Review – HR 6507 Introduced - DHS Grants Accountability Act

Last month Rep Kennedy (D,NY) introduced HR 6507, the DHS Grants Accountability Act. The bill would require DHS to award homeland security grants, and revise deadlines and application requirements for those grants. No new funding is authorized.

The covered grant programs would include:

Urban Area Security Initiative,

State Homeland Security Grant Program, and

Nonprofit Security Grant Program

Public Transportation Grants,

Railroad Security Assistance,

Over-The-Road Bus Security Assistance, and

Port Security Grants.

Moving Forward

Both Kennedy and his sole cosponsor, Rep Thompson (D,MS) are members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there could be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. Unfortunately, this bill was crafted to prevent the current Administration from withholding grant funding as was done last year. This means that the current leadership is unlikely to allow the bill to be considered. If it were to be considered, I suspect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for the bill. Whether it would be sufficient to allow the bill to be taken up by the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-6507-introduced-dhs-grants-accountability - subscription required.

Review – Bills Introduced – 12-9-25

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there were 77 bills introduced. Two of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 6507 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and certain other laws relating to certain preparedness, transit, and port security grant programs to improve oversight, transparency, and stakeholder engagement in the administration of such grant programs, and for other purposes. Kennedy, Timothy M. [Rep.-D-NY-26]

HR 6530 To require the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Defense to include training on artificial intelligence cybersecurity issues for members of the Armed Forces and civilian employees of the Department of Defense, and for other purposes. Larsen, Rick [Rep.-D-WA-2] 

Space Geek

I would like to mention one bill under my limited Space Geek coverage in this blog:

S 3404 A bill to require a report on Federal support to the cybersecurity of commercial satellite systems, and for other purposes. Peters, Gary C. [Sen.-D-MI]

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118^th Congress, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-12-9-25 - subscription required.