Review - HR 4121 Introduced – FY 2026 ARD Spending

Earlier this week Rep Harris (R,MD) introduced HR 4121, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies (ARD) Appropriations Act, 2026. The House Appropriations Committee also published their Report on the bill. There is one cybersecurity spending mention in the bill and three minor cybersecurity discussions in the Report. There are two industrial chemical safety discussions in the Report.

Moving Forward

With the House out this week for their 4^th of July holiday, there will be no action taken on this bill until sometime in July (or maybe September, August is still scheduled to be a congressional holiday). It remains to be seen which spending bills will make it to the floor and which will be passed. The Congress will receive some pressure from the Administration to move spending bills under regular order, but the myth of control of the House and Senate remains to be proven.

This bill passed in the House Appropriations Committee by a party-line vote of 35 to 27 (pg 9). This may not be enough to ensure that the bill passes in the House (may depend on attendance on the day of the vote), but it certainly indicates that the bill as crafted would not pass in the Senate, because at least 7 Democrats will have to vote for the bill for it to pass. The Senate will not take up this version of the bill in any case, but that body will have an even harder time this year crafting a spending bill that will pass given the intra-party divisions in that body. Any bill there that is designed to get enough Democrats to reach 60-votes will lose Republican votes.

For more details about the cybersecurity and chemical safety provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4121-introduced-fy-2026-ard-spending - subscription required.