House Agreed to Senate Amendment to HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization

The House began considering the Senate Amendment to  HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, under the suspension of the rules process. After nine minutes of debate, a recorded debate was demanded. That vote was held this afternoon. The House accepted the Senate Amendment by a vote of 387 to 26. The bill now goes to the President for signature, plenty of time to meet the Friday midnight deadline to enact the legislation.

Committee Hearings – Week of 5-13-24

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a relatively busy hearing schedule. FY 2025 budget hearings continue in the oversight committees. There is one markup hearing of note, a Chinese security risk hearing and UAS use hearing.

Budget Hearings

	House	Senate
EPA	EC Subcommittee
TSA	HS Subcommittee
NTIA	EC Subcommittee
DOD Acquisitions		APP Subcommittee

Note: There is a problem with the links to the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a markup hearing to consider six bills and three postal naming bills. The one bill of specific interest here is:

HR 5255: "To require covered contractors implement a vulnerability disclosure policy consistent with NIST guidelines, and for other purposes."

Chinese Threat Hearing

On Wednesday the Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing on “Red Alert: Countering the Cyberthreat from China”. The witness list includes:

• Charles Carmakal, Mandiant,

• William Evanina, Former Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center,

• Rob Joyce, Former Special Assistant to the President and White House Cyber Security Coordinator,

• Steven M. Kelly, Institute for Security and Technology

Expect some FUD pointing by committee members.

UAS Uses

On Thursday the Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology, and the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, both of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a joint hearing on “Unmanned Aerial Systems: An Examination of the Use of Drones in Emergency Response”. No witness list is currently available.

Without a witness list it is hard to tell, but there is a possibility that UAS cybersecurity issues could be part of this topic.

On the Floor

The House will consider a relatively large number of bills on Tuesday (votes lasting through Wednesday) under their suspension of the rules process this week. Of interest here, this will include:

HR 4510 – NTIA Reauthorization Act of 2024, as amended,

HR 7659 – Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024, as amended, and

Senate Amendment to HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024.

HR 8289 Published – Short Term FAA Extension

The Congress.gov web site has now published the version of HR 8289, the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2024, Part II, that was passed in the House on Wednesday. This is the same version, no amendments were made, that subsequently passed in the Senate.

This is a clean, short-term extension. It adds seven days to the existing expiration dates for a wide variety (see §102 for example) of FAA related programs. Provisions that were scheduled to expire today, will now expire on May 17^th; those that were set to expire on Saturday, will now expire on May 18^th, 2024.

The House is currently scheduled to take up the Senate’s amendment to HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, on Tuesday under the suspension of the rules process. There are 13 other bills also scheduled to be considered on Tuesday, so it may end up being Wednesday before an actual vote is held on the Senate version of the legislation. Still, this should provide more than enough time for the bill to make its way to the White House for signature while keeping the FAA operating.

Senate Passes HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization

Yesterday, the Senate concluded action on HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, passing the bill by a vote of 88 to 4 (all nay votes were from Democrats). Earlier the substitute language (modified SA 1911) was adopted by unanimous consent. No other amendments were adopted. The bill will now go back to the House for action on the Senate’s amendment. That consideration will take place next week.

I reported yesterday that the House could take up the bill as early as today, but they are only meeting in pro forma session this moring, so consideration of the Senate version is not possible.

Just before adjourning yesterday, the Senate passed HR 8289, a bill to extend authorizations for the airport improvement program, to extend the funding and expenditure authority of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, and for other purposes. That legislation passed by unanimous consent. While an official copy of that bill is still not available, the bill will, when signed by the President, extend the FAA’s authority through next week. This will allow time for the House to take up the Senate’s version of HR 3935. 

Review - Senate Debate on HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization – 5-9-24

Yesterday, the Senate continued their deliberations on HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. There was one recorded vote on a motion to table the consideration of SA 2027, a placeholding amendment made by Sen Schumer (D,NY) that would send the bill back to Committee to change the effective date. The motion failed by a vote of 12 to 85. A unanimous consent motion was adopted to resume consideration of the bill today.

