Review - S 2438 Introduced -FY 2024 State Spending

Back in July, Sen Coons (D,DE) introduced S 2438, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (State) Appropriations Act, 2024. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the legislation. The bill contains IT related cybersecurity provisions and there are multiple cybersecurity discussions in the Report.

The House version of this bill (HR 4665) passed in the House by a near party-line vote of vote of 216 to 212 on September 28^th, 2023.

Moving Forward

When the Senate takes up HR 4665, one of the first amendments that will be considered will be substitute language based upon this bill. While this bill had bipartisan support in the Senate Appropriations Committee, it is becoming increasingly evident that some of the more intransigent Republican will employ a full array of legislative delaying tactics to attempt to impede the passage of bipartisan spending bills. They do not have the votes to make significant changes to the spending limits, so it is not clear what their purpose is beyond giving moral support to the House Republicans in their efforts to reduce spending.

Once some version of this language passes in the Senate, a conference committee will strive to workout the differences between the two versions of the bill. A version of the bill that could pass in the Senate would require Democratic votes to pass in the House. How this would work in a post-McCarthy House remains to be seen.

 

For more information about the cybersecurity provisions of the bill and discussions in the Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2438-introduced - subscription required.