Bills Introduced – 12-20-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 31 bills introduced. Three of those bills would have been expected to receive additional attention in this blog were there any time left in the session:

HR 10545 American Relief Act, 2025 Cole, Tom [Rep.-R-OK-4]

HR 10555 To create mechanisms by which state law enforcement can coordinate with the federal government to detect and stop drones involved in unlawful activities, and for other purposes. Smith, Christopher H. [Rep.-R-NJ-4]

S 5639 Counter-UAS Authority Extension Act Peters, Gary C. [Sen.-D-MI]

HR 10545 passed in both the House (366 to 34 to 1) and Senate (85 to 11) and was signed by President Biden (PL number has not yet been assigned).

S 5639 was passed in the Senate by unanimous consent.

HR 10545 Passed in House – American Relief Act, 2025

With less than six hours remaining before the current government funding authorization ended, the House took up yet another version of a continuing resolution, HR 10545 [, the American Relief Act, 2025. Similar to yesterday’s HR 10515, the bill continues the current spending (FY 2024 levels) authorization through March 14^th, 2025, provides a relatively-clean 1-year extension of the Ag bill, and provides additional funding for disaster relief (specifically including agricultural relief for weather related AG losses). Missing is any mention of the debt limit that President-Elect Trump demanded be included in yesterday’s bill. After a little more than one hour of debate, the House passed the bill by a bipartisan vote of 366 to 34 to 1 {Rep Crockett (D,TX) voted ‘Present;}. Not unsurprisingly, all 34 nay votes came from Republicans.

TheHill.com is reporting that the Senate intends to take up HR 10545 before midnight so that there will be no need to ‘shut down’ the federal government. If they are late by even a couple of hours, it will make no practical difference.

Program Extensions

Beyond the healthcare program extensions in Division C, and the agricultural program extensions in Division D, there are five other stand alone program extensions found in Division E (links are provided for programs of interest here):

• Commodity futures trading commission whistleblower program,

• Protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft {6 USC 124n(i)},

• Additional special assessment,

• National cybersecurity protection system authorization {6 USC 1525(a)}, and

• Extension of temporary order for fentanyl-related substances.

Notice that the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program was not included. I think that we can finally declare the program to be dead. Any attempt to revive the program in the 119^th Congress will have to deal with Sen Paul (R,KY) as Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Paul can be expected to block any such legislation. Perhaps the focus should be on getting the voluntary ChemLockprogram authorized and expanded.