Moving Forward

Cloture votes for SA 1911 (the modified Senate substitute language) and the full bill are scheduled for today. If the bill passes, the House is scheduled to be in session tomorrow (it is not in session today), so it could potentially consider the Senate language under the suspension of the rules process and make it to the President’s desk before the FAA’s current authority expires at midnight. Lacking that, the House approved HR 8289 yesterday. The Senate could take up that short-term extension of the FAA authorities today or tomorrow.

 

For more information on yesterday’s consideration, including a look at a CFATS related amendment that was offered, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/senate-debate-on-hr-3935 - subscription required.

Review - Senate Continued Consideration of HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization – 5-7-24

Yesterday, the Senate continued consideration of HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. The tabled consideration of SA 1292 (the substitute language from September that I discussed Friday. Subsequently the Senate began consideration of a modified version of SA 1911, the substitute language proposed by Sen Cantrell (D,WA). A motion to close debate on SA 1911 was filed with a vote scheduled for Thursday.

Because it is unlikely that the HR 3935 will make it to the President’s desk before midnight Friday (it will have to go back to the House for consideration of the Senate amended version), this evening the House took up HR 8289 (introduced today), a “bill to extend authorizations for the airport improvement program, to extend the funding and expenditure authority of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, and for other purposes." While I have not yet seen the language of the bill, this is almost certainly a short-term extension of the current FAA authorization. The House considered the bill under the suspension of the rules process and passed it by a vote of 385 to 19. The Senate will likely take that legislation up tomorrow or Friday.

Moving Forward

The Senate continued consideration today. More on that tomorrow.

 

For more information on yesterday's consideration of the bill, including changes to the substitute language, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/senate-continued-consideration-of - subscription required.

Committee Hearings – Week of 5-5-24

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a relatively lite hearing schedule. The budget hearings continue in the House, and the Senate Armed Services Committee begins the hearing process to craft the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. None of those hearings are of particular interest here.

The Senate resumes consideration of on HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, tomorrow. As I mentioned Friday, the current authorization runs out on Friday and the Senate is unlikely to complete consideration of the bill by then. This means that a short-term reauthorization bill is likely. That is reflected in a comment on the weekly House schedule:

“An additional item related to FAA reauthorization is expected.”

Review - Senate Moves to Debate HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization

As I mentioned last night, yesterday the Senate voted to proceed with the consideration of on HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, by a vote of 81 to 10. As with the earlier cloture vote, the opposition was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Debate will continue when the Senate returns from the weekend recess on Tuesday. The current 5-year authorization expires on May 10^th, 2024, so there may be a short term extension bill passed next week.

 

For more details about yesterday’s consideration of HR 3935, including a look at some proposed amendments of interest, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/senate-moves-to-debate-hr-3935 - subscription required.

Review – Senate Passes First Cloture vote on HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization

Yesterday, the Senate conducted their first cloture vote on HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. The vote to close debate on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill passed by a vote of 89 to 10, with the opposition evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. With the debate officially begun, the proposed amendments started to flow, with 33 amendments offered. The actual vote on proceeding to consider HR 3935 takes place today.

The first important amendment is SA 1911, the substitute language offered by Sen Cantrell (D,WA). While this would typically be language from the Senate version of the bill (S 1939 in this case), a quick look at the table of contents on both shows way more stuff (and a slightly different organization) in the SA 1911 language. So we can, for all practical purposes, ignore S 1939.

There were 32 additional amendments proposed yesterday (listed here and here). One of those may be of interest here: SA 1932 which was proposed by Sen Peters (D,MI). It would add a new §1112, Counter UAS Authorities to the legislation. This would completely rewrite 6 USC 124n, Protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft. This amendment is very similar to S 1631 introduced by Peters in May of 2023. No action has been taken on that bill to date.

More debate on the bill has taken place today, including a vote on the actual motion to begin consideration (it passed). I will have more details on today’s vote and new amendments tomorrow (have to wait for the Congressional Record to be printed for those amendments).

 

For more details about the cybersecurity and UAS provision of SA 1911, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/senate-passes-first-cloture-vote - subscription required.

