HJ Res 1 Passed in House – DHS Continuing Resolution

As I noted in an earlier post HJ Res 1, a DHS continuing resolution, passed in the House on January 3^rd. A .PDF version of the bill is still not available, but Congress.gov does have a .TXT version available. The bill would amend the currently expired Continuing Resolution (Division C, HR 6157, 115^th Congress); extending the expiration date in §105 for DHS spending until February 8^th, 2019. It would also authorize back-payment payment of salaries for all furloughed employees.

What the CR does not contain is any extension of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program that is currently set to expire on January 17^th. While HR 251 does address the issue of extending the program, its enactment is not assured, especially enactment by January 17^th. Of course, at this point, it is not clear that the Senate will take up HJ Res 1 either.

This is probably a good place to start to discuss what happens to CFATS if HR 251 (or some other bill extending the CFATS program expiration) does not pass by January 17^th. Unfortunately, it depends on circumstances; if, January 17^th arrives and

• There is no CFATS extension and there is no DHS spending bill (either stand-alone or as part of a consolidated spending bill), the program will exist in a sort of purgatory until one or the other is signed by the President;

• There is no CFATS extension and a DHS spending bill is passed that contains funding for the program, the program would probably (there is some disagreement amongst lawyers about this) continue as long as the funding was available;

• There is no CFATS extension and a DHS spending bill is passed that does not contain funding for the program, the program would shut down;

• There is a CFATS extension and there is no DHS spending bill; the program continues under its current Federal Funding Fiasco status with most personnel furloughed; or

There is a CFATS extension and there is a DHS spending bill passed that contains funding for the program, the program resumes operation as before the FFF.

Clearly the best solution is the last one in the list.

House Rules Committee Meeting on DHS CR

This evening the House Rules Committee is meeting to formulate the rule for the consideration of HJ Res 35, a short term continuing resolution for the FY 2015 spending for the Department of Homeland Security. This CR will extend the current DHS funding deadline until March 19^th.

The Senate is scheduled to have a series of votes on HR 240, the FY 2015 DHS spending bill. The final vote will be on an amended version of the bill that does not have the immigration provisions repealing some of the actions that the President has recently taken under administrative orders. Once that version passes in the Senate the House will either have to acquiesce to those changes or request a conference committee to resolve the differences.

The House Republican leadership is currently unwilling to agree to the changes in HR 240 and the Senate Democrats have announced that they would object to a conference, so it is unlikely that a final vote on HR 240 would be able to be completed before midnight tomorrow night when the current CR deadline runs out.

The two and a half week extension would likely allow the Senate to finish work on a bill that addresses the immigration issues covered in the House version of HR 240. Sen. McConnell (R,TN) got Democrats to agree to allow such a bill to come to the floor in exchange for his bringing a clean version of HR 240 to the floor. The House Republicans could then pass that bill to get the immigration issue ‘dealt with’. The pressure would then be off the Republicans to demand such action in the appropriations bill.

The Committee will almost certainly call for a closed rule with limited debate to allow the bill to come to a vote tomorrow morning. This would allow the Senate to take up the bill in the afternoon, effectively stopping a DHS shutdown.