The U.S. Senate on July 9 approved its Homeland Security spending bill for fiscal 2010, which includes a provision to extend the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) rules in their present form for one year. The CFATS regulations are set to expire in October of this year after taking effect in June 2007.
The 84-6 Senate vote, allocating $42.9 billion in discretionary funds to DHS for fiscal 2010, was praised by the chemical and fertilizer industries, which voiced strong opposition several weeks ago to legislation passed in the House that would reauthorize CFATS but with additional provisions designed to tighten controls over chemical industry processes and facility security enforcement.
The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 (HR 2868), passed by the House Homeland Security Committee on June 23, would reauthorize the CFATS requirements but also permit civil suits against chemical facilities not in compliance with the regulations, and would require companies to use inherently safer technologies (IST) if alternatives to dangerous chemicals are available (GM June 29, p. 1).
The Agricultural Retailers Association, which advocates a simple extension of existing CFATS regulations, said last week that it remains strongly opposed to HR 2868 “as it would lead to the loss of critical crop nutrient and protection products and open up agricultural operations to frivolous lawsuits by anti-chemical activist groups.” Both ARA and The Fertilizer Institute have voiced concerns that an IST mandate could threaten the continued use and availability of such fertilizer products as anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate (GM June 22, p. 13).
The Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) also expressed its support for extending the CFATS regulations without the contested House committee provisions. “As we have argued for the past several months, Congress needs to address the October 2009 CFATS deadline expeditiously,” said Bill Allmond, vice-president of government relations and ChemStewards at SOCMA. “Because the House appears, so far, to be more interested in passing controversial amendments like inherently safer technology (IST) to the existing regulations rather than make the rules permanent, this extension is the most responsible action.”
SOCMA said in a statement that it urges the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which also has jurisdiction over the bill but has not yet taken up debate on it, to take the Senate’s lead and pass a bill extending CFATS for one year. An extension has also been advocated by the Obama administration.
With time running out and enthusiasm waning on Capitol Hill for any significant reworking of CFATS requirements prior to the October deadline, ARA noted last week that chances are slim for any stand-alone chemical security proposals to be enacted into law this year. Nevertheless, ARA said it is encouraging members “to continue to weigh in with their lawmakers in opposition to HR 2868 and urge them to support a simple extension of existing CFATS rules.”