No New Security Amendments to HR 993

I finally had a chance to go back and review all of the amendments submitted to date in the Senate for HR 993. None of the amendments filed on March 12^th, March 13^th, or March 14^th had anything to do with chemical safety/security or cybersecurity. Specifically, nothing was attempted to modify the spending reduction for the CFATS program.

Sen. Reid (D,NV) announced Thursday that the last day for filing amendments for HR 993 would be on Monday with a cut-off time of 4:30 pm EDT. He also noted that there would be a cloture vote on the Senate substitute language at 5:30 pm which could lead to a vote on the bill as early as Tuesday.

It seems very likely that the Senate will approve the amended version of HR 993 this coming week and the House is prepared to vote this week on whether or not to accept the new Senate version of the bill. It is also very likely that there are enough Democrats that would vote for the bill as amended to allow the House to accept the revised bill well before the March 27^th deadline expires.

Just a reminder, the bill would extend the authorization for the CFATS program through October 4^th, 2013 but the funding would be significantly reduced and the Sequester would further reduce the CFATS spending for the remainder of the fiscal year.