HSGA Takes Action on 3 Bills of Interest –

Today, the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held the continuation of last week’s Business Meeting. While not all of the bills listed on the agenda were addressed today, the three bills that I identified as being of potential interest here were amended and recommended reported favorably by a vote of 10 to 1 in all three instances. There were four additional yeah votes cast by proxy, but those are only reported, not counted in the official vote tally. The three bills were:

S 4630, Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act,

S 4697, Healthcare Cybersecurity Act of 2024, and

S 4715, Federal Cyber Workforce Training Act of 2024

The Committee does not typically publish substitute language, or other amendments. We will have to wait for the publication of the Committee’s reports on the bills to see what changes have been made.

In all three cases, the Committee adopted substitute language from the original author. For S 4630 and S 4697, that language was further modified by unanimous consent. The one Nay vote for each of the bills came from Sen Paul (R,KY). Paul’s opposition practically means that there is little chance of the bill being considered under the Senate’ unanimous consent process, as he is quick to use his objection to thwart the consideration of bills that he opposes. Since Paul is the Ranking Member, he has effective veto of these bills being considered as amendments to bills being considered on the floor of the Senate.