House To Consider HR 4365
FY 2024 DOD Spending
Last night the House Rules Committee completed their development of a rule for the consideration of HR 4365 [removed from paywall], the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024. They provided a structured rule (limited debate of specifically approved amendments) with 184 amendments approved for consideration. These include two cybersecurity related amendments and two chemical related amendments.
Cybersecurity Related Amendments
The two cybersecurity related amendments that have been approved for consideration by the full House are:
84. Lamborn (CO), Cartwright (PA): Increases Army Research, Development, Test And Evaluation (RDT&E) by $2,500,000 and decreases Army, Environmental Restoration funds by $2.5M. This increase would allow Defensive CYBER - Software Prototype Development, to develop fieldable AI-based Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) to detect cyber intrusions and data manipulation utilizing the U.S. Army Garrison Defense Platform. (10 minutes)
111. Franklin (FL): Increase Navy RDT&E funding by $6.5 million for the Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management program and reduces DefenseWide RDT&E. (10 minutes)
Chemical Related Amendments
The two chemical related amendments that have been approved for consideration by the full House are:
14. Gonzales, Tony (TX), Crow (CO): Increases and decreases Operation and Maintenance, Air Force by $7.2 million with the intent to establish a modern Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) facility to maintain maximum readiness posture. (10 minutes)
69. Sherrill (NJ): Directs $2.5 million from Defense-Wide Operations and Maintenance to Army RDT&E, intended to fund critical energetic materials chemistries and chemical synthesis technologies, as authorized by the House-passed FY2024 NDAA. (10 minutes)
NOTE: The House uses the ‘increased by and decreased by’ amendment technique to call special attention to a spending item that is not actually listed in the bill but is referenced in the spending tables in the Committee Report.
Moving Forward
The House is scheduled to begin consideration of HR 4365 today. There is a possibility that the Rules Committee will meet again this afternoon to consider additional amendments that may be added for consideration tomorrow. It is unlikely that there will be significant support for this bill by Democrats. It currently looks like there will be sufficient Republican support to pass the bill.
Commentary
While this bill in its current form has little chance of consideration, much less passage, in the Senate (and that will only get worse after the partisan amendment process we will see in the House this week), there was never any chance that the Senate would actually take up the House language. The first thing the Senate will do is substitute the language from S 2587 for the House language and amend things from there. The heavy lifting of getting language that can pass in both the House and Senate will be accomplished in a conference committee. That process will not be completed by the September 30th deadline to keep the military funded. A continuing resolution will be necessary.