The effort to establish stronger chemical security measures suffered a significant setback the week of May 21 with the loss of a provision from the Iraq supplemental spending bill that would have prohibited the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from preempting state law on matters of chemical security. In order to galvanize support for comprehensive chemical security reform, a group of public interest and environmental organizations wrote to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Chairwoman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection. The letter encouraged the members to continue their work on ensuring strong chemical security protections.

On May 24, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the 2008 Intelligence Authorization Bill, which includes a number of important open government and accountability measures. Having failed to pass an intelligence authorization bill for the previous two years, the full Senate is expected to consider the measure later this summer, and the House passed the bill 225-197 earlier in May.

Two senators sent a letter to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Rob Portman urging OMB to abandon its plans for government-wide risk assessment standards. The letter comes shortly after the White House indicated it may renew its efforts on finalizing the standards.

The struggle between Congress and the White House over the $120 billion supplemental war funding bill ended last week when, on May 24, Congress sent President Bush a version of the bill that he signed into law. The final bill (H.R. 2206) — the largest supplemental spending bill in the history of the United States — also raises the minimum wage for the first time in over ten years, a fact that seems to have been lost in national news coverage.