U.S. House of Representatives Passes Chemical Security Legislation

On June 23, the House Homeland Security Committee, on a party line vote, approved chemical security legislation (HR 2868) and sent the measure to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The bill would make the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chemical facility anti-terrorism standards permanent, including the "tiering" process now in place, which is intended to regulate facilities according to the risk they post. However, committee Democrats have added some additional provisions into the bill that are opposed by industry. (Note that NPCA/FSCT has joined with other industry groups asking that Congress extend the current legislation for three years without changes in order to allow DHS to continue to implement the current program.)

The committee's bill would give DHS added authority to require chemical facilities to use so-called inherently safer technologies and processes. DHS must first conduct an analysis and determine that such a requirement would not harm the operations of a facility. Another provision in the bill would allow civil lawsuits against chemical facilities or DHS if security violations or accidents occurred at a chemical plant. The bill also contains an anti-preemption provision that permits state governments to enact security standards that go beyond the federal government's regulations.

Republican members offered three amendments that would limit the civil suit provisions, arguing that the provision would allow frivolous lawsuits to be filed against DHS or chemical facilities. However, Democrats contended that DHS would have 120 days to ensure that a security violation is corrected before a lawsuit could be filed, which they argued would help prevent frivolous cases. Each of the Republican amendments was defeated on a party-line vote.

Additionally, NPCA/FSCT has received information from Sue Armstrong, Chief of the Infrastructure Security Compliance Division in DHS' Office of Infrastructure Protection, that DHS is in the process of issuing the final tier notice for approximately 400 Tier Two facilities informing them of their final tier determination and due date for Site Security Plan. At this writing, letters were expected to go out on June 29.

For more information: contact NPCA/FSCT's Allen Irish.

Date Posted: July 1, 2009