Congressional Hearings – Week of 10-03-11

This week there are currently only two hearings of potential interest to the chemical, cyber or transportation security communities; the Rules Committee Hearing on HR 2608 (which I wrote about Thursday) and a hearing on maritime terrorism agreements.

HR 2608 Rule Hearing

As I noted earlier the House Rules Committee will meet on Monday evening to develop the rule for the floor consideration of HR 2608. That may change; the Majority Leader’s web site notes that on Tuesday the deal with a Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to HR 2608. That will be subject to a ‘Unanimous Consent Agreement’.

This would be quicker (not as quick as the House vote on HR 2017, but quicker than normal) as it would avoid a debate on the rule and then a debate on the bill with potential recorded votes on each. It would also allow a single political-bomb thrower the chance to prevent consideration. Fortunately (SARCASM Warning) we don’t have anyone in the House that might be considered a political-bomb thrower.

BTW: The Rules Committee web page now correctly lists HR 2608 as the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012,  to be considered not HR 2017. They probably caught the error internally, but I’ll take a small measure of credit for easing this confusion anyway.

Maritime Terrorism Agreements

The House Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on Wednesday on the Implementation of Certain International Nuclear and Maritime Terrorism Agreements. No mention of what ‘maritime terrorism agreements’ might be mentioned or considered in this hearing and not even a witness list yet. But, given the importance of maritime chemical shipping and potential MTSA impacts, this may be an interesting hearing.