House to Consider HR 8646 – FY 2027 ARD Spending

Today, the House will take up HR 8646, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, (ARD) 2027. Yesterday, the House passed the rule (H Res 1333) for the consideration of this bill by an expected straight party-line vote of 211 to 207. That resolution provides a structured rule with 26 amendments (pgs 6-7) approved for consideration by the House. None of those amendments are of specific interest here. 

I expect that the bill will pass today on a near party-line vote. Consideration in the Senate will be delayed until the Senate Appropriations Committee introduces their version of the bill, which should receive mor bipartisan support. That language will then be substituted during the Senate consideration of HR 8646. 

Review - HR 8646 Introduced – FY 2027 ARD Spending

Earlier this month, Rep Harris (R,MD) introduced HR 8646, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, (ARD) 2027. The House Appropriations Committee has published their Report on the bill. The bill includes one cybersecurity mention. The Report has a cybersecurity discussion on a separate topic, as well as a discussion about chemical safety issues of potential interest here. 

It looks like HR 8646 will be similar to HR 4121, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026, that was introduced by Harris in June of 2025. No further action was taken on that bill. The spending provisions for these agencies were covered in the Senate version of HR 3944, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2026. While that bill was passed in the Senate, and the House requested a conference to resolve the differences, no further action was taken on that minibus bill. 

Moving Forward  

The Committee approved the final version of the bill by a party-line vote of 35 to 25 after rejecting seven Democratic amendments by similar margins. Those seven amendments point out the major policy objections that Democrats have with the bill and are the major reasons that all but the most purple Democrats will oppose this bill on the floor of the House absent changes made during the amendment process. And Republicans will have the now standard difficulty in getting the Rule for its consideration passed with fiscal-fringe calling for even more spending cuts on this non-defense bill. Fortunately, the Appropriations Committee is getting an early start on this confusing spending season. 

For more details on the cybersecurity and chemical safety discussions, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8646-introduced-fy-2027-ard-spending - subscription required. 

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.

Review - S 4690 Introduced – FY 2025 ARD Spending

Last month, Sen Heinrich (D,NM) introduce S 4690, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies spending bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report for the legislation. The bill includes one cybersecurity mention, and the Report includes one cybersecurity discussion.

The House version of this bill is HR 9027. The House Appropriations Committee ordered the bill reported favorably, but no other action has been taken in the House.

Moving Forward

Because of constitutional issues, the Senate waits for the House to pass spending bills. When the bill is subsequently considered by the Senate, one of the first actions taken is the offering of an amendment in the form of a substitute which substitutes the language from the related Senate bill for the language of the House bill. From there, the Senate amends and votes on the revised Senate language.

Unfortunately, it looks like the House is not going to consider HR 9027 this year. That means that this bill is effectively dead-on arrival through no fault or design of the Senate.

 

For more information on the cybersecurity provision in the bill and in the report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4690-introduced - subscription required.

Review - HR 9027 Introduced – FY 2025 ARD Spending

Review - HR 9027 Introduced – FY 2025 ARD Spending

Last month, Rep Harris (R,MD) introduced HR 9027, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill contains one cybersecurity related provision. The Report contains two cybersecurity related discussions. There are no chemical safety issues mentioned in either document.

Moving Forward

The Republican leadership failed to bring this bill to the floor before their early departure on the Summer Recess. There was never much chance that this bill would pass in the House because of its extremely partisan nature (see pages 234-6 of the Report for the Democrats concerns about the bill). The only question would be how many Nay votes would be cast by Republican moderates.

 

For more details about the cybersecurity provisions in the bill and discussions in the Report, and a longer ‘Moving Forward’ commentary, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-9027-introduced - subscription required.

Review - HR 4368 Introduced – FY 2024 ARD Spending

Last week, Rep Harris (R,MD) introduced HR 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee published their report on the bill. There is only one cybersecurity mention in the bill (not unexpected), but there are three related discussions in the report. Three chemical safety issues are also discussed in the report.

Moving Forward

See my post: “Coming FY 2024 Spending Bill Logjams”.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, including a spending comparison between it as the Senate version, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4368-introduced - subscription required.

Review - S 2131 Introduced – FY 2024 ARD Spending

This week Sen Heinrich (D,NM) introduced S 2131, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies [ARD] Appropriations Act, 2024. The Senate Appropriations Committee also published their Report to accompany the bill. As expected, the only mention of cybersecurity in the bill deals with the cybersecurity spending by the USDA Chief Information Officer on pages 5 and 6 of the legislation. There are no chemical safety mentions in the bill. There are minor mentions of both in the Committee Report. On Thursday, the Committee ordered the bill to be reported favorably by a unanimous vote (pg 140 of the Report).

