House Completed Consideration of Spending Bills – 9-27-23

Yesterday, the House continued their consideration of amendments for the three spending bill that they began consideration of on Tuesday, including HR 4365 (DOD spending), HR 4367 (DHS spending) HR 4368 (ARD spending) HR 4665 (State Dept spending), and HR 5692 (Ukraine supplemental). The House considered 60 amendments and passed 26. None of the amendments were of specific interest here.

Final Action

The House completed action on all five spending bills:

HR 4368 (ARD) Failed by a vote of 191 to 237 (27 Republicans voted Nay),

HR 4367 (DHS) Passed by a vote of 220 to 208 (2 Democrats vote Yea),

HR 5692 (Ukraine) Passed by a vote of 311 to 117 (117 Republicans voted Nay),

HR 4365 (DOD) Passed by a vote of 218 to 210 (2 Republicans voted Nay, 2 Democrats vote Yea)

HR 4665 (State) Passed by a vote of 216 to 212 (2 Republicans vote Nay)

Moving Forward

Three of the bills (HR 5692, HR 4365, and HR 4665) will now be forwarded to the Senate for action. The DHS bill will not be forwarded to the Senate until HR 2 (the House Republican signature border security bill) is enacted (this was included in §15 of H Res 723 that passed in the House on Tuesday). It is not yet clear what if any action will be taken in the Senate. If the provisions of the Senate CR included in the Senate version of HR 3539 (which I have not seen yet) are enacted, we will almost certainly see an Omnibus spending bill sometime after the first of the year. In that case no action will be taken on these bills. If HR 5525 (the House version of a short term CR being considered today) is enacted, the Senate would probably take up the DOD and DHS spending bills (perhaps as its own minibus), substitute Senate language and pass those bills. But the Senate would probably first resume consideration of HR 4366, their first minibus that includes the ARD spending. HR 5692 will likely be taken up in the Senate in either case and will probably pass without change.

Commentary

Of course, this discussion presupposes that the House will pass a continuing resolution. At this point, I do not think that that is possible. While the House was able to pass four of the five spending bill, it was only at the cost of including language that would have no chance of being considered in the Senate, of surviving a conference committee, or being signed by the President. The language of HR 5525 fits in the same mold. Unfortunately for the House leadership, there are probably enough of the Republican 11 that see any CR as an anathema that I will be surprised to see the House approve the rule for the consideration of HR 5525, much less pass the bill.

At this point, I do not see anyway that any CR makes it to President Biden’s desk before midnight Saturday, the government (well vast swaths of it anyway) will shutdown on Sunday. IF HR 5525 passes, it will be some relatively lengthy period before serious negotiations are able to proceed on a bill that would reopen the government as the Republican 11 will volubly insist on maintaining all of the provisions of HR 5525 in any deal, a non-starter as a negotiating position. If HR 5525 fails (and I expect that it will) and the Senate passes HR 3539 (FAA reauthorization) with CR provisions, Speaker McCarthy will be faced with deciding to make a deal with Democrats and facing an inevitable floor fight for retaining his speakership. In either case, McCarthy is going to have to make a deal with Democrats and face the ire of the Republican 11. Now it is just waiting to see how long it will take him to realize that.

House to Consider HR 5962 – Ukraine Security Assistance

Yesterday, the House Rules Committee met to formulate a rule for the consideration of HR 5962 [Rules Committee Print], a bill making supplemental appropriations in support of Ukraine. The rule (H Res 730) provides a closed rule (limited debate, no amendments). The rule also makes amendments to the versions of HR 4365 (DOD spending) and HR 4367 (ARD spending) that are still being considered by the House.

Nothing in HR 5962, nor the amendments to the other two bills, are strictly of interest here in this blog. But they do provide a clear and public example of the horse trading that goes on during the consideration of major pieces of legislation.

The language of H 5962 provides for $300 million dollars in supplemental spending for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. The language providing that funding is nearly identical to the wording in §8104 that the Rule removes from HR 4365. There is additional language added in HR 5962 provides that $20 million of the monies will go to fund a Special Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance.

