Review - S 2438 Introduced -FY 2024 State Spending

Back in July, Sen Coons (D,DE) introduced S 2438, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (State) Appropriations Act, 2024. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the legislation. The bill contains IT related cybersecurity provisions and there are multiple cybersecurity discussions in the Report.

The House version of this bill (HR 4665) passed in the House by a near party-line vote of vote of 216 to 212 on September 28^th, 2023.

Moving Forward

When the Senate takes up HR 4665, one of the first amendments that will be considered will be substitute language based upon this bill. While this bill had bipartisan support in the Senate Appropriations Committee, it is becoming increasingly evident that some of the more intransigent Republican will employ a full array of legislative delaying tactics to attempt to impede the passage of bipartisan spending bills. They do not have the votes to make significant changes to the spending limits, so it is not clear what their purpose is beyond giving moral support to the House Republicans in their efforts to reduce spending.

Once some version of this language passes in the Senate, a conference committee will strive to workout the differences between the two versions of the bill. A version of the bill that could pass in the Senate would require Democratic votes to pass in the House. How this would work in a post-McCarthy House remains to be seen.

 

For more information about the cybersecurity provisions of the bill and discussions in the Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2438-introduced - subscription required.

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.

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.

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 – 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.