Review - S 4802 Introduced – FY 2025 IER Spending

Last month, Sen Merkley (D,OR) introduced S 4802, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill contains one minor cybersecurity mention. It also includes funding for the Chemical Safety Board. The Committee Report includes two cybersecurity discussions, a discussion about the CSB, and three chemical safety issues.

The House version of this bill is HR 8998 [removed from paywall]. That bill passed in the House on July 24^th, by a straight party-line vote of 210 to 202.

Moving Forward

As noted above, the House passed HR 8998 last month. If the Senate takes up that bill (and the chances are rather slim), the language from this bill will be substituted for the House language as the starting point for the debate. While there will be sufficient bipartisan support for this language in the Senate for passage, there will be some Republicans that will attempt to stall debate.

Ultimately, the chances of any individual spending bill getting to the President’s desk this session are vanishingly small. We are most likely going to see a continuing resolution by the end of next month. With Republicans less confident in Trump's election we are likely to see an end date for that CR early in December. A positive (for the Republicans) election result will likely see a second CR pushing the final date of an omnibus (or two minibus) spending bill until next Spring. A negative result will likely see a spending bill on Biden’s desk in December.

 

For more details about the provisions in this bill and the discussions in the Committee Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4802-introduced - subscription required.