Rules Committee Approves Rule for Consideration of HR 3055 – 2nd FY2020 Minibus

Yesterday the House Rules Committee approved the rule for the consideration of HR 3055, the 2^nd FY2020 minibus. The rule provides for the initial debate and offering of 290 amendments. The House is scheduled to start consideration of the bill today after completion of its work on HR 2740, the 1^st FY2020 minibus.

Amendments

Of the four amendments that I mentioned in my earlier post, only two were included in the list of amendments allowed to be offered on the floor during the consideration of this bill. Those were:

233 DeFazio (D,OR) Prohibits authorizing the transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail tank car and prohibits the Secretary of Transportation from using funds to authorize transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail tank car by issuance of a special permit or approval.

264 Maloney (D,NY) Decreases and then increases funding for Transportation Planning, Research, and Development by $1 million for the purposes of encouraging the Department of Transportation to research implementing connected vehicle and autonomous vehicle technologies at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings.

Comment: Both amendments will probably be adopted. The DeFazio amendment vote will most likely be a party-line vote; the Maloney amendment may receive some Republican support.

Other Provisions

There is a provision in this rule that addresses the remaining consideration of HR 2740. Section 7(b) of H. Res. 445 provides that during the further consideration of HR 2740 [starting this morning] “the question of the adoption of further sundry amendments reported from the Committee of the Whole shall be put to the House en gros and without division of the question.” At this point, I am not sure exactly what amendments that includes. It would probably not include amendments that were debated yesterday, but scheduled for votes today, but that is not certain.

Comment: I suspect that this is the Democrats retaliating for the Republicans forcing votes on each amendment proposed for HR 2740. More importantly, it is a warning that the same measure may be applied to this bill’s consideration if the Republicans continue the tactic to slow down consideration of HR 3055. The Democrats apparently intend to complete consideration of the bill this week.

The rule also provides for the administrative measures necessary for the long 4^th of July weekend that would start when Congress adjourns on Friday; Friday could be a long day.

Rules Committee to Meet on HR 3055 – The Second FY 2020 Minibus

Tomorrow the House Rules Committee will meet to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 3055, the Second FY 2020 Minibus. The new version of HR 3055 will include language from HR 3055 (CSJ), HR 3164 (ARD), HR 3052 (IER), HR 2745 (MCVA), and HR 3163 (THUD). The meeting Tuesday and a second meeting on Wednesday will set the list of amendments that will be allowed to be considered on the floor. The HR 3055 web page currently lists 553 separate (and often duplicative) amendments that have been proposed.

The following amendments have caught my interest:

• Division A (CSJ), #108, Rep. Langevin (D,RI), Increases funding for CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service, the nation’s premiere cybersecurity workforce recruitment and curriculum development initiative by $7.35 million; the money coming from the NSF account for reimbursing DHS for security guard services.

• Division B (ARD), #55, Rep. Langevin, Increases funding for the FDA's Transform Medical Device Safety, Cybersecurity, Review, and Innovation initiative by $5 million in order to increase the FDA's capacity to protect consumers from cyber threats both pre- and post-market; the money coming from the account of the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer, US Department of Agriculture.

• Division E (THUD), #9, Rep. DeFazio (D,OR), Prohibits authorizing the transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail tank car and prohibits the Secretary of Transportation from using funds to authorize transportation of liquefied natural gas by rail tank car by issuance of a special permit or approval.

• Division E (THUD), #107, Rep. Maloney (D,NY), Decreases and then increases funding for Transportation Planning, Research, and Development by $1 million for the purposes of encouraging the Department of Transportation to research implementing connected vehicle and autonomous vehicle technologies at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings.