Review - HR 5893 Introduced – FY 2024 CJS Spending

Last month, Rep Rogers (R,KY) introduced HR 5893, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee did not publish a report for this bill, nor has it published an explanatory text as it did for HR 5894. There are three cybersecurity mentions in the bill, none of particular interest here. There have been 285 amendments submitted to the House Rules Committee for possible inclusion in the rule for the consideration of the bill. Only one of those amendments is of potential specific interest here.

Moving Forward

The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow to formulate the rule for the consideration of the bill on the floor of the House. The bill could move to the floor later this week. Based upon actions from last week, I think that there is a very real possibility that the bill will proceed through consideration of the amendments selected by the Committee, but floor action will stop before the final vote is taken. I have no idea what the House leadership is going to do with HR 4820, the THUD spending bill, and HR 4664, the Financial Services spending bill, but I suspect they will have to do the same with this bill.

Commentary

Spending bills have always been something of a legislative problem, but this year the House Republicans have elevated the problems to heights never considered before. This bill, and its late introduction partner HR 5894, the LHH spending bill, were introduced almost three months after the other 10 spending bills this year, and more importantly after Speaker McCarthy was fired. The bill could not be offered earlier due to disagreements in the Committee about what anti-DOJ measures were going to be included. The inability of the Committee to come to agreement bodes ill for this bill moving forward in the House.

For more details about the cybersecurity issues addressed in the bill and amendments proposed for the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-5893-introduced - subscription required.

House Continues Consideration of HR 4664 – FY 2024 FinServices Spending

Yesterday, the House continued consideration of HR 4664, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024. The last four amendments listed in Part B of H Rept 118-269 were considered and three were adopted. The House recessed for the Veterans Day weekend without taking a vote on the amended bill.

TheHill.com is reporting that the House leadership was not sure that it had enough votes to pass the bill because of some Republican concerns over abortion provisions and FBI funding. Earlier this week similar non-actions were seen with HR 4820, the FY 2024 THUD spending bill. The inability of the House leadership to see controversial spending bills passed is going to complicate efforts to keep the government funded passed the current spending deadline of November 17^th, 2023, next Friday. 

House Begins Consideration of HR 4664 – FY 2024 FinServices Spending

Yesterday, the House began consideration of HR 4664, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024. There were 65 amendments considered yesterday, with one of those being an en bloc amendment for the consideration 22 non-controversial amendments listed in Part B of H Rept 118-269. Fifty-one of the offered amendments were agreed to.

The House is scheduled to resume consideration of the bill today. 

Review - H 4664 Introduced – FY 2024 FinServ Spending

Back in July, Rep Womack (R,AR) introduced HR 4664, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee also published their Report on the bill. There are actually three cybersecurity spending mentions included in the bill. There are multiple discussions about cybersecurity (mostly information technology related) issues in the Committee Report.

Moving Forward

To understand how politically polarized this spending bill is, one only has to look to the ‘Dissenting Views’ portion of the Committee Report on pages 289 thru 291. It is unlikely that there will be any Democratic votes for this bill if/when it comes to the House floor, but it is unclear whether the spending cuts have been sufficient to see the radical wing of the Republican Party vote for the bill.

Commentary

See my ‘Coming FY 2024 Spending Bill Logjams’ for my discussion about the problems passing spending bills this session. Those problems have been further compounded by the removal of Speaker McCarthy over the passage of the continuing resolution with Democratic support and the ongoing problem with electing a new speaker. Even if a new Speaker is elected in time enough to take actions on the pending spending bills, it is now very unlikely that there is enough time before November 17^th to get those bills through a conference Committee.

And a reminder, anything that comes out of conference in a form that could pass in the Senate will require Democratic votes to pass in the House. There is a very real possibility that that the passage of the first such bill would again trigger the removal of whomever is Speaker and initiate Speaker Chaos 3. Perhaps the new Speaker should just go for an omnibus spending bill out of the gate and lose their job over that. Then at least, the executive branch could continue to function.

 

For more details about the cybersecurity mentions in the bill and Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://open.substack.com/pub/patrickcoyle/p/h-4664-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 7-17-23

Yesterday, with just the House in session, there were 35 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 4664 Making appropriations for financial services and general government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Womack, Steve [Rep.-R-AR-3]

HR 4665 Making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Diaz-Balart, Mario [Rep.-R-FL-26]

HR 4669 To provide for Department of Energy, National Laboratories, and Small Business Administration joint research and development activities, and for other purposes. LaLota, Nick [Rep.-R-NY-1]

I will be watching the two spending bills for language related to cybersecurity.

I will be watching HR 4669 for language and definitions that would specifically include operational cybersecurity within the scope of the research encouraged by the legislation. I suspect that this generally related to energy efficiency not security issues.

Mention in Passing

Yesterday, Rep Donalds (R,FL) introduced five bills related to encouraging the use of advanced nuclear technology including micro reactors. Donalds played a very active role in delaying the approval of Rep McCarthy (R,CA) as Speaker of the House. It will be interesting to see how that plays out with respect to the consideration of the many pieces of legislation that he has introduced on advanced nuclear technology topics.

HR 4674 To establish a competitive grant program to fund feasibility studies for advanced nuclear reactors, and for other purposes.

HR 4675 To amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to clarify the organization and duties of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, and for other purposes.

HR 4676 To amend the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act to direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to further utilize a risk-informed and performance-based approach to licensing, to amend the hearing requirements for certain licenses under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, and for other purposes.

HR 4677 To provide additional Federal flexibility to enhance the development and deployment of advanced nuclear reactor technology, and for other purposes.

HR 4678 To direct the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish procedures for the deployment of microreactors at airports, and for other purposes.