Review - HR 4754 Introduced – FY 2026 IER Spending

Back in July Rep Simpson (R,ID) introduced HR 4754, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies [IER] Appropriations Act, 2026. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. There is no specific cybersecurity funding mentioned in the bill. The bill does contain reduced funding for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB).

HR 4754 is similar to HR 8998, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies [IER] Appropriations Act, 2024, that was introduced by Simpson in July 2024. That bill was passed in the House on July 24th, 2024, in a party-line vote. No action was taken in the Senate.

Moving Forward

It is not clear at this point if this bill will make it to the floor of the House for consideration. It was hoped by the Republican leadership that a short CR would have allowed for consideration of each of the spending bills in an apparently outdated regular order. That process is wholly dependent on a CR being passed before midnight of September 30^th. A government shutdown will almost certainly ultimately lead to an agreement on another year end massive spending bill.

 

For more information on cybersecurity and CSB funding see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4754-introduced-fy-2026-ier-spending - subscription required.

Review - S 4802 Introduced – FY 2025 IER Spending

Last month, Sen Merkley (D,OR) introduced S 4802, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill contains one minor cybersecurity mention. It also includes funding for the Chemical Safety Board. The Committee Report includes two cybersecurity discussions, a discussion about the CSB, and three chemical safety issues.

The House version of this bill is HR 8998 [removed from paywall]. That bill passed in the House on July 24^th, by a straight party-line vote of 210 to 202.

Moving Forward

As noted above, the House passed HR 8998 last month. If the Senate takes up that bill (and the chances are rather slim), the language from this bill will be substituted for the House language as the starting point for the debate. While there will be sufficient bipartisan support for this language in the Senate for passage, there will be some Republicans that will attempt to stall debate.

Ultimately, the chances of any individual spending bill getting to the President’s desk this session are vanishingly small. We are most likely going to see a continuing resolution by the end of next month. With Republicans less confident in Trump's election we are likely to see an end date for that CR early in December. A positive (for the Republicans) election result will likely see a second CR pushing the final date of an omnibus (or two minibus) spending bill until next Spring. A negative result will likely see a spending bill on Biden’s desk in December.

 

For more details about the provisions in this bill and the discussions in the Committee Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4802-introduced - subscription required.

House Passed HR 8998 – FY 2025 IER Spending Bill

The House resumed consideration of HR 8998, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies [IER] Appropriations Act, this morning. They just finished action on the bill, passing it by a straight party-line vote of 210 to 202.

No action was taken on HR 8897, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, even though the House completed consideration of all the authorized amendments yesterday. A planned vote for last night was cancelled when it was apparent to the leadership that there were not enough votes to pass the bill.

Spending Bills Considered in the House – HR 8997 and HR 8998 – 7-23-24

The House began consideration today of two spending bills, HR 8997 (the FY 2025 EWR spending bill) and HR 8998 (the FY 2025 IER spending bill), under the provisions of H Res 1370, which was approved earlier this morning by a straight party-line vote of 211 to 197 (with 24 members not voting).

HR 8997

Consideration started with HR 8997, starting with an en bloc amendment that contained 28 separate amendments. This en bloc included Amendment #30 offered by Rep Moylan (R,Guam) that calls for a CESER assessment on the cybersecurity of Guam's energy installations.  

There was an additional cybersecurity amendment that I had missed in yesterday’s post. Amendment #74 was offered by Rep Van Drew (R,NJ). It would move $10,000,000 from renewable energy programs to enhance the security of existing electrical transformers from cyber threats and from physical attacks from individuals. It was debated for 6-minutes, and a recorded vote was demanded. The amendment subsequently passed by a vote of 214 to 203 with 9 Republicans voting Nay and 10 Democrats voting Aye.

Action was completed on all amendments and a final vote was postponed, probably until tomorrow.

HR 8998

The House began consideration of HR 8998 at about 6:00 pm EDT. None of the amendments to be considered under H Res 1370 are of particular interest here. As of the time of this writing (10:43 pm EDT), the House is debating Amendment #42. With a total of 97 amendments to consider the House is unlikely to try to finish up tonight.

We will probably see final votes on both bills tomorrow afternoon.

Review - HR 8998 Introduced – FY 2025 IER Spending

Earlier this month, Rep Simpson (R,ID) introduced HR 8898, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies [IER] Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. There is no specific cybersecurity funding mentioned in the bill. The bill does contain reduced funding for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and one chemical safety funding restriction. The Report discusses one cybersecurity spending issue and several chemical safety initiatives.

Moving Forward

This very partisan spending bill is scheduled to be considered this week. There will be no Democrats voting to support this bill, so the leadership will need nearly every Republican vote to pass the bill. The question is, will the radical wing of the party think that the bill goes far enough to castrate the operations of the EPA. If their answer is no, this bill will not pass.

 

For more details about the provisions of this legislation, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8998-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 7-11-24

With both the House and Senate in Washington (and the House leaving for a district week), there were 106 bills introduced yesterday. Ten of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 8996 To enhance safety requirements for trains transporting hazardous materials, and for other purposes. Nehls, Troy E. [Rep.-R-TX-22]

HR 8997 Making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other purposes. Fleischmann, Charles J. "Chuck" [Rep.-R-TN-3]

HR 8998 Making appropriations for the Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other purposes. Simpson, Michael K. [Rep.-R-ID-2]

HR 9026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025 Rogers, Harold [Rep.-R-KY-5]

S 4677 An original bill making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other purposes. Sinema, Kyrsten [Sen.-I-AZ]

S 4678 An original bill making appropriations for the Legislative Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other purposes. Reed, Jack [Sen.-D-RI] 

S 4690 An original bill making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other purposes. Heinrich, Martin [Sen.-D-NM]

S 4697 A bill to enhance the cybersecurity of the Healthcare and Public Health Sector. Rosen, Jacky [Sen.-D-NV]

S 4715 A bill to require the National Cyber Director to submit to Congress a plan to establish an institute within the Federal Government to serve as a centralized resource and training center for Federal cyber workforce development. Rounds, Mike [Sen.-R-SD]

S 4719 A bill to provide the Secretary of Energy with the authority to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to improve the security and resilience of defense critical electric infrastructure and reduce the vulnerability of critical defense facilities to the disruption of the supply of energy to those facilities, and for other purposes. Cortez Masto, Catherine [Sen.-D-NV]

I will be covering the six spending bills (HR 8997, HR 8998, HR 9026, S 4677, S 4678, and S 4690).

I will be covering HR 8996, S 4715, and S 4719.

I will be watching S 4697 for language and definitions that would specifically include medical devices and other operational technologies used in the healthcare sector.