Committee Hearings – Week of 05-31-15

The House and Senate are back in town after a very extended Memorial Day Weekend. Not much in the way of hearings this week; one Rules Committee hearing on two spending bills and the TSCA markup in the House.

Spending Bills

As I write this the House Rules Committee is holding a hearing on HR 2577, the THUD spending bill, and HR 2578, the CJS spending bill. Both were introduced last week. This hearing will almost certainly be a non-issue as these spending bills under the Republican leadership have been considered under open rules with unlimited amendments. The Commerce, Justice and Science bill does not currently contain any cybersecurity language in the NIST section. The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill contains no specific language on hazmat transportation issues.

The CJS bill will be considered first later this week and if there is enough time left in the House Schedule the THUD bill consideration will start.

TSCA Markup

Starting tomorrow afternoon and finishing up on Wednesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee will be holding a markup hearing that will include HR 2576, the House version of TSCA modernization. The hearing website has a staff summary of the two bills being marked up.

Note that all three of the bills mentioned in this post were all introduced last week while Congress was out of town. The quick action on the spending bills is not unusual but the TSCA bill is moving very quickly, especially for such a controversial topic. Lots of behind the scenes stuff going on here.