S 140 Amendments Accepted by House – CG Authorization

Yesterday the House accepted the Senate amendments to S 140 that effectively turned that bill into the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018. The action was taken on a voice vote. A similar voice vote was taken on S. Con. Res. 51 to officially change the enrollment of S 140 to reflect the change in purpose of the bill. The Senate amendments were considered under the suspension of the rules process with limited debate and no floor amendments.

Typically, we see very limited ‘debate’ on bills considered under suspension of the rules; a couple of people from both sides of the aisle praising the bipartisan effort to craft and pass the bill. The S 140 debate yesterday was something of an exception to that process. There was some opposition expressed to §834 of the bill that reinstates the fire safety exemption for the Delta Queen (starting with Rep. Garamendi on page H 9648). It was not enough debate to derail (or significantly slow) passage of the bill, but it was an actual policy discussion.