Senate to Take Up HR 6157 – FY 2019 DOD Spending

Yesterday the Senate returned from the first part of their abbreviated summer recess as part of their August agenda it was announced that they would take up HR 6157, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019. There are at least two nominations that will be dealt with before the consideration process begins on that bill.

The amendment process began yesterday with three amendments being offered. The most important will be SA 3695 (pg S5622-59) being offered by Sen. Shelby (R,AL). This is the substitute language that will be considered instead of the House language on the bill. This language was generally taken from S 3159 (the Senate version of the bill), but also includes language from S 3158, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019. Neither bill has been reviewed here as I found little of specific interest to readers of this blog.

Bills Introduced – 06-28-18

With both the House and Senate preparing to leave Washington for the very-long 4^th of July weekend there were 91 bills introduced yesterday. Of those, four may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

S 3153 An original bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes. Sen. Burr, Richard [R-NC]

S 3158 An original bill making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes. Sen. Blunt, Roy [R-MO]

S 3159 An original bill making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes. Sen. Shelby, Richard C. [R-AL]

S 3182 A bill to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to provide for the responsibility of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center to maintain capabilities to identify threats to industrial control systems, and for other purposes. Sen. Sasse, Ben [R-NE]

It will be interesting to see if S 3182 is a companion bill to HR 5733 (which passed in the House earlier this week), or if this is a version that addresses some of the definition problems that plague the House bill.