Consideration HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization –

Yesterday, the Senate resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of H.R. 3935. Sen Schumer (D,NY) entered a motion to close further debate on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill. The vote on that cloture motion will take place when the Senate returns on March 30^th, 2024, after the vote on the Georgia N. Alexakis nomination.

The Senate actually started this process back in September, but it lead nowhere. At the time there were suggestions that Schumer was going to use the bill as a vessel for consideration of a clean continuing resolution while the House was trying to sort out how to proceed on the spending bills under Rep McCarthy (R,CA). At that time there had been one anti-Ukraine amendment submitted by Sen Vance (R,OH).

No new amendments have been submitted yet for consideration during the actual debate on HR 3935. The first amendment will almost certainly come from Sen Cantwell (D,WA) offering the reported version of S 1939 as substitute language for HR 3935. Additional amendments will be submitted, and some will be considered.

As I noted in a post on S 1939 there is an interesting counter-UAS provision in the Senate bill:

“Section 811 would amend 49 USC Chapter 448 by adding a new § 44813 Unmanned aircraft system detection and mitigation enforcement. The new section would prohibit anyone (other than certain government agencies and employees) from operating “a system or technology to detect, identify, monitor, track, or mitigate an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system in a manner that adversely impacts or interferes with safe airport operations, navigation, or air traffic services, or the safe and efficient operation of the national airspace system.” The term “adversely impacts or interferes with’ is not defined. Violators would be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $25,000 per violation. This prohibition would terminate on September 30, 2028.”

Senate Began Consideration HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization

On Friday, the Senate began debate on the consideration of HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. That debate continued on Saturday. Debate will resume on Tuesday. No amendments have been submitted. No real action will occur until the Senate comes back from their upcoming recess on April 29^th.

Review - Committee Marks Up S 1939 – FAA Authorization Act

Last week, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Committee held an executive session to look at S 1939, FAA Reauthorization Act of 2023. Substitute language was considered, 81 amendments were proposed. The bill was approved (presumably after approving the substitute language and perhaps multiple additional amendments were adopted), and ordered reported favorably. Unfortunately, neither the Committee hearing web page (as is fairly typical for Senate markups), nor the press release provide any details about what amendments were adopted.

Moving Forward

Since this is one of those bills that is considered a ‘must pass’ bill, it will eventually be considered by the full Senate. Once the report on this bill is published, and we can see what changes were actually made, the Senate will actually take up HR 3935 [removed from paywall] the House version of the FAA Authorization. The language approved here will be substituted for the House language as the first amendment to be considered. I suspect that there will be some level of bipartisan support for this language. Once passed, the bill will almost certainly have to go to conference to work out differences with the House passed language.

 

For more information on the changes proposed, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-marks-up-s-1939 - subscription required.

Industry Efforts on §2209 – No Fly Zones

Earlier this week, three chemical-industry organizations sent a letter to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee concerning two UAS provisions contained in HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (the periodic FAA reauthorization bill). The two provisions of the bill are contained in Section 608, Application for Designation, and Section 617, Carriage of Hazardous Materials.

While the organizations support both provisions of the bill, they encourage the Committee to ensure that the FAA implements the §2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security act of 2016 (PL 114-190, codified at 49 USC 44802 note) requirement before it allows the carriage of hazardous materials by uncrewed aircraft systems. The letter notes:

“The risks to our facilities of overflights of hazardous materials by UAS are considerable. If new authority is given to UAS operators to transport even small quantities of hazardous materials before the FAA finalizes a Section 2209 rulemaking, our facilities will be put at even greater risk. As you consider granting new authorities to UAS operators to transport these materials (as granted in Section 617 of H.R.3935 and Section 816 of S.1939), we urge you to tie any new authorities to the completion of a final Section 2209 rulemaking.”

The Senate attempted to consider HR 3935 back in September when it ran into roadblock on their consideration of HR 4363, but it never moved passed the cloture motion to end the discussion to considering the bill.

