Review – S 2431 Introduced – FY 2026 IER Spending

Back in July Sen Murkowski (R,AK) introduced S 2431, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. At the same time the Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report for the bill. The bill includes one cybersecurity mention and there were two related discussions in the Report. The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) was funded. There were seven additional chemical related discussions in the Report, including spending allocations and earmarks.

S 2431 is similar to S 4802, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, that was introduced by Sen Merkley in July 2024. No action was taken on that bill in the 118th Congress. HR 8988, the closely related House bill was passed in the House by a vote of 210 to 205, but no action was taken on the bill in the Senate.

Moving Forward

The plan in the House currently appears to be to add the language of S 2431 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 indicates 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 2431. 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-2431-introduced-fy-2026-ier-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.

Review - Bills Introduced – 7-24-25

Yesterday with just the Senate in Washington, there were 49 bills introduced. Three of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 4754 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026 Rep. Simpson, Michael K. [R-ID-2]

S 2431 An original bill making appropriations for the Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes. Murkowski, Lisa [Sen.-R-AK]

S 2465 An original bill making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes. Hyde-Smith, Cindy [Sen.-R-MS]

 

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118th, as well as a mention in passing of an administrative agency sunset bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-7-24-25 - subscription required.