Committee Hearings – Week of 12-17-17

This week with both the House and Senate trying to get things ‘cleaned-up’ so that they can head home for Christmas and New Years, there will only be one hearing of potential specific interest to readers of this blog; another continuing resolution.

Tomorrow the House Rules Committee will hold a hearing to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 1370, which will be used as the vessel to move forward with a continuing resolution. It will be based on HJ Res 124 which would extend the current spending authorization until January 18^th, 2018 and provide for full funding of DOD through the end of the fiscal year.

Note: I can find no specific mention of any cybersecurity provisions in HJ Res 124.

The bill will probably be considered on the floor of the House on Wednesday or Thursday and then in the Senate later the same day. No debate and no amendments in either house.

Senate Passes HJ Res 124

Earlier this evening the  Senate took up the FY 2015 Continuing Resolution, HJ Res 124 and passed it with a bipartisan vote of 78 to 22. Eight Republicans joined 14 Democrats in voted in voting against the bill. Once the President signs the bill the government will remain funded through December 11^th.

As passed the bill has some relatively vague to provisions supporting select anti-Assad rebels. It also includes an extension of the CFATS to that same December date.

There is still a chance that some of the individual spending bills might be taken up after the election, but most will probably be lumped together in an omnibus spending bill.

House Amends and Passes HJ Res 124

Earlier this evening the House passed the FY 2015 Continuing Resolution, HJ Res 124, after adopting the only amendment available for consideration. The Syrian rebel aid amendment passed in a by-partisan vote of 273 to 156; more Democrats supported it than there were Republicans who opposed the bill. The final vote was much more bipartisan with a final vote of 319 to 108.

This bill will extend government spending through December 11^th. It also extends the CFATS regulations through that date.

The Senate has until September 30^th to pass the bill.

Rules Committee Adopts Structure Rule for HJ Res 124

As I suggested Saturday, the House Rules Committee met this evening to develop the rule for the consideration of HJ  Res 124, the FY 2015 Continuing Resolution. The meeting had originally been scheduled for last week but was postponed at the request of President Obama so that the language supporting the training of Syrian rebel forces that also opposed the actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) could be added to the CR.

The Committee adopted a structure rule for the consideration of the bill as introduced (with a minor correcting amendment added to the existing language). The rule provides for a six hour debate of an amendment proposed by Rep. McKeon (R,CA), the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. That amendment would provide the assistance to “appropriately vetted Syrian groups and individuals”.

This will be the only amendment that the structured rule would allow to be offered. The rule (H Res 722) will probably be debated tomorrow afternoon with the debate on the amendment and the two votes coming on Wednesday. Both the amendment and the bill will almost certainly pass in the House on Wednesday and in the Senate on Thursday.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 9-14-14

Currently this coming week is the last scheduled full week for both house of congress to be in Washington before the November elections (that may change), but there is currently only one hearing scheduled that might be of interest to readers of this blog; a markup hearing in the Senate.

Mark-up Hearing

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold an executive session on Wednesday where they will amend and/or vote on a number of bills. Two of those may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

• S 2444, the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2015 and 2016 

• S 2777, Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2014

NOTE: The STB bill does not currently contain any provisions specifically targeted at chemical transportation matters or that would be expected to affect consideration of chemical transportation matters.

Continuing CR

The House Majority Leader’s web site does say that HJ Res 124 will be considered on the floor this week under a rule. There is not currently a Rules Committee hearing set for that rule. I expect that we will see such a meeting on Monday or Tuesday.

Rule Committee Hearing on HJ Res 124 Postponed

Just a brief note published on the House Rules Committee website, the hearing that had been scheduled for today for HJ Res 124, the FY 2015 CR, has been postponed ‘subject to the call of the chair’. This almost certainly means that a vote will not happen on this continuing resolution this week. There is still plenty of time before October 1^st, but the House was not scheduled to be here for most of that time.

I haven’t seen any explanation of why the delay, but I suspect that it is because some Republicans have wanted to have various parts of their agenda tacked on to this ‘must pass’ bill. Or it could be too many objections to the short term extension of the Export-Import Bank authorization included in the bill.

Bills Introduced – 09-09-14

The second day back in Washington for pre-election posturing and there were 22 bills introduced in Congress. Only one of those will be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HJ RES 124 Latest Title: Making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2015, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Rogers, Harold (R,KY)

As I noted last night, this is a pretty clean CR with no significant political posturing. If the congressional crazies can keep their hands off of this bill then it has a good chance of passing and keeping the Federal Government running through the election. With spending provided through December 11^th this should allow for a reasonable post-election funding process.

House Rules Committee Announces Meeting on CR

Today the House Rules  Committee published a notice that they would be holding a hearing on a short term continuing resolution (HJ Res 124) tomorrow at 2:00 pm. If a rule is, as expected, adopted at that hearing, then the full House could vote on the bill Thursday afternoon and the Senate could potentially vote on it Friday. The CR would continue funding the Federal Government at essentially current levels through December 11^th {§106(3)}.

The Committee Draft of the bill available on the Rules Committee web site looks like a fairly clean continuing resolution devoid of any provisions that could hold-up its passage this week. It does contain CDC funding for Ebola support operations by that organization. It also includes a specific extension of the CFATS program authorization through December 11^th {§127}; there are a number of other Federal programs which receive similar mention.