112th Legislation Page Updates

I’ve made my last update of the legislation page for the 112^th Congress. I added links to the latest versions of each bill. There are some bills that have become Public Law that do not have links to the GPO PL file. That is because the GPO is way behind on publishing the public laws; the latest dates from November. For those signed since then, I have left the PL # without a link.

Updated 112th Congress Legislation Page

Today I caught up on a large back log of updates to the status of legislation in the 112^th Congress that might be of interest to the various audiences of this blog. Here is a copy of the change notification log for the 112th Legislation page:

“Updated 12-26-11  Added HR 3523 under Cyber; Added 1966 Under Homeland; Added HR 3671, and HR 2055 under Budget; Added S 1952 under Hazmat; Updated HR 908 under CFATS; Updated HR 1540, HR 1892, HR 2112  and S 1867 under Budget; Updated HR 1411, HR 2764 and HR 2838 under Homeland; Updated HR 2845 under Hazmat; Updated HR 2906 under Cyber”

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here with my new job and all. That, plus I’ve been trying to wait for links to a number of bills that were signed at the end of the year. The GPO is still having problems with a couple of the spending bills (I can’t imagine why), but I’ve decided to go forward with what we’ve got. Besides Congress comes back to work next Tuesday and we get to start the second-half.

House Committee Assignments

The House is still in the process of getting organized, but most of the committee assignments have now been made for the committees that will have the most effect on chemical security and safety legislation. Here is a list of the committee members, as of yesterday, for those committees that I think are most important in this area.

House Homeland Security Committee

Chair: Mr. King of New York; Ranking Member: Mr. Thompson of Mississippi

Republicans: Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Daniel E. Lungren of California, Mr. Rogers of Alabama, Mr. McCaul, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Broun of Georgia, Mrs. Miller of Michigan, Mr. Walberg, Mr. Cravaack, Mr. Walsh of Illinois, Mr. Meehan, Mr. Quayle, Mr. Rigell, Mr. Long, Mr. Duncan of South Carolina, Mr. Marino, and Mr. Farenthold.

Democrats: Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California, Ms. Harman, Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas, Mr. Cuellar, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Richardson, Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Higgins, Ms. Speier, Mr. Richmond of Louisiana, Mr. Clarke of Michigan, and Mr. Keating.

House Energy and Commerce Committee

Chair: Mr. Upton; Ranking Member: Mr. Waxman

Republicans: Mr. Barton of Texas, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Shimkus, Mr. Pitts, Mrs. Bono Mack, Mr. Walden, Mr. Terry, Mr. Rogers of Michigan, Mrs. Myrick, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania, Mr. Burgess, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Bilbray, Mr. Bass of New Hampshire, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Gingrey of Georgia, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Latta, Mrs. McMorris Rodgers, Mr. Harper, Mr. Lance, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Olson, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Pompeo, Mr. Kinzinger of Illinois, and Mr. Griffith of Virginia.

Democrats: Mr. Dingell, Mr. Markey, Mr. Towns, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Rush, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Engel, Mr. Gene Green of Texas, Ms. DeGette, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Doyle, Ms. Harman, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Inslee, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Ross of Arkansas, Mr. Weiner, Mr. Matheson, Mr. Butterfield, Mr. Barrow, and Ms. Matsui.

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee

Chair: Mr. Hall of Texas; Ranking Member: Mrs. Johnson of Texas

Republicans: Mr. Sensenbrenner, Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Lucas, Mrs. Biggert, Mr. Akin, Mr. Neugebauer, Mr. McCaul, Mr. Broun of Georgia, Mrs. Adams, Mr. Quayle, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Rigell, Mr. Palazzo, Mr. Brooks, and Mr. Harris.

Democrats: Mr. Costello, Ms. Woolsey, Ms. Zoe Lofgren of California, Mr. Wu, Mr. Miller of North Carolina, Mr. Lipinski, Ms. Giffords, Ms. Edwards, Ms. Fudge, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Tonko, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Sewell, Ms. Wilson of Florida, and Mr. Clarke of Michigan.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

Chair: Mr. Mica; Ranking Member: Mr. Rahall

Republicans: Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Petri, Mr. Coble, Mr. Duncan of Tennessee, Mr. LoBiondo, Mr. Gary G. Miller of California, Mr. Johnson of Illinois, Mr. Graves of Missouri, Mr. Shuster, Mrs. Capito, Mrs. Schmidt, Mrs. Miller of Michigan, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Reed, Mr. Harris, Mr. Crawford, Ms. Herrera Beutler, Mr. Guinta, Mr. Hultgren, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Cravaack, Mr. Farenthold, Mr. Bucshon, Mr. Long, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Meehan, Mr. Hanna, Mr. Fincher, Mr. Landry, Mr. Southerland, Mr. Denham, and Mr. Lankford.

Democrats: Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Costello, Ms. Norton, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Brown of Florida, Mr. Filner, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Holden, Mr. Larsen of Washington, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Bishop of New York, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Carnahan, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Lipinski, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Altmire, Mr. Walz of Minnesota, Mr. Shuler, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Richardson, Mr. Sires, and Ms.
Edwards.

Personal Influence

Everyone that has an interest in chemical security matters should take a good look at the lists above to see if their congresscritter is on one or more of the lists. If so, it would certainly be worth the effort to sit down and write a brief letter or email to them letting them know about your interest in the area. You can find their addresses at: http://clerk.house.gov/. Then as issues come up during the next two years that are of interest to you, keep them up-to-date on your concerns.

There is no way that you are going to make them bend to your personal will, but you might be surprised as to how much attention they pay to your opinion. And your communication could always be the last piece of evidence that tips the scale for a fence sitter.

112th House Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairs

The HomelandSecurityNewswire.com web site reported yesterday that Rep. King (R, NY), the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in the 112th Congress, announced the sub-committee chair for that committee. Additionally, the Sub-Committee names have apparently been changed to reflect a slightly different focus. The Chair and revised sub-committee names are:

• Rep. Candice Miller (Michigan)[Corrected 8:48 pm 12-23-10], chairman, Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security (Formerly - Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism)

• Rep. Patrick Meehan (Pennsylvania), chairman, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence (Formerly - Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment)

• Rep. Dan Lungren (California), chairman, Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies (Formerly - Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology)

• Rep. Gus Bilirakis (Florida), chairman, Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications (Formerly - Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response)

• Rep. Michael T. McCaul (Texas), chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management (Formerly - Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight)

• Rep. Mike Rogers (Alabama), chairman, Subcommittee on Transportation Security (Formerly Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection)

There is a fairly substantial re-working of sub-committee assignments reflected in the new list of Chairs. Only two of the newly appointed Chair (Miller and Lungren) served as Ranking Member in the same Sub-Committee in the 111th Congress. The remaining Chair listed were not even members of the respective Sub-Committee in the current Congress.

All of these sub-committees will have some coverage of issues of interest to the chemical security community. The two major sub-committees for chemical security legislation, however, will be the subcommittees chaired by Rep. Lungren and Rep. Rogers.

112th Congress First Meeting

Amazingly, the first day of the lame duck session for the 111th started out with new bills being introduced, as if they have time to consider most of these. One important piece of legislation that was introduced in the Senate yesterday; Senate Joint Resolution 40, is a joint resolution appointing the day for the convening of the first session of the One Hundred Twelfth Congress.

This resolution would set the day of the first meeting of the 112th Congress as Wednesday, January 5th, with the first regular session for both houses meeting at noon on that day.

The bill was approved by unanimous consent in the Senate and is currently waiting action in the House.