As expected, both the House and Senate passed HR 1473 today. The votes on the main bill were mixed in both Houses with a large number of Democrats voting for the bill and a significant number of Republicans voting against.
The votes on the two modifying resolutions were much more along party lines with both resolutions passing in the House and failing in the Senate. The vote on the Obama healthcare defunding drew three Democrat ‘Yeas’ in the House and the Planned Parenthood defunding measure drew 5 Republican ‘Nays’ in the Senate.
So, with the government over half-way through the fiscal year we now finally have a funding bill in place. We also have a little more permanence in the CFATS authorization, at least for the remainder of the fiscal year; actually until October 4th, 2011.
Showing posts with label FY 2011 Spending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FY 2011 Spending. Show all posts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Congressional Hearings Week of 4-11-11
While the big news for the coming week in Congress will be the details of the promised compromise on the FY2011 spending bill, there will be at least three hearings that look like they will be of interest to the chemical security community. They will deal with cyber security, hazmat transportation and the TWIC. Unfortunately there are no details available yet on any of the following hearings.
Cyber Security
The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a hearing on Friday morning on “The DHS Cybersecurity Mission: Promoting Innovation and Securing Critical Infrastructure”. There is a good chance that control system security will receive some attention at this hearing.
Hazmat Transportation
The Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials of the House Transportation Committee will be holding a hearing on Tuesday afternoon on “Reducing Regulatory Burdens and Ensuring Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials”. This is the second in a series of hearings looking at the Hazardous Materials Regulations and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Security will not probably be a specific topic, but much of what is included in the HMR may have an indirect effect on chemical security matters.
TWIC
Finally the full Transportation Committee will conduct a hearing on Thursday morning looking at “Biometric IDs for Pilots and Transportation Workers: Diary of Failures”. Sure to be addressed in this hearing will be the delays in the regulations for the use of TWIC Readers. Another issue that might come up will be the use of TWIC in other security venues like CFATS covered facilities.
FY 2011 Spending Bill
With last night’s last minute deal on a spending bill for the remainder of FY 2011 we can expect to see at least a Rule Committee hearing on the new bill that will provide the (hopefully) final extension of the current CR. There have been no details released yet about where the cuts will actually come from, but there will be somewhere near $30 Billion in additional cuts; some will probably come from DHS. As always, the devil is in the details. And, of course, we are looking to see that the CFATS authority extension is included in the bill; it almost certainly will be.
FY 2012 Spending Bills
In the brief speechifying this morning before the House vote on HR 1363 both the Chairman and Ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee promised that they would have 12 spending bills on the floor of the House before the August recess. They also promised an open process with plenty of amendments to be offered from both sides of the aisle. To achieve this goal they are going to have to step up the process on the hearings. Right now the Homeland Security Subcommittee does not have any hearings scheduled this week; that is likely to change.
What will be interesting to see is if the new ‘open’ process promised by the new Republican leadership will include publishing sub-committee drafts of the spending bills before the mark-up hearings start. That will make it much easier to understand the amendment process in their hearings.
Cyber Security
The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a hearing on Friday morning on “The DHS Cybersecurity Mission: Promoting Innovation and Securing Critical Infrastructure”. There is a good chance that control system security will receive some attention at this hearing.
Hazmat Transportation
The Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials of the House Transportation Committee will be holding a hearing on Tuesday afternoon on “Reducing Regulatory Burdens and Ensuring Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials”. This is the second in a series of hearings looking at the Hazardous Materials Regulations and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Security will not probably be a specific topic, but much of what is included in the HMR may have an indirect effect on chemical security matters.
TWIC
Finally the full Transportation Committee will conduct a hearing on Thursday morning looking at “Biometric IDs for Pilots and Transportation Workers: Diary of Failures”. Sure to be addressed in this hearing will be the delays in the regulations for the use of TWIC Readers. Another issue that might come up will be the use of TWIC in other security venues like CFATS covered facilities.
FY 2011 Spending Bill
With last night’s last minute deal on a spending bill for the remainder of FY 2011 we can expect to see at least a Rule Committee hearing on the new bill that will provide the (hopefully) final extension of the current CR. There have been no details released yet about where the cuts will actually come from, but there will be somewhere near $30 Billion in additional cuts; some will probably come from DHS. As always, the devil is in the details. And, of course, we are looking to see that the CFATS authority extension is included in the bill; it almost certainly will be.
