Republican committee leaders in the House of Representatives spent last week rolling out their 2013 policy priorities. Chemical security, water infrastructure renewal and cybersecurity all made appearances.
According to Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce and Homeland Security Committees, the two panels will work together on efforts to oversee and reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which is currently scheduled to expire on March 27. In the past, the two panels have squabbled over which should hold jurisdiction over the program, but Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) told reporters last week that recent negotiations between the committees have put lawmakers “all on board” with moving ahead on reauthorization.
The oversight plan released by the Homeland Security Committee last week said that the panel would “continue to review [DHS] efforts to secure chemical facilities,” indicating that any bill to formally reauthorize or restructure the program might come from Energy and Commerce.
Drinking water and wastewater systems, however, remain exempt from CFATS, and no serious proposals to bring them into the program are expected this year. While new Senate legislation would subject water systems to a new security program (see previous story), House leaders have given no hints that they may be contemplating any new water facility security requirements at this time.
One area where the Homeland Security Committee is expected to lead in 2013 is on critical infrastructure cybersecurity. The committee’s 2013 plan explained that it will monitor DHS efforts to protect critical infrastructure assets against cyber attacks and “examine the resiliency of national critical infrastructure to withstand” such attacks. A new cybersecurity bill remains a strong possibility after several different proposals failed to win enactment last year.
Finally, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s oversight plan recognized that “continued investment in water infrastructure programs” is necessary in the coming year. To that end, the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee plans to “pursue and examine finding innovative ways to finance new and replacement of old water infrastructure projects.” This could be a reference to a proposed “Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act” (WIFIA), which Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) circulated in draft form in 2012, but did not formally introduce in the House of Representatives.