Commentary

Removing the Ukraine funding provisions from the DOD spending bill provides cover for some Republicans {Rep Greene (R,GA) is the most obvious example} to vote for the DOD spending while still opposing funding for Ukraine. At the same time, Democrats that would oppose the DOD spending bill will now be able to vote to support funding for the Ukraine, negating the opposition of a relatively small number of Republicans. Passing this bill will also provide the Speaker with some leverage (probably not much, but McCarthy needs all that he can get) with negotiations with the Senate and the President on an as of yet unconsidered CR.

Interesting side light. HR 4365 contains language (§8105) prohibiting any monies provided in HR 4365 from being used to support the Azov Battalion. Moving the language of §8104 to this bill removes that restriction from the monies appropriated. Not an intended consequence, I am sure (mostly sure), but a consequence just the same.

21 Amendments Considered for HR 4368 – FY 2024 ARD Spending Bill – 9-27-23

Yesterday (ending at about 0300 EDT today) the House started considering HR 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 (ARD Spending) under provisions of H Res 723. There were 21 amendments addressed (actually the 1^st amendment was an en bloc amendment with  40 amendments listed in H Rept 118-226, the Rules Committee Report for H Res 712) adopted by a mix of voice votes and recorded votes. None of the amendments were of any specific interest here.

A significant number of the amendments were reductions in spending for various agencies and programs. These were from base numbers that were already lower than the spending agreement made earlier this year between the President and the Speaker. While many of the amendments reduced spending by a specific amount or per cent, the majority of the reductions were to levels in specific earlier fiscal years. Nine of those amendments failed by recorded vote:

H.Amdt.306 - Failed by recorded vote: 175 – 254,

H.Amdt.307 - Failed by recorded vote: 119 – 307,

H.Amdt.308 - Failed by recorded vote: 106 – 323,

H.Amdt.310 - Failed by recorded vote: 86 – 343.

H.Amdt.311 - Failed by recorded vote: 89 - 341

H.Amdt.312 - Failed by recorded vote: 68 – 362,

H.Amdt.315 - Failed by recorded vote: 83 – 348,

H.Amdt.317 - Failed by recorded vote: 81 – 350, and

H.Amdt.318 - Failed by recorded vote: 105 – 325,

Today’s Consideration

The House returned to the chambers at 9:00 this morning and instead of continuing with the ARD spending bill, they took up HR 4365, the DOD spending bill. At about 3:00 pm it stopped considering the DOD bill (without completing their work) and started on HR 4367, the DHS spending bill. At about 4:30 pm, they stopped consideration of that bill (again without completing their work) and resumed working on the ARD bill. At about 5:50 pm they finished work on the amendments to the ARD bill, but did not vote on the bill, instead resuming consideration of the amendments for the DOD bill. At 6:30 pm the House completed consideration of those amendments, but did not vote on the bill, instead they resumed working on amendments for the DHS bill. That is what they are working on as I write this post.

Interestingly, HR 4665, the State Department spending bill, which was included in H Res 723, has not been considered by the House as of yet.

I will have more details on today’s considerations after the Congressional Record is printed sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Commentary

This is an unusual way to consider legislation, but at this point, it is hardly surprising that the Republican lead is working an unusual process. It looks like McCarthy is trying to get all of the detail work of the legislative process complete before they start the final vote process. I wonder if he has concerns about the results of the votes, like perhaps a couple of the Republican 11 voting against one of more of the bills because not enough spending cuts were made.

Review - House to Try Spending Bills Yet Again – DOD, DHS, State, and ARD -

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, it was rinse and repeat on the floor of the House today. The House convened at 10:00 am EDT and then recessed at 10:33 subject to the call of the chair (after minor housekeeping). The House then reconvened at 1:47 pm EDT, agreed to meet next on Tuesday at 2:00 pm (Yom Kippur effectively blocks meetings on Sunday and Monday). Again, the whole charade was to allow the House Rules Committee to meet to formulate a rule that could be considered on Tuesday.