Moving Forward

Since the Constitution mandates that spending bills originate in the House, the Senate does not usually take action on spending bills until the House version is passed. Typically, once the House passes their bill, the Senate will take up that bill and Heinrich will offer this Senate version as alternate language for the bill. The Senate will make their amendments to this language and then pass the bill (well they have not actually passed individual spending bills in quite some time). A conference committee will be appointed to negotiate a version of the bill that (hopefully) could be passed in both chambers.

The House Appropriations Committee marked-up their version of the bill on June 14^th, 2023, and voted to report the resulting bill favorably in a party-line vote. That bill has not yet been published. This, considering recent leadership disputes in the Republican majority, would seem to indicate that there are still problems that have to be worked out, probably dealing with spending levels. The Republican 11 almost certainly want to see even lower spending levels than were adopted in Committee.

 

For more details about the provisions in the bill and directions in the Report, including a longer discussion about spending bill politics in the 118^th Congress, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2131-introduced - subscription required.

Added Spending Bill Hearing – 6-14-23

The House Appropriations Committee announced this evening that it would hold a mark up hearing for the FY24 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (ARD) on Wednesday. The announcement includes links to the full Committee draft language for the bill and the FY 2024 Suballocation of the Budget Allocations for Agriculture, DHS, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction. The suballocation was based on the fiscal year 2024 discretionary spending limit included in the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811), not the spending limits set forth in the debt limit bill.

HR 8239 Introduced – FY 2023 ARD Spending

Earlier this week, Rep Bishop (D,GA) introduced HR 8239, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2023. The House Appropriations Committee has marked up the bill and published their Report. There is one minor mention of cybersecurity in the bill itself and a separate discussion in the Committee’s report about agricultural cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity Mentions

The cybersecurity mention in the bill is found on page 5, under this heading of “Office of the Chief Information Officer”. It provides for Department of Agriculture cybersecurity spending ($77,428,000) for internal support.

On page 26 of the Report the Committee discusses agricultural cybersecurity:

“The Committee remains concerned about the rising cybersecurity threats to our nation’s agricultural systems. The Committee requests that the Secretary report to the Committee on the research needed to identify, assess, and mitigate cybersecurity gaps within the agricultural spectrum, from seed, crop, and livestock production to distribution supply chains, with the goal of creating a national research network of regional academic cybersecurity centers in collaboration with industry partners, cooperatives, government authorities, and other stakeholders to strengthen security, data privacy, and resiliency, bolster the interdependent networks, and develop a skilled workforce for this critical area.”

Moving Forward

While there was no action taken on last year’s ARD spending bill (it was lumped into a consolidated bill in December), I suspect that, since this is an election year, this bill will be considered in the House next month and passed along mostly party lines. It is unlikely, however, that the bill will be taken up by the Senate before the end of September.

Bills Introduced – 7-13-20

Yesterday with both the House and Senate meeting in pro forma session there were 39 bills introduced. Of those six may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 7588 To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to of the ability of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security to fulfill its current mission requirements, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24] 

HR 7589 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish term limits for the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24]

HR 7590 To establish in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security a pilot program for the purpose of carrying out a talent exchange program between the private sector and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24]

HR 7608 Making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes. Rep. Lowey, Nita M. [D-NY-17]

HR 7609 Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes.  Rep. Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [D-FL-23] 

HR 7610 Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes. Rep. Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. [D-GA-2]

I will be watching the spending bills for cybersecurity provisions so I do not really expect that the first two will be seen again in this blog.

I doubt that the three CISA bills will have any specific language or definitions that will specifically apply to control system security, but CISA is so important to the cybersecurity community that I will probably cover these bills anyway.

Bills Introduced – 09-19-19

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in session, there were 65 bills introduced. Four of these are likely to see further attention in this blog:

HR 4402 To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct an inland waters threat analysis, and for other purposes. Rep. Lesko, Debbie [R-AZ-8]

S 2250 An original bill making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes. Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME] 

S 2522 An original bill making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes. Sen. Hoeven, John [R-ND]

S 2524 An original bill making appropriations for financial services and general government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes. Sen. Kennedy, John [R-LA] 

HR 4402’s threat assessment would certainly be of interest to MTSA covered facilities located along those inland waterways.

Bills Introduced – 06-07-19

Yesterday with both the House and Senate meeting in proforma sessions (it was a short week for both) there were 16 bills introduced. Three of those will probably receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 3156 To promote the use of smart technologies and systems in communities, and for other purposes. Rep. Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-9] 

HR 3163 Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes. Rep. Price, David E. [D-NC-4]

HR 3164 Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes. Rep. Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. [D-GA-2]

We are seeing an unusual number of ‘smart technology’ bills in this session. This is typically an indication that a topic has garnered enough political attention that we can expect to see some action in the not too distant future. As is usual I will be watching HR 3156 for cybersecurity issues.