Last week, the House of Representatives passed notable bills honoring the late Charlie Kirk and a continuing resolution to fund the federal government, thereby avoiding an imminent shutdown. However, the House also passed notable bills on policing, energy, and infrastructure.
House Resolution (HR) 5143, known as the District of Columbia (DC) Policing Protection Act, repeals restrictions on the circumstances under which police officers in DC may engage in vehicular pursuits of suspects fleeing in motor vehicles.
The bill requires such pursuits in the absence of other means of apprehension. Currently, under DC law, law enforcement officers may not engage in vehicular pursuits unless the officer reasonably believes the suspect was involved in a crime of violence or poses an immediate and serious threat to another person.
The officer must also reasonably believe the pursuit is necessary to prevent that threat and is not likely to result in death or serious injury to any person, and all other options have been exhausted or are unreasonable given the circumstances.
The House also passed HR 3062, known as the Promoting Cross-border Energy Infrastructure Act. This bill establishes a new process for approving or revoking permits for the construction and operation of energy infrastructure across the border of the United States.
Essentially, HR 3062 replaces the existing process established under specified executive orders. It requires a person to obtain a certificate of crossing before constructing, connecting, operating, or maintaining a border-crossing facility for the import or export of oil or natural gas, or the transmission of electricity, across a U.S. border with Canada or Mexico
Finally, the House passed HR 1047, known as the Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable (GRID) Power Act. This bill requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to revise the prioritization and approval process for interconnection requests for dispatchable power projects.
HR 1047 requires FERC to address the efficiency and effectiveness of the existing procedures for processing interconnection requests for new dispatchable power projects. The bill also requires the revision of pro Forma Large Generator procedures to improve grid reliability and resource adequacy by assigning projects by priority.
