HR 4346 Passed in House – CHIPS Act

This afternoon the House took up the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment to HR 4346, the CHIPS Act, under a rule. The bill passed with minimal bipartisan support with a final vote of 243 to 187. Much of the Republican opposition was directed more at yesterday’s news that the Democrats finally had an agreement on a final reconciliation bill that could possibly pass without any Republican support.

The bill will probably make it to the President’s desk next week (final editing and printing takes time), where it will be signed with much fanfare.

Senate Passes HR 4346 as Amended – CHIPS Act

Today, the Senate concluded their consideration of HR 4346, the vehicle for the CHIPS Act. After approving the substitute language (SA 5135) by a modestly bipartisan vote of 64 to 33, an identical vote was cast to approve the House amendment to the Senate amendment to HR 4346 as amended. The bill goes back to the House for final approval.

The House is currently scheduled to take up the bill tomorrow under a restricted rule. There will be limited debate and no amendments will be allowed from the floor. The bill is expected to pass with some Republican votes.

H Res 1289, which provides for the consideration of HR 4346 in the House, will also provide for the operation of the House during the Summer Recess “during the period from August 1, 2022, through September 12, 2022”. For those of you that have been watching my comments about resolutions of inquiry, §5 of the Resolution states: “SEC. 5. Each day during the period addressed by section 2 of this resolution shall not constitute a legislative day for purposes of clause 7 of rule XIII.” Clause 7 deals with resolutions of inquiry and provides that action must be taken within 14 legislative days in Committee, or the author may call the resolution to the floor of the House as a privileged matter. So, there will be a breather on these resolutions while the House is on their Summer Recess. But they will have to be dealt with when the House returns to work on all of their end-of-fiscal-year stuff.

HR 4346 Vote Delayed in Senate – CHIPS Act

Yesterday, the Senate delayed the scheduled cloture vote on HR 4346, the vehicle for the CHIPS Act. A report on theHill.com notes that East Coast weather problems were making it difficult to get Senators into town in time enough for the scheduled vote, so the Leadership decided to postpone the vote until today. The current schedule calls for the cloture vote at 11:00 am EDT.

Interestingly, there were 23 amendments proposed yesterday to this bill, more than had been submitted since the bill considerations began last week. One of those amendments, SA 5181 is a re-write of 43 pages of the substitute language being considered. This rewrite does not affect any of the cybersecurity provisions that I discussed in article at CFSN Detailed Analysis (subscription required).

Proposed amendments by Sen Paul (R,TN; SA 5159) and Sen Lee (R,UT; SA 5162, SA 5164, SA 5168, SA5179, and SA 5180) indicate that there may be attempts made to force votes on these unassociated amendments. Paul and Lee are unlikely to vote for the bill, so they have little leverage in this case, but they are both well known for their legislative maneuvering. This could drag out the final vote on the bill, further delaying House action.

Committee Hearings – Week of 7-24-22

With the House and Senate in session but preparing to leave on their Summer Recess at the end of the week, there is a relatively light hearing schedule. There is one cybersecurity hearing scheduled in the House.

Cybersecurity Hearing

On Thursday the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of House Space, Science, and Technology Committee will hold a meeting on “Exploring Cyber Space: Cybersecurity Issues for Civil and Commercial Space Systems”. The witness list includes:

• Theresa Suloway,The MITRE Corporation,

• Matthew Scholl, NIST, and

• Brandon Bailey, The Aerospace Corporation

This discussion could get technical, it will be interesting to see how well the Staff prepares technical questions, and how well the congresscritters understand the answers.

On the Floor in the House

The last week in July is always jam packed with stuff and this week will certainly be interesting. The House is planning on taking up 27 bills under the suspension of the rules process which will mean some late-night votes on Tuesday. Those bills include:

HR 7569 – Energy Cybersecurity University Leadership Act of 2022, and

HR 4551 – RANSOMWARE Act (not covered here)

There are five bills to be considered under rules, but nothing major. They will take up legislative time while the House waits on Senate actions (see below) on HR 4346, and possible  “Consideration of Legislation Related to Public Safety”.

On the Floor in the Senate

The Senate is scheduled to take the final cloture vote on HR 4346 this morning. This would set the bill up for a final vote tomorrow or Wednesday. There was some Republican support on the first cloture vote, but the final vote may be held ransom to some last-minute Republican amendment. We will just have to wait and see.

Review - Senate Considering HR 4346 – CHIPS Act

Yesterday, the Senate took up the House amendment, to the Senate Amendment to HR 4346, the FY 2022 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, as the vehicle for the CHIPS Act. The Senate action will start with the SA 5135 as substitute language. It looks like Schumer is trying to limit the amendment process, filling the ‘amendment tree’ with inconsequential amendments. Action on the bill is continuing today.

This is a new try at passing a technology spending bill to break the impasse between the Senate and House on S 1260 and HR 4521. The new attempt is slightly more focused on chip manufacturing, with lots of extraneous (but not nearly all) matter stripped out. It does include some cybersecurity language, but not as much as was in either of the earlier bills. The cybersecurity provisions include:

Sec. 10223. NIST authority for cybersecurity and privacy activities.

Sec. 10228. Protecting research from cybersecurity theft.

Sec. 10235. Dr. David Satcher Cybersecurity Education Grant Program.  [S 2305]

Sec. 10315. Cyber workforce development research and development.

Sec. 10316. Federal cyber scholarship-for service program.

Sec. 10317. Cybersecurity workforce data initiative.

Moving Forward

There has not yet been a cloture vote on this revised bill, so it is hard to assess if there will be enough Republican support for the bill to move it forward in the House. We are starting to get into that period in the calendar where election considerations play an even higher than normal role in legislative actions. To me, however, the bigger question is has Schumer finally worked out language on a technology bill that will pass in the Democratically controlled House? The Democrats need a legislative win in a measure that will have a visible impact on improving the economy without looking like it is throwing money at people.

For a more detailed look at the cybersecurity provisions of the substitute language, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/senate-considering-hr-4346-chips - subscription required.