The Senate Transportation Committee has not yet taken up S 1939 [removed from paywall], the Senate version of HR 3935. That bill contains a similar hazmat provision (§816), but is silent on §2309. It does, however, include a provision (§811) that would prohibit anyone (other than certain government agencies and employees) from operating “a system or technology to detect, identify, monitor, track, or mitigate an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft system in a manner that adversely impacts or interferes with safe airport operations, navigation, or air traffic services, or the safe and efficient operation of the national airspace system.”

HR 5860 Passed in House – Clean Republican CR

In a surprise move, the House took up HR 5860 (committee print), the ‘Continuing Appropriations Act, 2024 and Other Extensions Act, under the suspension of the rules process, and passed it by a bipartisan vote of 335 to 91 with 90 Republicans voting Nay. The bill was not added to the schedule until just before it was brought to the floor by Rep Granger (R,TX) the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The bill would extend FY 2023 funding rates for the federal government through November 17^th, 2023. Section 129 of the bill adds $16 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund. A last-minute amendment was made to the bill by unanimous consent.

The Senate was scheduled to vote at 1:00 pm on the substitute language for HR 3935 that includes slightly dirtier continuing resolution language. That language would add supplemental spending for Ukraine, a controversial provision that is guaranteed to draw some opposition from Republicans. Interestingly, there are currently no Senators in the Senate chambers, I suspect that there are two separate conference meetings taking place determining if they can reach an agreement to consider HR 5860 under unanimous consent today.

It is possible that there will not be a government shutdown tonight, or (even more likely) if there is one, that it will be short.

HR 5525 Failed in House – Republican CR Dead

This afternoon, the House took up HR 5525, the Continuing Appropriations and Border Security Enhancement Act, 2024. The House had earlier approved H Res 741, the rule for the consideration of HR 5525 by a vote of 218 to 210. After limited debate, the bill was rejected by a vote of 198 to 232 with 21 Republicans joining all of the House Democrats in voting no.

There were no votes held today on HR 3935, the FAA reauthorization bill which the Senate will be using as the vehicle for their CR. According to @SenateCloakroom on TWITTER.com, the Senate will vote tomorrow afternoon “to invoke cloture on substitute amendment #1292 to Cal. #211, H.R.3935, legislative vehicle for the Continuing Resolution (November 17th).”

The House is currently scheduled to meet tomorrow morning at 10:00 am EDT. There is nothing on the Majority Leaders ‘Daily Schedule’ about what is planned. There is an outside chance that the Senate could conclude their work on HR 3935 tomorrow (Sunday or Monday is more likely, but still not a given). If the Senate does approve the bill (more likely than was the House passing HR 5525 today) on Saturday, the soonest the House could consider it would be Sunday (if the Rules Committee acted favorably Saturday night, which is probably why the House will be ‘in session’ tomorrow). In any case, the government is going to shut down on Sunday.

Commentary

The House taking up the Senate CR would be a major shift for Speaker McCarthy, and it would take a serious deal with the House Democrats because those 21 Republican ‘no votes’ will certainly be ‘no votes’ on a Democratic CR and there would likely be a number of others as well. The deal would probably have to include Democratic votes for McCarthy on multiple vacate the chair motions while the CR was wending its way through the House. If the House leadership was smart the deal would include a change to the House Rules that would rewrite the vacate the chair process, probably using Pelosi’s 50% of the conference process.

Senate Begins Considering HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization

Yesterday, the Senate began the process of bringing HR 3935 [removed from paywall], the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, to the floor. A cloture motion was filed for “consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of H.R. 3539” (NOTE the Congressional Record has misprinted the bill number). A vote is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 pm EDT.

TheHill.com is reporting that Sen Schumer is planning on using this bill as a vessel for a relatively clean continuing resolution. No amendment to that effect has been yet proposed.

Review - HR 3935 Reported in House – FAA Reauthorization

Last week the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee published their report on HR 3935, the

Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. The Committee completed action on the bill during a business meeting on June 14^th, 2023, adopting substitute language with amendments and recommending it favorably by a unanimous vote. The reported version of the bill can be found here.

Floor Consideration

Yesterday, the House Rules Committee met to prepare the rule for the consideration of the bill later this week. The bill will be considered under a structured rule. That rule provides for one hour of general debate followed by consideration of 104 amendments, generally with 10 minutes of debate allowed for each amendment. There are three of those amendments that may be of interest here; numbers 3, 40, and 59.

