US Senate votes to nix pre-emptive chem regs

29 March 2007 20:58  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The Senate passed a supplemental spending bill on Thursday which includes a provision to limit federal pre-emption of states’ chemical site security requirements.

President George Bush opposes the chemical site security provision in the bill. Bush has threatened to veto the $123bn (€92bn) supplemental spending bill because it also sets a deadline for withdrawing US troops from Iraq.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) called for a veto of the legislation on the grounds that the chemical site security provisions would delay a final rule from the federal government, due by 4 April. That rule would allow for federal pre-emption of state chemical site security regulations.

"We cannot allow politics in Congress to take precedence over security by threatening to delay long overdue chemical security regulations,” ACC president Jack Gerard said in a statement.

 “After five years of debate in Congress, the Department of Homeland Security is within days of issuing landmark security regulations that will protect chemical facilities across the entire country and allow states to maintain existing programmes.

"The Senate legislation that will be vetoed would have created a cloud of uncertainty over the regulations and would effectively send the Department of Homeland Security back to the drawing board,” Gerard said.

“The imminent DHS regulations will ensure action occurs now. If allowed, these misguided efforts in Congress will only delay the goal of securing these critical facilities across the nation."

Representative Steve Rothman (Democrat - New Jersey) had inserted a similar provision in the House version of the bill, which passed on 23 March. He argued that states such as New Jersey and New York had the right to enforce stricter chemical site security rules than a federal baseline.

Senator Frank Lautenberg (Democrat - New Jersey) inserted language in the Senate version of the bill also aimed at halting the possibility of federal pre-emption of state rules.

“The Senate spoke today and put national security ahead of special interests,” Lautenberg said. “We fought the chemical industry lobbyists and won."

Lautenberg argued that the chemical industry would like to avoid spending more on site security to meet more stringent state standards.

Senator George V. Voinovich (Republican - Ohio), made an unsuccessful attempt to strip all chemical site security language from the bill.

By: Mickey McCarter
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