Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Authorization and Accountability Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4007, which is the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities From Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014. This bipartisan legislation went through regular order, and it passed
the House in July by voice vote.

It now returns to us from the Senate where, yesterday, it passed by
unanimous consent. H.R. 4007 is enthusiastically supported by the
industry stakeholders it most directly impacts, as well as the
Department of Homeland Security which is responsible for its
implementation.

While it was in the Senate, the Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee of the Senate made improvements to the House-passed
version of the bill that take into account the interests of the labor
unions who staff many facilities while, at the same time, strengthening
the program overall and making it more workable and more effective for
all parties involved. These changes were thoroughly vetted with
industry, labor, and the Department itself, and they are widely
endorsed.

As a result, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4007 represents the culmination of a
productive collaboration between my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle and those in my conference, the House and the Senate, industry,
labor, and the Federal Government.

Over the course of the past year, through multiple hearings and
countless meetings, all of us have worked in partnership to take an
honest look at the CFATS program to look at its strengths and
shortcomings and to develop a straightforward, practically-minded piece
of legislation to improve the program overall.

Mr. Speaker, prior to the attacks of September 11, Congress had
established an array of laws aimed at preventing environmental
disasters at facilities that produce or store potentially dangerous
chemicals.

While those laws remain, Congress and the Department of Homeland
Security developed CFATS specifically to prevent an intentional attack
on chemical facilities. The CFATS program requires DHS to develop a set
of vulnerability assessment standards for chemical plants and to
implement a corresponding set of regulations to protect the highest-
risk facilities from a physical attack.

Despite what we would all agree are the best intentions, it is no
secret that CFATS struggled in its earlier years from implementation
problems to management flaws to insufficient feedback from the
facilities. These were highlighted in the aftermath of the devastating
explosion at a chemical facility in West, Texas. CFATS had a rocky
start.

To make matters worse, for the past 4 years, CFATS has relied on
appropriations for its existence with no authorization from Congress
and no official guidance. This bill is a major breakthrough; CFATS will
be reauthorized for the very first time.

With that authorization, both Chambers of Congress are finally able
to provide smart, binding guidelines to improve the operation of the
program, measure progress, and enhance security.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of this legislation. I am particularly
grateful for the bipartisan support. I know that there have been
moments of disagreement, and there may continue to be points in which
there are some modicum of issues of disagreement, but the overall
collective bipartisan work on this issue, taking into account the
efforts of management, labor, government, and industry, has resulted in
what I believe to be a very substantial and important piece of
legislation.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to send H.R. 4007 to
the President's desk so we can ensure that proper measures are in place
to secure the Nation's vast network of chemical facilities and to keep
our facilities safe from harm.

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Mr. MEEHAN. I want to express my deep appreciation to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) and the gentlewoman from New York, whom I had the good privilege to serve with on the subcommittee which originally authored this important
legislation.

I appreciate the leadership that the ranking member had initiated in
this area prior to my tenure on the committee. It was during the
bipartisan effort to look at this when both sides of our committee
realized that we would not write the perfect bill, but it was
critically important that collectively we could get to a very good bill
which would do the most important thing, which is to authorize the
capacity for DHS to have this meaningful role in this very, very
important area.

I do appreciate the issue with respect to self-certification. We
recognized as we were dealing with this issue, as well, that one of the
real problems in the beginning was the heightened expectations that
were created, particularly with those smaller facilities, about
responsiveness from DHS. And so responsible entities would go through
the work and the steps of creating site security plans, awaiting and
awaiting and awaiting DHS to get there to help approve the work that
they were doing. By creating that unrealistic expectation, we also
created not just the appearance but the reality of looking like an
underperforming Department of Homeland Security in this critical area.

I think that the work that has been done has been focused on trying
to get this right. This will require that any self-certification be
done with templates that are being put together by Homeland Security,
and there will be strict deadlines for conformance, and the failure to
conform will put them right back into oversight. But I respect and
genuinely appreciate the points made by the gentleman from Mississippi
(Mr. Thompson).

This is significant because passage of this bill will allow us to
know where these chemicals are, and that, in and of itself, is
significant. To be a firefighter and to not know what might be in the
building that you are responding to is inexcusable. That was the
circumstance in which those brave firefighters found themselves in
West, Texas. This begins to create the kinds of protections to avoid
that kind of uncertainty. We owe it to our brave firefighters and
others on the front lines.

Most significantly, this has been a program in which there have been
a number of responsible companies that have taken it upon themselves to
ensure that they are doing the right thing in terms of identifying the
chemicals they have and securing them appropriately to protect against
any kind of misapplication.

Without this kind of legislation, what it does is rewards the
outliers who are not taking those responsible steps. This will give DHS
the authority to ensure that there is oversight over the entirety of
the chemical stock. It is important, it is timely, and it will allow us
to have appropriate oversight over DHS as well, who I have confidence
can step up to the job.

So in light of all of those points, I urge all Members to join me in
supporting this bipartisan bill, H.R. 4007.

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