Bills Introduced – 3-8-22

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 64 bills introduce. Two of those bills will receive additional attention in this blog:

HR 6968 Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act Rep. Doggett, Lloyd [D-TX-35]

HJ Res 75 Extension of Continuing Appropriations Act, 2022 Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [D-CT-3]

Ukraine Related Legislation

For information purposes only, I am providing this list of bills introduced yesterday that were related to the Russian attack on the Ukraine. Most of these bills were introduced for political purposes back home with no intention that they ever proceed through the legislative process.

H.R.6968  Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act,

H.R.6969  To prohibit the importation of petroleum products from Iran, and for other purposes,

H.R.6981  To authorize the President to waive export criteria and transportation and related costs for transportation of certain ammunition and ordnance to supply entities providing ammunition to Ukraine, and for other purposes,

H.R.6984  To authorize humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine, and for other purposes,

H.R.6992  To designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes,

H.R.6994  To prohibit United States Government recognition of the Russian Federation's claim of sovereignty over any part of Ukraine (to include Crimea), its airspace, or its territorial waters, and for other purposes,

H.R.6995  To prohibit trade with the Russian Federation, and for other purposes,

H.R.7002  To authorize the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, to be illuminated by blue and yellow lights in support of Ukraine,

H.Res.969  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that United States policy should encourage Russian soldiers to abandon Putin's war with Ukraine, and that Russian soldiers who defect should be granted expedited admission to the United States as refugees if they clear all applicable vetting and security procedures,

H.Res.970 Directing the Fine Arts Board to obtain a bust of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, for display in the House of Representatives wing of the United States Capitol,

S.3775  A bill to authorize the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State to enter into contracts with satellite-based companies to provide or propagate internet and mobile services in countries where the United States Government is engaged in, or providing support related to, contingency operations, and for other purposes,

S.3780  A bill to provide security assistance for Ukraine, and for other purposes,

S.3786  A bill to suspend normal trade relations treatment for the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, and for other purposes,

S.3787  A bill to prohibit the importation of petroleum products from the Russian Federation, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish an income tax credit for the sale or blending of certain fuels containing ethanol and to extend tax incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel, to amend the Clean Air Act with respect to the ethanol waiver for Reid vapor pressure limitations under that Act, and for other purposes.

Spending Bill Hearing Announced

Late last night (actually early this morning) the House Rules Committee announced a hearing to consider the rule for three pieces of legislation; FY 2022 spending bill (as an amendment to the Senate Amendment to HR 2471), HJ Res 75 (short term continuing resolution to allow consideration of the spending bill in House and Senate to take longer than Friday midnight), and HR 6968 (introduced yesterday), the Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act. All three bills are scheduled for consideration in the House today. The hearing was held this morning and the Rule was approved.

Spending Bill

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 is a huge bill (2741 pages), even by consolidated spending bill standards. In addition to the standard 12 spending bills (included as Divisions A thru L) there are Divisions covering:

Covid Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022,

Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022,

Haiti Development, Accountability, And Institutional Transparency Initiative Act (The Original Bill Amended),

Intelligence Authorization for Fiscal Year 2022,

Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act Of 2022,

Israel Relations Normalization Act Of 2022,

Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Program,

Authorization Of Appropriations for High Technology Pilot Program,

And others…

Short Term CR

HJ Res 75 would extend the current FY 2022 spending at FY 2021 levels through March 15^th. This should give the House and Senate time to deal with the Amendment to HR 2471.

Russian Energy Imports

HR 6968 is the expected response to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. The basics prohibition is found in §2(a)(1):

“Not withstanding any other provision of law, all products of the Russian Federation classified under chapter 27 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States shall be banned from importation into the United States, other than products imported on or before 11:59 p.m. eastern daylight time on the date that is 45 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

The rest is qualifications, exceptions and methods to stop the exceptions.

Needless to say, more details to follow.

Rule for Short Term Continuing Resolution

This afternoon’s meeting of the House Rules Committee produced a rule that included provisions for the House to take up the Senate amendments to HR 2250, which is now the vehicle for extending the current rate of government spending until December 16^th. This was done to provide the leadership more time to come up with a deal on an omnibus spending bill for FY 2016.

This morning I mentioned that HJ Res 75 had been introduced for this purpose and would be considered by the Rules Committee this afternoon. What happened in the interim was that the Senate took up the previously passed HR 2250, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2016. Under the unanimous consent process the amended the bill, substituting the same language as found in HJ Res 75 and then approved the revised bill. This way, if the House passes the bill as expected tomorrow, then it would go directly to the President. HJ Res 75 would have had to be passed by the Senate before going to the President, a delay that could have resulted in a technical shutdown of the government for part of Saturday.

The vote on HR 2250 will likely come late tomorrow morning or early in the afternoon.

Bills Introduced – 12-09-15

With both the House and Senate in session yesterday there were 24 bills introduced. Of those two may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 4206 To provide for a technology demonstration program related to the modernization of the electric grid. Rep. Sarbanes, John P. [D-MD-3] 

HJ Res 75 Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2016, and for other purposes. Rep. Rogers, Harold [R-KY-5]

HR 4206 will only be followed in this bill if it includes specific cybersecurity language.

HJ Res 75 is a short term continuing resolution (CR) that would continue current government funding until next Wednesday, December 16^th. The House Rules Committee will be meeting later today to construct the rule that will include consideration of this bill on the floor of the House. That Rule will almost certainly include provisions allowing for same day voting on the omnibus spending bill when it is introduced.