A House Homeland Security subcommittee last week approved a three-year extension of the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program while including language that will continue to exempt drinking water and wastewater facilities from CFATS oversight.
Sponsored by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Penn.), the bill (H.R. 4007) would make only minor changes to CFATS but would offer the program more stability going forward. For the past several years Congress has repeatedly extended CFATS by attaching language to annual appropriations bills, so H.R. 4007’s three-year authorization would guarantee the program’s continuation through at least 2017.
Subcommittee ranking member Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) called attention to the water and wastewater utility exemption during markup, offering one amendment that would have eliminated all statutory CFATS exemptions and another requesting a study of the homeland security implications of exempting water and wastewater facilities. Neither of these amendments, however, won subcommittee approval.