Review - Conference Report for HR 2670 Published – 2024 NDAA

Yesterday, the conference committee for HR 2670 published their report on HR 2670, the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The report includes a listing of sections from the House and Senate versions of the bill that were included (and excluded) in the final version of the bill. The 3000+ page Report also includes the actual text of the bill. In addition to the NDAA provisions the final version includes the State Department and Intelligence authorization bills.

Moving Forward

The Report is currently (tentatively) scheduled to be considered by the House next week. The House.gov website notes that the bill will be considered under the suspension of the rules process (limited debate, no floor amendments, and a super-majority would be required for passage).

Commentary

Typically (but certainly not always) conference reports are considered under a closed rule. This too limits debate, and prohibits consideration of miscellaneous amendments, but only requires a simple majority for passage. The reason for this is almost certainly to do with opposition to the revised version of the bill by some of the more fringe elements of the Republican caucus. First off, those folks hold an effective veto power (three votes per the deal that McCarthy made to become the Speaker last January) in the House Rules Committee, so they could potentially stop the approval a rule. Then, if a rule were approved, it would take only three Republicans voting against the rule on the floor of the House (the opposition party by tradition votes against rules) to stop the House from considering the Report.

The House (and Senate) leaderships expect that there will be sufficient bipartisan support for the bill to be passed in both bodies. This means that, once again, the Republican leadership is counting on support from Democrats to pass an important piece of legislation. While this bill is not as important to fringe elements of the party as spending bills, it is still likely to draw the ire of at least a segment of that fringe. What that means for future political operations in the House remains to be seen.

For more details about the cybersecurity provisions included (and excluded) in the final version of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/conference-report-for-hr-2670-published - subscription required.