Senate Approves [New] Continuing Resolution FY 2012

Today the Senate approved HR 2055, the [New] Continuing Resolution FY 2012 by a much more nearly party-line vote of 67-32. Having said that, the bill would not have passed (a 3/5 majority was required under the unanimous consent process) were it not for the 16 Republicans that voted for the bill. It’s interesting that the Republican House needed Democrats to pass the bill because of defections. In the Senate only one Democrat (and one Independent) voted no, so the Dems needed the votes because of the closer division that body.

So we did pass the necessary FY 2012 spending bills before Christmas. Of course, in less than three weeks the FY 2013 budget process will be getting started. Of course we still need to see what was in that lengthy bill that the Senate shipped to the President; patience.

HR 2112 Rules Committee Hearing

The House Rules Committee web site announced that they would be holding their Rule Hearing for the full House consideration of the Conference Report fir GR 2112 on Wednesday, 11-16-11 at 2:00 pm EST. The Rules Committee web site is now calling this the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012. This would allow for consideration of HR 2112 on Thursday under a Rule; plenty of time for the House and then the Senate to pass the CR by the time the current spending authority ends on midnight at the 18^th.

HR 2112 Becomes Continuing Resolution

This evening (Monday) the House-Senate Conference Committee filed their report on HR 2112, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012. The report recommends adopting the Senate version of the bill with one minor change. It would add Division D to the bill which consists of a single sentence:

“SEC. 101. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (Public Law 112-36) is amended by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and inserting ‘December 16, 2011’.”

This would extend the current FY 2012 spending authority that expires on Thursday until December 16^th. It would also extend the CFATS authorization to the same date.

The House Rules Committee web site notes that the HR 2112 Conference Report will ‘likely be considered pursuant to a rule’, though the hearing date for the formulation of that rule has yet to be announced. It will probably have to be held tomorrow.

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.