Bills Introduced – 9-21-21

NOTE: Corrected title to reflect date of introduction (9-23-21 0635 EDT)

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in session, there were 55 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 5305 Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [D-CT-3] 

S 2767 A bill to authorize certain Federal departments to enter into contracts to carry out existing authorities to protect United States facilities from unmanned aircraft. Sen. Lee, Mike [R-UT] 

S 2789 A bill making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for providing emergency assistance, and for other purposes. Sen. Shelby, Richard [R-AL]

HR 5305 is the Continuing Resolution adopted last night by the House in a party-line vote of 220 to 211. In addition to extending public spending at currently authorized rates, it also includes language (§3301) to extend the public debt limit, both until December 16^th, 2021. It allows the Treasury to increase the debt limit under 31 USC 3101(b) by an unspecified amount at the discretion of the Treasury Department. The debt limit provisions are the root of the Republican opposition to this bill.

This is probably the last time that I will be mentioning S 2789. This alternative to HR 5305 is doomed on two counts. First, a continuing resolution must originate in the House. Thus the only way that this bill makes it to the President’s desk is if the Senate uses the language from this bill as a substitute for the language in HR 5305. This is unlikely to occur because Shelby and his only cosponsor {Sen McConnel (R,KY)} are Republicans and the Senate is very loosely controlled by the Democrats. I have not seen the language for this bill, but I suspect that it is a ‘clean’ CR.

Oh, yes, I will be covering S 2767.