Committee Hearings – Week of 7-23-23

This week, the last week before the summer recess, is a busy week in Congress with spending bills being the high-profile topic. There are also two markup hearings in the Senate, as well as DHS oversight and self-driving car hearings in the House. A CFATS extension bill is due for action on the floor in the House (and hopefully) in the Senate.

Spending Bills

Today, the House Rules Committee will hold a rule hearing that will include consideration of HR 4666, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. There was nothing in the bill or its accompanying report of specific interest here, but it is the first spending bill of the season and does contain a significant number of social issues of interest to Republicans (and opposed by Democrats). There have been 101 amendments proposed, again none of specific interest here.

On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee will hold a rule hearing that will consider HR 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. See my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4368-introduced - subscription required for a look at the items of import here with this bill. There have been 178 amendments propose for this bill, none of specific interest here.

See my post: “Coming FY 2024 Spending Bill Logjams” about potential problems in dealing with these spending bills. These two bills are the first of twelve that the House has to (well, should have to) consider before the end of September and August is a vacation month.

Markup Hearings

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting that will address an FCC nomination and 21 pieces of legislation. One of those bills is S 2256, the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act. This is a federal cybersecurity workforce development bill, which I have not yet reviewed. I will publish a post on this later this week.

On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a business meeting to markup the following spending bills; Defense, IER, LHE, and DHS.

DHS Oversight

On Wednesday the House Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing which will “examine the agency's operational failures, the unprecedented border crisis, and the abandonment of immigration enforcement under Secretary Mayorkas.” This may end up being a preliminary to an impeachment process against Sec Mayorkas.

Self-Driving Cars

On Wednesday, the Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on: “Self-Driving Vehicle Legislative Framework: Enhancing Safety, Improving Lives and Mobility, and Beating China”. The hearing will be in support of a new (not yet introduced) bill, the SELF DRIVE Act. The witness list includes:

Mark Riccobono, National Federation of the Blind,

John Bozzella, Alliance For Automotive Innovation,

Gary Shapiro, Consumer Technology Association, and

Philip Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University

Congress is still trying to deal with the complexities of self-driving vehicles. It has not been able to reach a consensus on how these vehicles should be regulated.

On the Floor

Today, the House is scheduled to take up 13 pieces of legislation under the suspension of the rules process. This number would not have been unusual last session, but this session’s leadership appears to be less interested in bipartisan legislation. There are two bills of interest here:

HR 1345 – the NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination Act, and

HR 4470 – Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2023

HR 4470 needs to be signed by the President before (well, on would probably work) Thursday, or the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program will cease to exist. If the bill passes today, the Senate could take up the bill under the unanimous consent process tomorrow, so we may be okay. That is presuming that someone does not want to make a political point at the expense of a successful chemical security program. Those of us who have followed this program over the years, are somewhat used to these last-minute legislative shenanigans, but the uncertainty is not good for the program.