Bills Introduced – 3-29-24

Yesterday, with the House meeting in pro forma session, there were 25 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional attention in this blog:

HJ Res 123 Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management Programs Under the Clean Air Act; Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention". Crenshaw, Dan [Rep.-R-TX-2]

While this bill may have a chance of passage in the House, it is unlikely to do so in the Senate. In any case there would not be enough votes in either house to overcome the expected presidential veto.

Mention in Passing

I would like to mention one bill in passing:

H.R.7846 To prohibit Federal personnel charged with certain criminal offenses from receiving classified information, and for other purposes. Sherrill, Mikie [Rep.-D-NJ-11]

According to a press release from Rep Sherrill’s office:

The GUARD Act would prohibit access to classified information to individuals charged or convicted of a covered criminal offense, including: obstructing an official proceeding, unlawful retention of national defense information, the unlawful disclosure or improper handling of classified information, acting as a foreign agent [emphasis added], or compromising the national security of the United States. 

While the press release makes it clear that the legislation is targeted at former President Trump, the inclusion of the ‘acting as a foreign agent’ language would also include Sen Menendez (D,NJ) within the scope of the prohibition.

Needless to say, this bill will not be going anywhere in the Republican “controlled” House. Even if that control were to slip for a couple of weeks with additional Republican resignations, the ‘foreign agent language’ would make it difficult to pass in the Senate.

House Approves Short Term CR

This afternoon the House approved HJ Res 123, the Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018 by a very slightly bipartisan (18 Republicans voted Nay and 14 Democrats voted Aye) vote of 235 to 193. This short-term continuing resolution will extend the current spending bill until December 22^nd.

The 14 Democrats voting for the measure may be an indication that enough Democrats will vote at least procedurally for the bill tomorrow in the Senate to allow it to come to a final vote. Congress has until Friday night at midnight to get a CR to the President to continue government operations.

A lot of details and deals have to be worked out before the final FY 2018 spending is approved.

Rule Approved for Short Term CR

This afternoon the House Rules Committee met, in part, to approve the rule for the consideration of HJ Res 123, the Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, a short term continuing resolution extending the current CR (PL 115-56) until December 22^nd, 2017. The Committee approved a closed rule with one hour of debate and no amendments.

I had noted in an earlier post that the extension date might be extended to December 30^th, but that was not done. This means that there will only be two weeks before Congress will have to take action again on the FY 2018 spending. At this point, it looks like that next bill will be another CR until sometime early next year. If that happens, Congress will likely take a two-week recess for Christmas.

Committee Hearings – Week of 12-03-17

With the end of year holidays fast approaching the Congressional hearing calendar is getting light. There are two hearings this week that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog; the Continuing Resolution and a cybersecurity hearing.

CR

The House Rules Committee Hearing that I mentioned yesterday has been postponed until today with the House leadership trying to work out the political bugs in its consideration. This would lead to a vote in the House tomorrow and the Senate on Friday. Any further slippage could cause some problems since the current funding runs out at midnight on Friday.

This CR (HJ Res 123) will only kick the can down the road a piece. The leadership still needs to come up with a deal to fund the government for the rest of the year. Speaker Ryan’s problem is that he is trying to find a Republican-only-bill that can make it past the Democrat’s filibuster in the Senate.

Grid Cybersecurity

On Friday the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will be holding a hearing on “Examining the Role of the Department of Energy in Energy Sector Cybersecurity”. Only one witness is scheduled; Bruce J. Walker, Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Department of Energy. This is going to be more of a policy type discussion rather than addressing the nuts and bolts of cybersecurity issues.

Bills Introduced – 12-04-17

Yesterday with both the House and Senate back in Washington after a real 2-day weekend break, there were 28 bills introduced. Of those, one may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HJ Res 123 Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2018, and for other purposes. Rep. Frelinghuysen, Rodney P. [R-NJ-11]

The official version of this continuing resolution (CR) is currently available. It would extend the current continuing resolution (PL 115-56) from December 8^th, 2017 to December 22^nd, 2017. It also addresses the lack of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the first quarter of FY 2018.

The House Rules Committee will meet this afternoon to formulate the rule to consider this bill. It will almost certainly be a closed rule with limited debate and no floor amendments. The bill will be considered on Wednesday to allow the Senate time to take up the bill before the Friday current Friday deadline.

There is a news report that the expiration date on this CR may be changed to December 30^th. That change would be addressed in today’s Rules Committee Hearing.