House votes to authorize State Department programs for 2013

The House passed legislation Tuesday evening that authorizes the State Department, the Peace Corps, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors for 2013.

The bill, H.R. 6018, would mark the first time Congress has authorized State Department functions in more than 10 years. The bill was brought up under a suspension of House rules and passed easily in a 333-61 vote.

Among other things, the bill would authorize the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), which was created last year without congressional authorization. It would also create a new office to deal with cyber security issues, and make changes to the U.S. export control regime.

The House also approved S. 2009, the Insular Areas Act, in a 378-11 vote. That bill would require a study of possible health risks to people living on an atoll in the Marshall Islands, and also delay an increase in the minimum wage in American Samoa, and require those increases to take place every three years instead of annually.