Revised legislation to extend the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program won the approval of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month – boosting the bill’s chances of going to the Senate floor when lawmakers return from recess.
The committee approved the legislation – named the “Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act” – as an amended version of H.R. 4007, a 3-year CFATS extension the House approved last month. Both the House and Senate versions would keep drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities exempt from CFATS regulations for the duration of the extension, while also directing DHS to commission a “third-party assessment” of security vulnerabilities left unaddressed by CFATS. This assessment is widely expected to include a review of the water/wastewater exemption.
The Senate version of H.R. 4007, negotiated by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and ranking Republican Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would extend CFATS for 4 years without offering a new funding authorization. The bill would bar DHS from requiring the review or implementation of any “inherently safer technology,” and also incudes a mechanism through which a low-risk chemical facility may receive an expedited review of its security plan.
The committee’s action came on the same day that Sen. Coburn released Chemical Insecurity, a report he said details “a laundry list of errors and bad decisions” in the program’s implementation. Among the report’s criticisms is that CFATS merely shifts terror attack risks from covered chemical facilities to those not covered by the program, such as water and wastewater facilities. However, the report does not recommend bringing water facilities into the CFATS program.
The full U.S. Senate could take up the revised H.R. 4007 in September, with the goal of negotiating a final agreement with the House before the current CFATS program expires on October 4.