S 2605 Introduced
FY 2024 IER Spending
Back in July, Sen Merkley (D,OR) introduced S 2605, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (IER) Appropriations Act, 2024. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. Like the House bill (HR 4821), the two cybersecurity mentions in the bill are buried in other funding, and there are two cybersecurity mentions in the Report. CSB funding is increased. And the Report includes two chemical safety discussions of note.
Cybersecurity
As I noted in my discussion of the House bill, the cybersecurity mentions in this legislation are buried in larger spending categories. This similarity is not unexpected since both Committees use the same format for spending bills. Looking at the larger spending categories does allow us to see in a general sense how the two bills differ in their spending allocations. The table below shows a comparison of how the two spending categories differ.
Cybersecurity in the Report
On page 83, under the heading ‘Homeland Security’ the report notes:
“The Committee urges the Agency [EPA] to prioritize activities related to the cybersecurity of the Nation’s water systems. The Committee is concerned by public reports of cyberattacks on water systems across the world and provides additional funding for the Agency to prevent cyber threats in coordination with other Federal agencies and partners.”
Under ‘Related Agencies’, on page 132 under the heading ‘National Gallery of Art’ the Report notes:
“The Gallery is directed to use the funding increase [$1.52 million] for high priority information technology and cybersecurity needs.”
Chemical Safety Board
The bill provides (pg 139) the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) with $14.4 million in funding. This is $3 million less than the President request, but $4.5 million more than provided in the House bill. It is the same funding level provided to the Board in FY 2023.
The commentary provided in the Report is more positive than neutral comments in the House report. The Committee notes:
“The Board has the important responsibility of independently investigating industrial chemical accidents and sharing safety lessons that can prevent future catastrophic incidents. The Board’s mission has become only more important as climate chaos and increasingly extreme weather events threaten chemical facilities. The Committee urges the Board to address long-standing management challenges and staff vacancy issues so that it can effectively and fully accomplish its critical mission.”
Chemical Safety
The Senate Committee generally provided similar comments on the EPA’s support for the new chemical assessment under the TSCA program. They specifically noted (pg 91) that:
“The Agency is directed to enhance communication, improve the transparency of the process, and communicate status of submissions with new chemicals submitters.”
On page 83, under the heading ‘Research: Chemical Safety and Sustainability’ the Committee directs:
“Of the funds provided [$132 million], $1,500,000 shall be used to develop and demonstrate nano-sensor technology with functionalized catalysts that have potential to degrade selected contaminants in addition to detecting and monitoring pollutants.”
Moving Forward
The Senate typically waits for the House to pass a spending bill and then begins its consideration of that bill by substituting language from their version of the spending bill. This year the Senate has tried a new tact by taking a single passed House bill (HR 4366) and adding Senate language from two other spending bills. This has the benefit of speeding up the consideration of spending bills. That could be important as the November 17th deadline for spending bills approaches.
But spending bill process problems still exist. See my post “Coming FY 2024 Spending Bill Logjams”.