 

For more details about provisions of the bill and possible amendments, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3935-reported-in-house - subscription required.

Committee Hearings – Week of 7-16-23

This week with both the House and Senate in Washington and the summer recess looming we see a typical load of hearings scheduled for both bodies. Spending bills are being marked up by both Appropriations Committees. We have an rule hearing (FAA authorization) of interest and an energy threats hearing in the House. And there are two markup hearings of interest here in the Senate.

Spending Bills

	House	Senate
THUD	Full Committee	Full Committee
IER	Full Committee
EWD		Full Committee

FAA Authorization Rule

This afternoon the House Rules Committee will meet to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. This annual ‘must-pass’ bill includes cybersecurity and UAS provisions that may be of interest here (I am working on my analysis). There have been 356 amendments proposed to the Rules Committee as of this morning.

Note: The version of the bill being considered by the Committee actually includes two additional, related bills: HR 3559 - FAA Research and Development Act of 2023, and HR 3796 - To provide for the extension of taxes funding the Airport and Airway Trust Fund and to require the designation of certain airports as ports of entry.

Energy Threats

Tomorrow the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “Examining Emerging Threats to Electric Energy Infrastructure”. No witness list is available. This will probably include cybersecurity threats, but could also address supply chain issues and physical security threats.

Senate Markups

On Wednesday, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee will hold a business meeting to consider 25 bills, including S 1458, the SECURE Small Business Act.

Also on Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting to consider 21 bills, including S 2256, the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act. The language for that bill has not yet been printed by the GPO, so I am not sure what the provisions are.

On the Floor

As I noted above, the House will consider the FAA reauthorization bill, starting on Wednesday.

The House will take up only four bills this week under their suspension of the rules process. Again, this is a much lighter schedule of consideration of these consensus bills than we have seen in recent years.

It looks like next week will see the first spending bills coming to the floor of the House. The House Rules committee has set amendment deadlines for HR 4368 (ARD spending) and HR 4366 (Military Construction). These will be somewhat contentious debates, but both will probably pass with narrow majorities.

Review - S 1939 Introduced – FAA Reauthorization

Earlier this month, Sen Cantwell (D,WA) introduced S 1939, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2023. In addition to the periodic reauthorization of various FAA programs, the bill includes aircraft cybersecurity provisions and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) requirements of concern here. UAS provisions include:

• Beyond visual line of sight flight rules,

• Prevention of tracking or interfering with unmanned aircraft,

• Extend DOJ and DHS counter UAS authority, and

• Allow UAS to transport hazardous materials.

Moving Forward

Cantwell is the Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. This means that she certainly has the influence to see this bill considered in Committee. Given that Sen Cruz (R,TX), the Ranking Member of the Committee is a cosponsor of the bill, there should be bipartisan support for this bill. We will have to see if the amendment process in Committee changes that support. This is one of the ‘must pass’ bills that the Senate deals with every year.

Typically, we would expect the House to pass their FAA reauthorization bill (HR 3935). Then the Senate would take up the bill and the first amendment (offered by Cantwell) would be to offer the language from this bill as substitute language. Then the amendment process would start. Once the amended House bill is passed, the bill would normally go to a conference committee to work out the differences between the two versions of the bill. With the current leadership upheaval in the House, it will be interesting to see if the ‘standard process’ is followed this year.

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-1939-introduced - subscription required.

Review - HR 3935 Introduced – FAA Reauthorization

Last week, Rep Graves (R,MO) introduced HR 3935, Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. This is the latest FAA reauthorization act. The bill includes two unmanned aircraft system (UAS) provisions of interest here; an expansion of the critical infrastructure designation requirements and a rulemaking requirement for carriage of hazardous materials by UAS.

Moving Forward

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is meeting today to mark-up this bill. This is one of the ‘must pass’ bills that will be taken up by the full House under a rule. Once the Committee publishes their report on the bill, it will be cleared for consideration. It will probably not make it to the floor before the summer recess.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3935-introduced - subscription required.