Rule for Considering Spending Bills

The Rules Committee did also reconvene, and it did formulate a single rule by which the following FY 2024 spending bills will be considered starting Tuesday:

HR 4365, DOD,

HR 4367, DHS,

HR 4665, State, and

HR 4368, ARD

Moving Forward

Sometime on Tuesday morning, the House will probably begin the debate on the rule for the consideration of these four spending bills. Twice this summer similar rules were pulled before the debate could begin because the Republican leadership counted heads and determined that they would not pass. Earlier this month, the leadership ignored their head counting and allowed similar rules to be debated and votes to proceed; they lost both votes because of defections of five or six Republicans. I have yet to see anything that would indicate that there was a significant chance that the leadership would now be able to convince essentially all Republicans to vote for this rule.

 

For more details about the provisions of the rule adopted today, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/house-to-try-spending-bills-yet-again - subscription required.

House to Try Spending Bills Again?

After recessing yesterday morning ‘subject to the call of the Chair’, the House reconvened at 10:00 pm last night to adjourn. Added at the last minute, however, was a notice that: “The next meeting is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on September 22, 2023.” The House was originally scheduled to be in a ‘District Work Day’, and many members had departed Washington.

Shortly before the House adjourned last night it was announced that the House Rules Committee would meet today at 1:00 pm “to begin consideration of the following emergency measures [emphasis added]”:

• HR 4367 – Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, 2024

• HR 4665 – Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024

• HR 4365 – Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 [Rule Markup Only]

• HR 4368 - Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 [Rule Markup Only]

The annotation ‘Rule Markup Only’ means that the Committee is not planning on considering changing the amendments that it had already approved for consideration on the floor of the House. The Rules Committee had previously called for the submission of amendments for HR 4367 and HR 4665, so the Committee Staff will have something to work with in preparing the rule for the consideration of those two bills.

There is nothing currently (06:56 EDT) on the Majority Leader’s Schedule for today, but it looks like the Speaker has decided to try yet again to pass spending bills. There is a good chance that since these are being considered as ‘emergency measures’ that the House will work through the weekend, if, of course, a rule can be approved on the floor. There is a chance that the leadership is hoping that a sufficient number of no votes (mostly Democrats) will not make it back to Washington in time for a vote on the Rule to counteract the defecting Republican votes. If that succeeds, I suspect that there would be a motion to vacate submitted quite quickly.

House Rejects 2nd Rule for HR 4365 – FY 2024 DOD Spending

Earlier today, the House took up H Res 712, the rule for consideration of three pieces of legislation, including of HR 4365, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. The vote failed by a vote of 212 to 216 with six Republicans joining the Democrats in voting ‘Nay’. Rep Greene (R,GA), Rep Crane (R,AZ), and Rep Cole (R,OK) were new additions to the Republican no votes with Rep Buck (R,CO) and Rep Norman switching their previous votes to Yeas.

A motion to reconsider was offered and the yeas and nays were requested on the question. The House is currently adjourned subject to the call of the Chair.

House to Try a Third Time to Take-up HR 4365

Yesterday, the House Rules Committee met again to draft a rule for the consideration of HR 4365, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. This bill was originally scheduled to be considered last week (no action taken) and re-scheduled for earlier this week (rule for consideration failed). The rule crafted last night appears to be a duplicate (as far as H 4565 is concerned) of the rule that failed earlier this week. The four amendments that I discussed earlier [removed from paywall] remain on the list of amendments to be proposed on the floor. Debate on the rule is expected to start shortly after 9:00 am EDT with vote on rule at about 10:30.

House Rejects Rule for HR 4365 – FY 2024 DOD Spending

This afternoon, the House took up H Res 680, the Rule for the consideration of HR 4365, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024, and HR 1435, the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act. The resolution failed by a vote of 212 to 214. Five Republicans vote Nay as did all of Democrats voting this afternoon. Seven representatives did not vote; four Republicans and three Democrats.

