HR 5894 Introduced
FY 2024 LHH Spending
Last month, Rep Aderholt (R,AL) introduced HR 5894, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. There is no report from the House Appropriations Committee on this legislation, instead the Committee staff has published an explanatory materials document, reflecting the fact that the Committee has not held a markup hearing on the bill.
There are no cybersecurity mentions in the bill, but the explanatory document does outline cybersecurity spending and discussions. There are three mentions of spending for chemical emergency response in the bill and multiple discussions on the topic in the explanatory text.
Cybersecurity
While the bill does not contain any cybersecurity language, cybersecurity spending is outlined explanatory text. That spending includes:
Cybersecurity and Software Development Employment Opportunities - $40 million for competitive grants to institutions of higher education, State Workforce Agencies, local workforce development boards, and employer associations for the purpose of a targeted high-skill job training grant to help increase training capacity to meet this demand (pg 6),
NIH Office of Director - $265 million for cybersecurity (pg 95), and
HHS CIO - $100 million for IT cybersecurity (pg 172).
There is a discussion on page 199 about the lack of cybersecurity coverage in training programs for cyberphysical system operators financed through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) grant program. The Committee encourages the Secretary to support CTE programs that integrate cybersecurity into curricula used by students preparing for careers in critical infrastructure sectors.
Chemical Emergency Response
There are three separate mentions in the bill regarding spending for ‘potential chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats to civilian populations’:
Public Health Preparedness and Response - for expenses necessary to support activities related to countering potential biological, nuclear, radiological, and chemical threats to civilian populations, $735,000,000 (pg 59),
Research, Development, and Procurement - research, development, storage, production, and procurement of medical countermeasures to counter potential chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats to civilian populations, $3,277,991,000 (pg 92), and
Operations and Emergency Response - operations and emergency response activities related to countering potential chemical biological, radiological, and nuclear threats and other public health emergencies, $342,606,000 (pg 94).
As is fairly typical, the explanatory text reflects the biological focus of the congressional view of CBRN threats. This can be seen in the discussion on ‘Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Threats’ (pg 153) and in the discussion on ‘Setting Priorities’ on the bottom of page 4.
There is a lengthy discussion on pages 156-7 under the general heading of ‘Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)’ on ‘Deoxyribonucleic Acid Synthesis’ and the potential threat of the use of new DNA synthesis technology to develop new or modified ‘Select Agents’ for terrorist attacks. It requires DHS and HHS to prepare a classified briefing on the threat for the Committee and directs HHS “to propose an updated regulatory framework for screening synthetic genetic material to prevent the mistaken or malicious production of biological agents”.
Moving Forward
The House Rules Committee announced yesterday that they would hold a rules hearing on this bill on November 13th, 2023. To date, 326 amendments have been proposed for consideration during this rule development hearing. None of the amendments are of specific interest here. With this hearing on Monday, the House could start consideration of the bill on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.