Review – S 2354 Introduced – FY 2026 CJS Spending

Back in July Sen Moran (R,KS) introduced S 2354, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill includes two cybersecurity mentions. The Report includes a significant number of cybersecurity mentions and earmarks, as well as one UAS discussion.

This bill is similar to S 4795, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, that was reported in the Senate on July 25^th, 2025. No further action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress, or on its House counterpart HR 9026.

Moving Forward

The plan in the House currently appears to be to add the language of S 2354 to the substitute language for the consideration of HR 4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate has not yet held their first cloture vote that would allow actual debate to begin on the bill. This probably signifies that there is still some backroom dealing going on to determine the broad outline of what will end up in the Senate version of the bill. Then further dealing with determine what further amendments will be considered on the floor.

Right now, SA 3951 from Sen Collins (Chair of the Appropriations Committee) is the current candidate for the substitute language to be considered, and it includes the language from S 2354. But a lot can happen in the short legislative month of December.

 

For more information on the cyber and UAS provisions of this bill, including cyber earmarks, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2354-introduced-fy-2026-cjs-spending - subscription required.

HR 4016 to be Considered in Senate – DOD Spending bill

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week the Congressional Record noted that the “Senate began consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of H.R. 4016, making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026.” No amendments were listed as having been submitted on either day. The Senate had started to consider the bill back in October, going so far as the filing of a cloture motion to proceed to consideration of the bill, but the cloture vote never happened.

On Thursday Sen Collins submitted SA 3951 as substitute language that the Senate would consider as the first amendment to HR 4016. That amendment would include language from the following Senate bills:

S 2752 (Div A), DOD spending,

S 2354 (Div B), CJS spending,

S 2431 (Div C), IER spending,

S 2587 (Div D), LHH spending, and

S 2465 (Div E), THUD spending.

NOTE: the bills listed above without links have yet to be covered in detail in this blog. I will look at them in the coming week before the Senate comes back to Washington in December.

There is still a lot of political posing, wrangling, and deal making before the Senate gets to a final vote on HR 4016. And then the bill will have to go back to the House where Johnson will require votes from Democrats to pass any language that would meet the minimal bipartisan requirements of the Senate. More likely, the House would insist on their single-bill language and the Senate version would disappear in conference until it was brought back in whole cloth in the January 30^th version of a spending bill/CR.

HR 3944 Considered in Senate – MilCon Spending – 7-24-25

Yesterday the Senate continued their consideration of HR 3944, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. There were 19 amendments proposed with most being proposed revisions to SA 2976, the substitute language that was proposed on Tuesday. The most interesting amendment is SA 3038, another substitute language amendment proposed by Sen Collins (R,ME). Similar to Wednesday’s SA 2977, it would combine some version of the Senate’s Milcon spending language (SA 2976), the Senate’s AER spending bill (S 2256) and the Senate’s CJS spending bill (S 2354). There is too much detail involved to be able to tell the differences between the various versions proposed to date.

Review - Bills Introduced – 7-17-25

Yesterday, with the House and Senate preparing to leave for a long weekend, there were 127 bills introduced. Three of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

• S 2320 A bill to require the Secretary of Transportation to promulgate regulations relating to the approval of foreign manufacturers of cylinders, and for other purposes. Moreno, Bernie [Sen.-R-OH]

• S 2342 An original bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2026 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Intelligence Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes. Cotton, Tom [Sen.-R-AR]

• S 2354 An original bill making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes. Moran, Jerry [Sen.-R-KS] 

 

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118th, and a mention in passing about a 49 USC technical update bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-7-17-25 - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 05-20-14

Both the Senate and House were in session yesterday and a total of 31 bills were introduced. Four of those bills may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 4687 Latest Title: To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for the inspection of pipeline facilities that are transferred by sale and pipeline facilities that are abandoned, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Hahn, Janice (D,CA)

HR 4689 Latest Title: To require a plan approved by the Surface Transportation Board for the long-term storage of rail cars on certain railroad tracks. Sponsor: Rep Kline, John (R,MN)

S 2354 Latest Title: A bill to improve cybersecurity recruitment and retention. Sponsor: Sen Carper, Thomas R. (D,DE)

S 2365 Latest Title: A bill to prohibit the long-term storage of rail cars on certain railroad tracks unless the Surface Transportation Board has approved the rail carrier's rail car storage plan. Sponsor: Sen Klobuchar, Amy (D,MN)

The two railcar storage bills are probably identical companion measures. I’ll report on them if they contain specific language referring to railcars containing hazardous chemicals.

I suspect that the cybersecurity bill refers to ‘recruitment and retention’ in the Federal sector, so it may not get any additional coverage unless the language will have specific impact on the private sector.