July 12th, 2002
Darren Samuelsohn and Damon Franz, Environment & Energy
Daily staff writers
Environment and Energy Daily
The White House scored a significant victory late Thursday
night when the House Government Reform Committee rejected, by an
11-22 vote, a Democratic amendment to the Cabinet-level homeland
security bill that would have removed language creating a new
exemption to the Freedom of Information Act.
The committee approved the bill, 30-2, with Reps. Dennis
Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii) in opposition.
Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) brought forward the FOIA
amendment at the tail end of a marathon markup. Her language
would have stripped from the Bush administration proposal, H.R.
5005, and the chairman's mark from Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), a
section that allows any nongovernment entity to submit critical
infrastructure materials to the government without fear of their
disclosure. Schakowsky argued that the FOIA exemption could trickle
down to affect a range of other materials, including
environmental information that is currently required under law
to be disclosed. The exemption's supporters, however, said the
language is narrow in its scope and solely aimed at encouraging
better homeland security communication between industry and
government officials.
Senate Democrats are not expected to include the
administration's FOIA exemption in their proposal.
In addition, the Government Reform Committee accepted by
voice vote an amendment from Rep. Thomas Davis (R-Va.) that
gives the nongovernment information providers -- including the
electric, chemical and water utility industries -- a safe harbor
from future liability and anti-trust suits. Concerned that
additional lobbying materials would be included in the
exemption, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) added a last-minute
amendment calling for no such information to be submitted. Davis
has proposed identical language through his bill, H.R. 2435, for
more than a year (Environment & Energy Daily, Oct. 9).
Lawmakers in the Government Reform panel also accepted by
voice vote an amendment from Kucinich that would provide legal
and salary whistle-blower protections to employees of the new
Homeland Security Department. Kucinich, among others, contended
that H.R. 5005 offered no such assurances.
At the start of the markup, Burton said his panel had the
most important task out of all the other House committees
handling portions of the homeland security legislation. "This is
not part of the issue," he said. "It's the whole issue."
No doubt, Thursday was one of the busiest days so far on
Capitol Hill with regard to homeland security. In all, five
panels marked up H.R. 5005 in order to complete their work by
Friday and hand in their recommendations to the newly created
Select Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Majority
Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas.). Armey has recently said that
the committees' work is nonbinding and he could take any or all
of their suggestions or head in his own direction.
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) said he was
concerned by Armey's statements and warned of a potentially
partisan floor fight over H.R. 5005. "I hope [Armey] doesn't
throw all of them in the trash can and then just put the Bush
bill on the floor," Gephardt said. "If that's what happens, why
did we sent it to the committees? We wasted our time."
Armey's committee held its first hearing Thursday, with
four top members of the Bush administration Cabinet -- Attorney
General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Secretary of State Colin
Powell -- urging the panel to not let jurisdictional battles get
in the way of creating the new department. During opening
statements, Armey said he did not want to address the details of
the homeland security legislation until the committees had
finished their work.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is aiming to
hold a markup in the next two weeks on the upper chamber's
committee recommendations. Serving as the legislative vehicle is
S. 2452, a bill from Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.)
that advanced in mid-May out of his panel along party lines.
House and Senate floor action on their respective homeland
security bills are expected during the week of July 22.
COMMITTEE APPROVES CYBERSECURITY COMPONENTS
The House Energy and Commerce Committee, meanwhile,
approved by voice vote a slight rewrite of the health and
computer infrastructure components of H.R. 5005. Chairman Billy
Tauzin (R-La.) said his manager's mark would expand the primary
functions of the new undersecretary for Information Analysis and
Infrastructure Protection -- as called for by the White House --
through the establishment of a federal cybersecurity program.
The new office would serve as a resource to other federal
agencies to help each identify and correct weaknesses in their
critical computer infrastructure, Tauzin said.
Tauzin said his mark also ensures that the Department of
Health and Human Services would maintain primary responsibility
over human health-related research while collaborating with the
new homeland security office on issues related to
counterterrorism. The new Homeland Security Department secretary
receives additional authority under the Tauzin mark by calling
for the development of a national strategy for bioterrorism
research.
The chairman's mark also includes language to ensure that
the legislation does not create new regulatory authority or
override existing regulatory authority of other agencies unless
it is specifically transferred to the new department. Committee
ranking member John Dingell (D-Mich.) said he was satisfied with
the mark, citing both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the
Environmental Protection Agency as government entities that he
would be watching closely.
Elsewhere, an amendment related to nuclear security, in
particular radioactive "dirty bombs," from Rep. Edward Markey
(D-Mass.) was deemed nongermane by Tauzin. Markey then appealed
the chairman's decision, a move that was tabled by Rep.
Christopher Cox (R-Calif.). Markey sought a roll-call vote on
the table, losing 37-7. At issue in the Markey language was the
creation of a special task force on sealed source protection
that would have included NRC, FBI, CIA, Justice, State, Defense
and Energy departments and the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. At its core, the group would file a report to Congress
and the president on sealed-source vulnerabilities, recovery of
lost and stolen goods, a national tracking system and the
consideration of alternative technologies.
Anticipating another parliamentarian block, Markey
proposed and then withdrew an amendment that would have called
on the private sector to pay at least 50 percent of the costs to
comply with federal requirements on new security measures at all
of the nation's privately owned critical infrastructure. Tauzin
said he agreed with Markey that the issue was a pertinent one
but that he'd rather bring it before the Select Committee later
this month without having it attached to his chairman mark.
PANEL BACKS KEEPING COAST GUARD, FEMA OUT OF NEW DEPARTMENT
In a major blow to the White House's proposal, the
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in bipartisan
fashion rejected a Bush plan to shift the Coast Guard, FEMA and
the new Transportation Safety Administration into the Homeland
Security Department.
The manager's amendment, from Chairman Don Young
(R-Alaska), was accepted by voice vote and calls on the Coast
Guard to stay under the Transportation Department. The mark also
creates a new undersecretary with duties specific to homeland
security and calls on the Coast Guard to conduct its core
missions -- including oil spill response and recovery and
fishery enforcement -- at the "adequate levels as envisioned by
Congress."
The Government Reform Committee, however, may have
monkeywrenched the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's
recommendation on the Coast Guard late Thursday when the former
panel rejected a similar amendment by a 16-19 vote. Reps. John
Mica (R-Fla.) and John Tierney (D-Mass.) sponsored the
Government Reform Committee language but were overpowered during
the vote by panel Republicans who argued to stay with the White
House's proposal.
Back in the Transportation and Infrastructure panel,
Young's mark also made a jurisdictional statement over the
Highway Trust Fund and other transportation trust funds through
language prohibiting their transfer to the Homeland Security
Department. Young said he included the language after
determining that H.R. 5005 provides broad authority to transfer
funds from agencies that would be headed to the new department
without going through appropriations committees. Another Young
amendment calls on the Homeland Security Department to adhere to
the Administrative Procedure Act upon the adoption of any new
regulations.
Steve Hansen, a Young spokesman, said the Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee would be watching the Select
Committee closely to ensure their language remains intact
despite the White House's previously stated position. If
changed, Hansen said the 75 members of the transportation panel
would seek other lawmakers' support in asking the Rules
Committee for an open rule and an opportunity to modify the
language on the House floor. Young would also consider a
campaign to kill a closed rule should the Rules Committee send
the bill to the floor in such a form, Hansen said.