FY 2012 Spending Bills
In the brief speechifying this morning before the House vote on HR 1363 both the Chairman and Ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee promised that they would have 12 spending bills on the floor of the House before the August recess. They also promised an open process with plenty of amendments to be offered from both sides of the aisle. To achieve this goal they are going to have to step up the process on the hearings. Right now the Homeland Security Subcommittee does not have any hearings scheduled this week; that is likely to change.
What will be interesting to see is if the new ‘open’ process promised by the new Republican leadership will include publishing sub-committee drafts of the spending bills before the mark-up hearings start. That will make it much easier to understand the amendment process in their hearings.
House and Senate Pass Amended HR 1363
Very early this morning the House passed on a bipartisan recorded vote of 348-70 (28 Republicans voting in opposition) the Senate amended version of HR 1363. The provisions for the Department of Defense spending for the remainder of the fiscal year government funding cuts from the original bill were removed and $2 Billion dollars of budget reductions from the funding rates found in the current Continuing Resolution (Public Law 111- 242) were added to the bill. None of those reductions came from the budget of the Department of Homeland Security.
As with the original bill this bill would extend the expiration of the current CR until April 15th. This would also extend the §550 authorization for the CFATS program until that date.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
HJ Res 48 Passes in House
This afternoon the House passed HJ Res 48, the latest short-term continuing resolution to keep the Federal government funded through April 8th. The vote of 271 to 158 was very bipartisan. The bulk of the Republicans were joined by 85 Democrats in voting for the measure while 54 Republicans joined the majority of the Democrats in voting against the bill. The bill now needs to be taken up and passed by the Senate before midnight Friday to avoid a now generally unexpected government shutdown.
HJ Res 48 Reported by Rules Committee
Last night the House Rules Committee finished developing the rule for the consideration of HJ Res 48, Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011. This will be considered under a closed rule (no floor amendments will be allowed) and only one hour of debate will be allowed. This is pretty much the same as the rule for the previous short-term CR. This resolution will likely be considered by the House today.
A number of news organizations are reporting that some conservative Republicans are planning on voting against this resolution because they feel that it doesn’t go far enough and that a final resolution needs to be worked out, not another short term deal. That being said, there are almost certainly enough Democrats that will vote in favor of this legislation to allow it to pass in the House, and probably do so in the Senate.
A number of news organizations are reporting that some conservative Republicans are planning on voting against this resolution because they feel that it doesn’t go far enough and that a final resolution needs to be worked out, not another short term deal. That being said, there are almost certainly enough Democrats that will vote in favor of this legislation to allow it to pass in the House, and probably do so in the Senate.
Monday, March 14, 2011
HJ Res 48 to Extend Current Continuing Resolution
Last Friday the House Rules Committee published a committee print of HJ Res. 48, the next short term continuing resolution to keep the Federal government temporarily funded while the Senate and the House work out a FY 2011 funding mechanism acceptable to both sides. This new short term CR (or some substitute) must be adopted before midnight on Friday or else the government will ‘shut down’.
This new bill would extend the current CR (HR 3082 from last session as amended by HJ Res 44 this session; PL 111-242). The changes included in the committee print of HJ Res 48 would not have any new effect on DHS spending (with the exception of one rescission of Customs and Border Protection construction spending; §257). The CFATS authority would be extended until April 8, 2011; the same date as the CR would expire. There is no specific mention of the CFATS authorization in this bill, but it changes the date in §106(a) of the base legislation which is the date referred to in the CFATS extension language.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog on hearings, the House Rules Committee will be meeting This afternoon to prepare the rule for the consideration of this bill before the House. A floor vote in the House would be expected late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Then it heads to the Senate.
This new bill would extend the current CR (HR 3082 from last session as amended by HJ Res 44 this session; PL 111-242). The changes included in the committee print of HJ Res 48 would not have any new effect on DHS spending (with the exception of one rescission of Customs and Border Protection construction spending; §257). The CFATS authority would be extended until April 8, 2011; the same date as the CR would expire. There is no specific mention of the CFATS authorization in this bill, but it changes the date in §106(a) of the base legislation which is the date referred to in the CFATS extension language.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog on hearings, the House Rules Committee will be meeting This afternoon to prepare the rule for the consideration of this bill before the House. A floor vote in the House would be expected late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Then it heads to the Senate.
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