HR 7659 Passed in House – 2024 CG Authorization

This evening the House considered HR 7659, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024 under the suspension of the rules process. After about 27 minutes of debate (and a 30 minute recess) the House voted to pass the bill by strong bipartisan vote of 376 to 16. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Moving Forward

This is one of those bills that, in recent years, has typically been pasted onto one of the omnibus spending bills that have so enraged conservatives. Part of the reason is that while this bill is important, it is probably not politically important enough to take up the time of the Senate to consider it under regular order, especially with the approaching election. The 15 radical republican votes against the bill in the House probably means that the Senate would not be able to consider the bill under the unanimous consent process, one or more of their Senate compatriots would object.

I have not yet seen a CG authorization bill for 2024 introduced in the Senate, but I am relatively certain that Sen Cantwell (D,WA), Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. would propose substitute language if the bill were considered in the Senate. They would go through the three-cloture motion process that that body went through with the recent FAA bill. And it would be slowed down by the same wrangling over adding non-germane amendments that in recent years has slowed down progress so much in the Senate.

While the FAA is more intertwined with the commerce of this country (almost every county has an airport, there are many fewer ports or Coast Guard Stations), the CG is still an important part of the economy, and it needs to be reauthorized. So, the Senate leadership will probably find a way to get this bill considered, and hopefully before the August recess.