If all four of the missing Republicans voted for the resolution and none of the Democrats voted (they would have all been ‘no’ votes) it would have ended in a tie vote. There is some question about whether or not Rep Luna (R,FL), one of the four absent Republicans, would have voted ‘Aye’ on the resolution.

The House Rules Committee could produce another rule, but absent changes to HR 4365, there is unlikely to be changes in the votes for the rule.

House to Try Again to Take-up HR 4365 – FY 2024 DOD Spending Bill

The schedule for activities in the House today includes consideration of HR 4365 [removed from paywall], the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. This bill was originally scheduled to be considered last week, but opposition from the Republican 11 prevented the Republican leadership from offering the bill for consideration. Apparently Speaker McCarthy (R,CA) feels that last night’s approval of a rule for the consideration of H 5525, the Continuing Appropriations and Border Security Enhancement Act, 2024, signals a willingness on the part of the more radical Republicans to allow spending bills to be considered.

Consideration of the bill will start with taking up the rule for its consideration, H Res 680. That rule provides for debating and voting on 184 amendments, including two cybersecurity amendments and two chemical related amendments that I have discussed here (subscription required).

House Took No Action on HR 4365 – FY 2024 DOD Spending

As I noted this morning, the House was scheduled to take up of HR 4365 [removed from paywall], the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Rules Committee had developed the rule for the consideration of the bill and it should have moved forward with the initial debate on H Res 680, the rule for the consideration of the bill, it was never brought to the floor. The House did complete action on HR 1567 and HR 3324, two of the bills that were debated yesterday under the suspension of the rules process (both passed with strong bipartisan support). The House is not scheduled to take up HR 4365 tomorrow.

TheHill.com is reporting that: “Republican leadership scrapped those plans as conservatives pushing for steeper spending cuts lined up against the procedural vote — which more than likely would have tanked the effort.” They also noted that: “It was the second time in two months that leadership was forced to punt a vote on an appropriations bill. In July, top Republicans scrapped plans to vote on the rule for legislation funding agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.”

When I discussed the problems that I foresaw with spending bills this year, I did not see the wholesale blockading of the consideration of spending bills. If there are not enough votes to pass the rule for the consideration of the bill, the bill will not be considered in the House. The Republican leadership made no effort to even pretend to make the spending bills close to bipartisan, so there will be no Democrats voting for the rule to consider those bills. This means that if just three of the Republican 11 vote against the rule, it is dead.

McCarthy could just surrender to the spending reductions and policy riders demanded by the Republican 11, knowing that the Senate will reject those provisions without even looking at them. Then the conference committee could work out adult language for the spending bill that moderate Democrats could join moderate Republicans in supporting.

September is going to be an interesting month in Washington, but I would be very surprised if anyone is really happy with the state of congress come October 1^st.

Review - House to Consider HR 4365 – FY 2024 DOD Spending

Last night the House Rules Committee completed their development of a rule for the consideration of HR 4365 [removed from paywall], the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. They provided a structured rule (limited debate of specifically approved amendments) with 184 amendments approved for consideration. These include two cybersecurity related amendments and two chemical related amendments.

Moving Forward

The House is scheduled to begin consideration of HR 4365 today. There is a possibility that the Rules Committee will meet again this afternoon to consider additional amendments that may be added for consideration tomorrow. It is unlikely that there will be significant support for this bill by Democrats. It currently looks like there will be sufficient Republican support to pass the bill.

Commentary

While this bill in its current form has little chance of consideration, much less passage, in the Senate (and that will only get worse after the partisan amendment process we will see in the House this week), there was never any chance that the Senate would actually take up the House language. The first thing the Senate will do is substitute the language from S 2587 for the House language and amend things from there. The heavy lifting of getting language that can pass in both the House and Senate will be accomplished in a conference committee. That process will not be completed by the September 30^th deadline to keep the military funded. A continuing resolution will be necessary.

