Review - S 2465 Introduced – FY 2026 THUD Spending

Back in July Sen Hyde-Smith introduced S 2465, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. At the same time the Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the Bill. While there is a cyber security mention in the bill, the main focus here will be PHMSA spending in the bill and discussions in the Report, as well as some UAS discussions in the Report.

S 2465 is be similar to S 4796, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, that was introduced by Sen Schatz (D,HI) in July 2024. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress. The related House bill, HR 9028, was also introduced in July 2024, and similarly, no action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress.

Moving Forward

The plan in the House currently appears to be to add the language of S 2431 to the substitute language for the consideration of HR 4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate has not yet held their first cloture vote that would allow actual debate to begin on the bill. This probably indicates that there is still some backroom dealing going on to determine the broad outline of what will end up in the Senate version of the bill. Then further dealing with determining what further amendments will be considered on the floor.

Right now, SA 3951 from Sen Collins (Chair of the Appropriations Committee) is the current candidate for the substitute language to be considered, and it includes the language from S 2431. But a lot can happen in the short legislative month of December.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill dealing with cybersecurity, PHMSA, and UAS issues, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2465-introduced-fy-2026-thud-spending - subscription required.