Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities From Terrorist Attacks Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill to extend the authority for the Department of Homeland Security's Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program for another two years. The CFATS program provides critical national security protections for chemical facilities and for the people who work and live near these facilities. We should all be alarmed that it is on the verge of lapsing.

Unfortunately, we have come down to the wire again to reauthorize this program. Without passage of this bill, the CFATS program will expire in two days. The program is not perfect, but it should be continued. This two-year extension will give the committees of jurisdiction time to consider important improvements to the program without fear that the program will lapse. To that end, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Green has begun the process of creating a CFATS reauthorization working group and Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats plan to be vocal members. We are prepared to push for our jurisdictional priorities in those conversations, specifically advocating for environmental justice communities, first responders, and worker safety.

Chemical facility safety is not only important to the Energy and Commerce Committee, but also to my home state of New Jersey, where the high concentration of industrial chemical facilities coupled with densely populated cities makes safety and security of these facilities of the utmost importance. Programs like CFATS and the EPA's Risk Management Plan program are critical to maintaining the health and safety of the people who live and work near these facilities, so the consequences of this program expiring are as personal to me as they are dire to the safety of our country.

The last few weeks have brought record heat waves, Canadian wildfires, and catastrophic flooding, all markers of what is to come. And yet, House Republicans continue to turn a blind eye to the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. Instead, they work to rollback our historic investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act and make drastic cuts to critical programs across the board. It would be dangerous of Congress to believe that these same extreme weather events don't have the potential to undermine and threaten our nation's chemical facilities.

We must work in a bipartisan fashion to ensure the safety and security of the workers, first responders, and communities living near our nation's chemical facilities. That means extending this program while taking serious steps to improve it for the future. So, I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Homeland Security Committee for working to ensure the continuity of this program. I urge my colleagues to support passage.

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