Bills Introduced – 01-14-19

Yesterday with both the House and Senate back in Washington there were 26  bills introduced. Of these, three may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 542 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, and for other purposes. Rep. Rice, Kathleen M. [D-NY-4]

HJ Res 27 Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes. Rep. Lowey, Nita M. [D-NY-17]

HJ Res 28 Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes. Rep. Lowey, Nita M. [D-NY-17]

I will be watching HR 542 for chemical security issues or drone interdiction issues.

I do not suspect that either of the CR’s offered yesterday provides any breakthrough for the Federal Funding Fiasco, but the Democrats in the House continue to look for something to entice the Senate Republicans to make some sort of move towards a resolution. Both CR’s are straight forward extensions of the now-expired CR that kept the government operating until December 21^st; no other provisions are found in either bill. HJ Res 27 would open the government until February 1^st and HJ Res 28 would open the government until February 28^th. Neither bill would affect the current expiration of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program scheduled for January 18^th (Friday).

The House Rules Committee is currently scheduled to formulate a rule for the consideration of HJ Res 28 tomorrow. HJ Res 27 will be considered on the floor of the House today under suspension of the rules. Since this would require a super-majority (2/3 vote), this is a move to see how many Republican defections could be garnered for a short CR; not that that would in any way affect Sen. McConnel’s (R,KY) considerations in the Senate.