The House Homeland Security Committee on April 30 voted to advance legislation extending the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program for three years, while also continuing to exempt drinking water and wastewater facilities from regulation through the program. Committee members also agreed to an amendment calling for a study that will look at the security implications of the exemption.
Sponsored by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Penn.), the legislation (H.R. 4007) would largely continue the current structure of CFATS while authorizing $87.4 million per year for DHS to operate the program through 2017. The measure won unanimous approval from the Homeland Security Committee.
While H.R. 4007 would continue to exempt drinking water and wastewater facilities from CFATS, committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said during the markup that the exemption “creates a security gap that must be addressed.” While acknowledging a lack of votes on the panel to overturn the exemption outright, Thompson successfully offered an amendment that would direct DHS to commission a third-party study of the “vulnerabilities to acts of terrorism associated with” the structure of CFATS. While the language of the amendment allows the study to assess all potential vulnerabilities associated with CFATS, Thompson made clear that a significant portion of the study would look at the implications of exempting water and wastewater facilities from program oversight.
In response to Thompson’s concerns, Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) said it would be “premature” for Congress to expand the scope of CFATS to include water systems, and also noted that EPA already oversees drinking water facility security through the Bioterrorism Act. But McCaul also said that Thompson’s study proposal would help inform the panel about strengths and weaknesses of CFATS, and the amendment won unanimous approval.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will have an opportunity to review H.R. 4007 before it advances to the House floor. E&C panel leaders have been adamant over the past few years that drinking water utilities remain exempt from CFATS due to concerns about potentially conflicting facility oversight by both EPA and DHS, and AMWA is aware of no comments from E&C leaders suggesting any change in that outlook.