Bills Introduced – 1-16-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there were 18 bills introduced. Of those bills, two may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 6995 Making continuing appropriations for the Armed Forces and certain Federal civilian personnel in the event of a Government shutdown during fiscal year 2024, and for other purposes. Biggs, Andy [Rep.-R-AZ-5]

S 3594 A bill to require Governmentwide source code sharing, and for other purposes. Cruz, Ted [Sen.-R-TX] 

I will be watching HR 6995 as it looks like this may be an attempt to alleviate concerns amongst some Republicans about the potential effects of a government shutdown on the military. I really doubt that this bill will go anywhere, but movement could be an indicator of more radical actions on overall spending.

I am not sure what to make of S 3594. I will be watching this bill for indications that the motivation for the required sharing is increasing security of government software. As a side note: Sen Peters (D,MI), Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is a cosponsor for the bill, so this may be a serious attempt at getting something done.This one should be interesting.

Mention in Passing

There are two bills introduced yesterday that I would like to mention in passing:

H Res 967 Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to permit Members to vote by proxy in certain cases, and for other purposes. Luna, Anna Paulina [Rep.-R-FL-13] 

S 3591 A bill making appropriations to improve border security, imposing new reporting requirements relating to border security, and enhancing criminal penalties for destroying or evading border controls. Casey, Robert P., Jr. [Sen.-D-PA]

Proxy voting in the 117^th Congress, a pandemic response move, was an anathema for Republicans. Interesting that Luna, who is on the right fringe of the party establishment, is proposing this, but with the Republican majority so slim, legitimate absences could put the Democrats in the majority on any given day in the session.

The description of S 3591 could have been written by Republicans for a border control bill, but this is an all-Democrat (six Dems cosponsoring) bill. I will be surprised if this has any more chance of getting to the floor than does HR 2, the conservative border diatribe passed early last year in the House. But this could be a sign of potential movement on border issues with the liberal response be staked out.