HR 2217 Amendments

As I noted earlier this week the House passed HR 2217, the DHS FY 2014 appropriations bill. There were a number of amendments to this bill offered from the floor, but only four would be of specific interest to readers of this blog; one dealing with Port Security Grants, two dealing with the TSA surface transportation security operations and one with TSA security vetting.

Port Security Grants

The House adopted by voice vote an amendment offered by Rep. Brownley (D, CA) that specifically sets the Port Security Grant program funding at $97,500,000; the same funding level as was set in FY 2013. The bill as offered in the House did not specify how much money was to go into each of the FEMA grant programs. This amendment changed this for this specific program.

In an interesting parliamentary move, Ms. Brownley did not mention the Port Security Grant program in the actual amendment, it simply removed and then re-added back the amount allocated to the general FEMA grant funding amount. Her description {CRec 6-5-13 pg H3157} of the purpose of the amendment on the floor is what served to allocate this for the specific program.

Surface Transportation Programs

There were two amendments offered dealing with the TSA surface transportation security programs. The first, offered by Rep. Lynch (D,MA) {CRec 6-5-13 pg H3138}, was adopted by the House in a voice vote, increased spending for surface transportation security programs by $15,676,000, restoring funding to the FY 2013 levels.

The second amendment, offered by Rep. Garrett (R,NJ) failed on a mixed vote (68 Republicans voted No, 19 Democrats voted Yes). The amendment would have added a section to the end of the bill prohibiting any spending on TSA Visible Intermodal Protection and Response (VIPR) teams outside of airports. The debate {CRec 6-5-13, pg H3178} clearly showed Mr. Garrett’s displeasure with the use of VIPR teams in the surface transportation arena.

TSA Security Vetting

An amendment offered by Rep. Mica (R,FL) and subsequently withdrawn {CRec 6-5-13, pg 3154} would have increased the funding for the Office of Transportation Threat Assessment and Credentialing by $23,334,000. The money would have come from the administration of the TSA airport screening program. The debate {CRec 6-5-13, pg 3150} indicated that Mr. Mica was more concerned about cutting the ‘bloated’ TSA airport program than with increasing the ‘connecting the dots’ operations at the OTTAC.

Moving On

It is likely that many of these amendments made by the House to HR 2217 will not make it into the final bill signed by the President. The Senate will almost certainly take up their version of a DHS spending bill (not yet published) and substitute that language for the language adopted by the House this week. A conference committee will then iron out the differences between the two versions of the bill.

House Passes HR 2217

Earlier this morning the House passed HR 2217, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations on a somewhat bipartisan vote (245 – 182; 25 Democrats voting Yes, 10 Republicans voting No). A number of amendments were adopted yesterday and today, but I didn’t notice any obvious changes to chemical safety/security or cybersecurity requirements. I’ll know better when I get to see today’s Congressional Record tomorrow morning.

HR 2217 Rule Adopted by Rules Committee

Earlier this evening the House Rules Committee reported favorably H Res 243 establishing the rule for the consideration of HR 2217, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2014 (and HR 2216, Military Construction). As I predicted earlier the bill is an open rule providing for wide ranging floor amendments on the bill.

Floor Amendments

The way this occurs is that the Clerk of the House will start to read the bill. As the reading gets to a portion of the bill which a member wants to change, the member will ask to be recognized to offer an amendment. The amendment will be read and the member will be allowed up to five minutes to explain and justify the amendment. Once the amendment is voted up or down the Clerk will resume reading the bill.

If two or more members rise to offer amendments to the same portion of the bill, the Rule allow the Chair of the Committee of the Whole House to give priority to any member that had had the proposed amendment published in the Congressional Record. We may see those amendments starting in the issue of the CR published this morning for yesterday’s session. I will, of course, report on amendments of interest here.

Parliamentary Shortcut Attempted

Rep. Van Hollen (D,MD) offered an amendment to H Res 243 that would have provided an interesting short cut to the legislative process for the consideration of HR 2217. The House Rules Committee site summarizes the amendment this way:

“Calls on the Speaker to follow regular House procedure and immediately request a conference and appoint conferees to negotiate a fiscal year 2014 budget resolution conference agreement with the Senate.”

This amendment reflects the reality that whatever version of HR 2217 that is passed by the House, it is unlikely that the Senate will even debate that version. The Senate Appropriations Committee will write their own DHS appropriations bill and then amend and vote on that bill. The adopted language will then be substituted for the House language in HR 2217. A conference committee would then be appointed to work out the differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill. That re-amended bill would then be voted upon in each house with limited debate and no amendments. This would have virtually eliminate the unnecessary floor amendment process. The amendment was defeated on a party-line vote.

HR 2217 Introduced – DHS FY2014 Appropriations

As I noted in an earlier blog post HR 2217, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2014, was introduced last week by Rep. Carter (R,TX), Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. There are no significant changes in the portions of the bill dealing with chemical facility security, TSA Surface Transportation or cybersecurity from when I reported on the Subcommittee draft of the bill. The Committee Report (H Rept 113-91) has not changed in regards to those same areas since I reported on the Committee Draft of that report.

Bills Introduced 5-29-13

With the House and Senate out of town for the week we still manage to get two bills introduced in the House this week. One is a biggie for readers of this blog since it touches on chemical security, cybersecurity, pipeline security; well just say it… it’s a homeland security bill. Infact HR 2217 is the FY 2014 DHS funding bill.

HR 2217: Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2014 Sponsor: Rep Carter, John R. (R,TX) House Reports: 113-91

You know that a bill is high priority when it is introduced with committee report during recess and the House Rules Committee has a rule hearing scheduled the first day back in session.

More info on the bill when I get finished reading it.

BTW: The other bill, HR 2216 was the military construction bill and it will share the Monday hearing.