Bills Introduced 1-4-13

Of the 66 bills introduced on the second day of the 113^th Congress only two may be of specific interest to readers of this blog. They are:

HR 152 – Budget FY 2013

HR 168 – Small Business Rule Exemption

FY 2013 Budget

In all of the talk about the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and other upcoming budget fights in the last couple of weeks, most commentators have ignored the FY 2013 appropriations situation. The current spending authority only extends through March 27^th.  This bill should be the one that will carry the government through the remainder of the fiscal year.

I fully expect to see this bill include provisions drastically cutting the funding for the CFATS program much the same way that HR 5855 did in the last session. And there is the remote possibility that the routine CFATS authorization extension may not be included in the bill.

Small Business

The initial title of this bill is the unwieldy “To permit small business concerns operating in the United States to elect to be exempt from certain Federal rules and regulations, and for other purposes.” This may or may not be of specific interest to my readers, it will depend on which “Federal rules and regulations” are actually specified in the bill.

Senate Bills

As is traditional with the Senate there will be no legislation introduced until the Senators come back from their first recess (starting today) on January 21^st for the Inaugeration.