security issues. The three areas we look at are TSA Surface Transportation (truck and freight rail security), Coast Guard Operations (MTSA) and NPPD (CFATS and ICS-CERT).

• TSA Surface Transportation – SA 149 (§1614) - $105 Million – Same as HR 1 (§1614)

• CG Operations – SA 149 (§1618) - $6.9 Billion - $43 Million more than HR1 (§1619)

• NPPD – SA 149 (§1623) - $874 Million - $69 Million more than HR 1 (§1624)

As we have come to expect there is a CFATS authorization extension specifically included in SA 149; a one-year extension to October 4th, 2011 is included in §1649.