Committee Hearings – Week of 11-17-19

This week the impeachment hearings continue to attract the main attention of politicians and, to a lesser extent, the public. There are two markup hearings this week; one in the House that will deal with a pipeline safety bill, and one in the senate that will address cybersecurity bills.

Pipeline Safety Hearings

On Tuesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a markup hearing that will consider 18 bills. One of those bills is HR 5120 that was introduced last Friday. The official version of the bill has yet to be printed, but a Committee Print is available and a summary is included in the Committee Briefing Notes. I have not yet had a chance to review the bill.

Cybersecurity Hearing

On Tuesday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a business meeting that will consider 17 bills and three nominations. The list includes 3 cybersecurity related bills:

S 876, to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to require the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to prepare veterans for careers in the energy industry, including the solar, wind, cybersecurity, and other low-carbon emissions sectors or zero-emissions sectors of the energy industry;

S 2556, to amend the Federal Power Act to provide energy cybersecurity investment incentives, to establish a grant and technical assistance program for cybersecurity investments;

S 2714, to amend the America COMPETES Act to reauthorize the ARPA-E program,

On the Floor

On Tuesday the House will consider HR 4634; Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019 (as amended) under the suspension of the rules process. This means that there will be limited debate, no floor amendments and a super majority will be required for passage. A significant bipartisan majority is expected on this bill.

It is likely that the House Rules Committee will take up a continuing resolution some time this week to continue funding the government, probably through sometime next month.