Senate Passes HJ Res 106

As expected earlier this afternoon the Senate passed HJ Res 106, a three-day continuing resolution, by a vote of 86 – 14; a strongly bipartisan vote. This bill will continue the current funding of the Federal government through Saturday. Without the bill the government would have had to enter another federal funding fiasco this evening at midnight.

The House is currently voting on the resolution (H Res 458) that would provide for its consideration this afternoon of HR 3547. The amendment to that bill that will be considered this afternoon will provide for the funding of the Federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year. It would also continue the authorization of the CFATS program through October 4^th, 2014.

The Senate would be expected to vote on the new version of HR 3547 on Friday or Saturday.

House Passes 3-day CR

Earlier this afternoon the House passed HJ Res 106, a 3-day continuing resolution by a voice vote. In contrast to the drama last fall that resulted in the federal funding fiasco, it took the House  just five minutes to consider the measure that changes the end date of the current continuing resolution from January 15^th to January 18^th.

The measure will now go to  the Senate where it might pass even faster.

Bills Introduced – 01-10-14

With only the House meeting in Washington yesterday there were 15 bills introduced and three of them were of potential specific interest to readers of this blog; addressing DHS Authorization, cybersecurity and funding the federal government. Those bills were:

HR 3846 Latest Title: To provide for the authorization of border, maritime, and transportation security responsibilities and functions in the Department of Homeland Security and the establishment of United States Customs and Border Protection, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Miller, Candice S. (R,MI)

HR 3847 Latest Title: To require the Secretary of Homeland Security the responsibility to develop and provide to the Secretary of Health and Human Services risk-based, performance-based cybersecurity standards for the Federal information technology requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including the healthcare.gov website, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Barber, Ron (D,AZ)

HJ RES 106 Latest Title: Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Rogers, Harold [KY-5]

This will be my last mention of HR 3847 since it is a federal government IT security bill and as such does not address control system issues. I point it out here because it will almost certainly get considered quickly in the House and might even get Senate consideration; a real oddity for cybersecurity legislation.

Continuing Resolution

The official text of HJ Res 106 is already available from the GPO; hardly surprising given its topic and the fact that it is a one page bill. It simply extends the expiration date of the current spending law (Public Law 113–46) from January 15^th until January 18^th. This is being done to give the appropriations negotiators from the House and Senate time to work out the final details of a spending bill that will continue to the end of the fiscal year. The way this bill is written it also specifically extends the CFATS authorization through January 18^th.

CFATS Authorization

I’m hearing rumors that there will be a CFATS Authorization bill introduced this week by House Homeland Security Chairman McCaul (R,TX). I have yet to see a copy of the bill but I have heard that it will be a two year authorization taking it out of the spending bill authorization process. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing this bill that reportedly is going to be introduced Thursday.