Review - HR 8572 Reported in House – FY 2025 DHS Spending Bill

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee published their report for HR 8572, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2025 and the text of the reported version of the bill. There is on specific cybersecurity language or chemical security language in the bill. The report contains discussions about both, but no mention of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to formulate the rule for the consideration of three spending bills, including HR 8572. There have been 232 amendments submitted to the Rules Committee to date for consideration in the debate on the DHS spending bill; two of possible interest here. One is a CFATS amendment that does not extend the program. The second is a cybersecurity amendment to increase funding for research on preventing cyberattacks. The bill is scheduled to be considered by the Full House this coming week.

Spending Bill Items of Interest

As I noted above, there is no language related to chemical security or cybersecurity in the bill itself. I have extracted some of the spending numbers that may be of interest here, along with comparisons to the version of the FY 2024 spending bill reported in the House last year. This allows for a look at how the Appropriations Committee has changed their DHS outlook over time.

Moving Forward

It is clear from the ‘Minority Views’ portion (pgs 173-5) of the Committee Report that HR 8752 as written and reported is a very partisan bill. If it passes it will be by a narrow, nearly party-line vote. Thus, it will have to be considered under a rule to be crafted by the Rules Committee, what is not yet clear is if it is partisan enough to get at least two of the three radical Republican votes in that Committee and avoids Republican votes against the rule on Wednesday.

 

For more details about chemical security and cybersecurity discussions in the Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8572-reported-in-house - subscription required.