Congress returned to Washington from its two-week July 4th recess this week – and issues important to ISCPO members have heated up along with the summer temperatures!
House Spending Bills Address Critical Supply Chain Issues
The House Committee on Appropriations has recently acted on several annual spending bills, including measures on Homeland Security, Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation and others. All told, the Committee has now approved all 12 of the annual spending bills, either at the full- or subcommittee level. Final action on all these bills is expected in the House in the coming weeks.
The Homeland Security appropriations bill, in addition to funding all the activities of the Department of Homeland Security, increases federal spending to help prevent cyber-attacks and root out cyber intrusions, according to a committee press release. In addition, the bill directs the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), to “continue engaging in public-private partnerships and collaborate directly with industry partners on supply chain risk management projects.”
The Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, which was approved at the subcommittee level, provides $10 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program to create a national supply chain database to connect manufacturers and suppliers in the event future supply chain disruptions.
The committee also released details of its Transportation spending measure. According to the committee’s legislative report, the bill addresses issues related to maritime cargo, truck size and weight, commerce corridors, and general surface transportation matters. The report also notes that the Department of Transportation (DOT) is broadly reviewing “America’s Supply Chains” as required by an Executive Order from President Biden earlier this year. The committee directs DOT to submit its report on the review – to include policy recommendations – to the committee once it is completed.
House Democratic Leadership will want to complete floor action on as many of the spending bills as possible before the month-long August recess begins. However, the Senate is not expected to take action on any of its appropriations bills before September. With an evenly split chamber of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, Senate negotiations over the spending legislation will be fraught and lengthy. Still, it is important to remember that, in a time of considerable partisan wrangling in Washington, appropriations measures are considered “must-pass” bills, since they are necessary to keep the government up-and-running. Despite the ups and downs of the legislative process, some version of these spending measures will pass. We will keep a close eye on the process to see which of the supply chain security provisions make it across the finish line.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Negotiations Continue
President Biden continues to publicly work for an agreement with a bipartisan group of “moderate” Senators on infrastructure legislation that would help build and repair roads, bridges, and other “hard infrastructure” projects. (This would be a broad “authorization” bill separate and apart from the “appropriations” bills referenced above, which only fund existing programs.) While the momentum behind the bipartisan framework negotiated last month is on-again and off-again, there has plenty of behind-the-scenes work to flesh out the legislative details. The bill will need 60 votes to avoid a filibuster in the evenly divided Senate. And broad bipartisan agreement is also important in the House, since Democrats have only a narrow 4-seat majority there.
Despite progress, difficult issues remain, including how to pay for nearly $600 billion in new spending contemplated under the deal. Some of the agreement’s proposed funding consists of areas that the Congressional Budget Office has historically looked on with skepticism, such as enhanced IRS tax enforcement and “dynamic” scoring. And there are reports that some Republicans who were initially party to the agreement are wavering in their support, particularly given questions about how to off-set the costs. While there is a long way to go before this agreement is put in final legislative form, this is a high priority for President Biden and the Democratic party. And, most Republicans would also like to see legislation to help with their constituents’ infrastructure needs. While the odds for a bipartisan deal may be long, there are plenty of reasons for both sides to cooperate for a legislative result.
Senate Budget Resolution To Pave Way for Democrats’ Climate, And “Human Infrastructure” Agenda
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats reached agreement on a whopping $3.5 Trillion budget resolution that they expect to pass with only Democratic votes under expedited “reconciliation” procedures. The agreement, which has to be approved by the Senate Budget Committee and the full Senate, envisions many of the climate change, health care, education and family service policies that were advocated by Joe Biden during his presidential campaign. The budget resolution — which can pass with a simple majority – will merely set the parameters for specific legislation that will have to be drafted later. But it will lay out the dollars and the framework for the Democrats’ priorities on these issues and is a necessary first step to moving legislation via the reconciliation process. Since neither the resolution nor the reconciliation bill are expected to garner any Republican support, Democratic leadership will be working hard to ensure that all Democrats stay on board to vote for these measures. Among the reasons the bill will be of interest to supply chain security leaders is that Democrats are seeking to pay for much of it through higher taxes, not to mention the climate policies that will likely impact the movement of cargo through the supply chain.
New Leader for Federal Cybersecurity Agency
Jen Easterly was sworn-in as the new head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on July 13th, after her nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate a day earlier. Prior to coming to CISA, Easterly was head of Firm Resilience and the Fusion Resilience Center at Morgan Stanley, responsible for ensuring preparedness and response to business-disrupting operational incidents and risks. Director Easterly served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism in the Obama Administration, and earlier as the Executive Assistant to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in the George W. Bush Administration. CISA plays an increasingly important role securing the Nation’s supply chains as cyber-attacks proliferate across the economy.