HR 1987 Passes in House

As expected HR 1987, the 2016 Coast Guard Authorization Act, passed today in the House. There was only 14 minutes of debate and the bill passed on a voice vote.

As I mentioned earlier, there was no specific mention of chemical safety or security programs in this year’s bill, as there hasn’t been in recent years

Committee Hearings – Week of 5-17-15

Both the House and Senate will be in town this week before taking off next week for their Memorial Day break. Not much in the way of hearings this week of specific interest to readers of this blog; a couple of markups, an energy security hearing and the highway bill rule.

Energy Security

The Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will be holding a hearing on a new bill addressing energy reliability and security on Tuesday. Among other things the bill includes EMP provisions, cybersecurity order provisions, and a new ‘Cyber Sense’ program.

The witness discussion will be wide ranging and probably superficial. It is still early in the game on this bill.

Legislation Markups

The House Homeland Security Committee will markup 11 bills on Wednesday. This will include HR 1646 and HR 2200. I covered the subcommittee markup of both of those bills last week. Both are apparently on the fast track to the House floor. The Homeland Security Committee version (HR 1738) of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization bill will also be considered. The fate of this bill has yet to be determined by the House leadership.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will also meet on Wednesday to consider 13 bills. The one of note for readers of this blog is HR 710. Chances are looking good that Rep. Jackson-Lee (D,TX) may finally see her TWIC bill making it to the floor of the Senate.

Highway Bill

As I noted on Saturday the short term extension of the highway bill, HR 2353, has been introduced and the House Rules Committee will be meeting today to formulate the rule for its consideration. This bill is obviously being fast tracked so it will be on the President’s desk by Friday.

Floor of the House

In addition to HR 2353 the House will take up the 2016 Coast Guard authorization bill (HR 1987) this week under suspension of the rules. With no amendments being allowed under that process, this bill will go to the Senate without any new hazmat security or safety measures.

Bills Introduced – 04-23-15

Yesterday a total of 79 bills were introduced in the House and Senate. Of those, only two were of potential specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 1987 To authorize appropriations for the Coast Guard for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, and for other purposes Rep. Hunter, Duncan D. [R-CA-50]

S 1068 A bill to amend the Federal Power Act to protect the bulk-power system from cyber security threats. Sen. Risch, James E. [R-ID] 

As in recent years, I don’t really expect to see much about chemical facility security or maritime chemical transportation in HR 1987. But you never can tell….

Since NERC has already promulgated cybersecurity requirements it will be interesting to see what ‘new’ requirements S 1068 will add.