 

For more details about the amendments of interest here, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/house-to-consider-hr-4365 - subscription required.

Committee Hearings – Week of 9-10-23

This week, with both the House and Senate back in Washington, the major focus is going to be on spending bills, but not much in the way of hearings to watch. There is one Rules Committee hearing on the DOD spending bill and a 9/11 anniversary hearing in New York looking at evolving terror threats.

DOD Spending Bill

The House Rules Committee will meet tomorrow to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 4365, the FY 2024 DOD spending bill. There are currently 341 amendments that have been submitted to the Committee for potential inclusion in the floor consideration of the bill, most of them political plays from both Republicans and Democrats. There are two cybersecurity amendments in all of that political chaff that I briefly mentioned last week in my CFSN Detailed Analysis post (subscription required). The Republican 11 have three votes on the Rules Committee which may be enough to stop consideration of legislation if the four Democrats also vote no. This could be a real possibility for H 4365, because Dems already have a lot to object to in this bill, so the Republican leadership probably needs to include a large number of radical amendments, including more spending cuts, to be able to move the bill to the floor.

Post 9/11 Terror Threats

Today, the Emergency Management and Technology Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a hearing in New York City on “Evolving Threats: Security and Safety in a Post-9/11 World”. The witness list includes:

• Joseph Pfeifer, New York City Fire Department,

• Laura Kavanagh, New York City Fire Department,

• Rebecca Weiner, New York City Police Department,

• Patrick J. Ryder, Nassau County Police Department

• Greg Ehrie, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

This will be a narrow view of the ‘terror threat’, from the perspective of ‘just one city’. I do not expect any major threat revelations, but I do expect to hear complaints about funding for prevention and response activities.

On The Floor

The Senate will resume consideration of HR 4366, their first (?) omnibus spending bill for FY 2024. The first (of potentially three) cloture votes is scheduled for this evening. A successful vote will kick off the consideration of amendments. There are indications that this could take through next week sometime to pass this bill.

The House is currently scheduled to consider seven bills (nothing of particular interest here) under the suspension of the rules process tomorrow. Then they will take up the DOD spending bill under a rule. Currently there is no mention of any action on a Biden impeachment bill this week.

Review - HR 4365 Introduced – FY 2024 DOD Spending

Back in June, Rep Calvert (R,CA) introduced HR 4365, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. There are no cybersecurity references in the bill, but the Report includes a number of discussions about cybersecurity issues.

Moving Forward

See my July post on spending bill issues. If anything, the problems outlined in that post have actually gotten more complicated with additional posturing by the Republican 11, and ‘less extreme’ Republicans like Rep Greene (R,GA).

With two other spending bills (HR 4367 [removed from paywall] - DHS and HR 4665 - State Dept) on the meeting schedule for next week, and one already approved for floor action (HR 4368 [removed from paywall], Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies), we will be able to see what kind of chance these bills actually have of getting to the floor in the House and then passed (maybe). Senate action (bipartisan substitute language) will be less problematic, but then the political histrionics will be focused on the conference committees. If/then there will be a final vote in the House to watch for.

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill and the discussions in the Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4365-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 6-27-23

Yesterday, with the House meeting in proforma session, there were 37 bills introduced. Six of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 4364 Making appropriations for the Legislative Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Amodei, Mark E. [Rep.-R-NV-2]

HR 4365 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 Calvert, Ken [Rep.-R-CA-41]

HR 4366 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 Carter, John R. [Rep.-R-TX-31]

HR 4367 Making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Joyce, David P. [Rep.-R-OH-14]

HR 4368 Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Harris, Andy [Rep.-R-MD-1] 

HR 4387 To amend the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program providing for the establishment of Agriculture Cybersecurity Centers, and for other purposes. Nunn, Zachary [Rep.-R-IA-3]

I will be covering HR 4365, HR 4367 and HR 4387.

I will be watching the remaining spending bills for language that specifically cover cybersecurity provisions not dealing with internal agency cybersecurity.