Senators urge CFATS reauthorization

Washington-In a July 15 letter to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee, of which Lieberman is chairman, to schedule a vote on S. 2996, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) reauthorization bill introduced earlier this year. S. 2996 reauthorizes CFATS in its current form for five years, and is supported by a broad coalition of chemical industry groups, including the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), which called it a “clean extension of the CFATS rules” that are enforced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the letter to Lieberman, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), George Voinovitch (R-Ohio), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Ensign (R-Nev.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said security at the nation’s chemical facilities “is much stronger, and improving” as a result of CFATS. “It is critical that this program be extended and that Congress provides an additional period of regulatory stability for DHS and for America’s chemical industry,” the letter said. “Year-by-year extensions or fundamental changes to the program will undermine the long-term success of the collaborative security effort. Moreover, for an industry that is vital to America’s economy and standard of living, significant changes to the program could put crucial products and jobs at risk.” The letter criticizes a competing bill introduced in the House last fall, H.R. 2868, the Chemical and Water Security Act of 2009, which contains an inherently safer technologies (IST) provision that the industry strongly opposes. The letter says H.R. 2868 would “fundamentally change the character of the CFATS program,” and that it was opposed by 21 Democrats and 172 Republicans. “Because S. 2996 would allow DHS to continue to improve the security of our nation’s chemical facilities in a risk-based manner and not disrupt the current CFATS program, we urge you to place it on the Committee’s July markup in lieu of other bills that lack this level of bipartisan support and would fundamentally alter the successful CFATS program,” the letter said. The legislative authorization for CFATS will expire on Oct. 4, 2010. ARA said an industry coalition letter in support of S. 2996 will be sent to Senate offices later this month prior to any committee markup.