Review - HR 5893 Introduced – FY 2024 CJS Spending

Last month, Rep Rogers (R,KY) introduced HR 5893, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee did not publish a report for this bill, nor has it published an explanatory text as it did for HR 5894. There are three cybersecurity mentions in the bill, none of particular interest here. There have been 285 amendments submitted to the House Rules Committee for possible inclusion in the rule for the consideration of the bill. Only one of those amendments is of potential specific interest here.

Moving Forward

The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow to formulate the rule for the consideration of the bill on the floor of the House. The bill could move to the floor later this week. Based upon actions from last week, I think that there is a very real possibility that the bill will proceed through consideration of the amendments selected by the Committee, but floor action will stop before the final vote is taken. I have no idea what the House leadership is going to do with HR 4820, the THUD spending bill, and HR 4664, the Financial Services spending bill, but I suspect they will have to do the same with this bill.

Commentary

Spending bills have always been something of a legislative problem, but this year the House Republicans have elevated the problems to heights never considered before. This bill, and its late introduction partner HR 5894, the LHH spending bill, were introduced almost three months after the other 10 spending bills this year, and more importantly after Speaker McCarthy was fired. The bill could not be offered earlier due to disagreements in the Committee about what anti-DOJ measures were going to be included. The inability of the Committee to come to agreement bodes ill for this bill moving forward in the House.

For more details about the cybersecurity issues addressed in the bill and amendments proposed for the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-5893-introduced - subscription required.