US Congress may alter new chemical security law

03 October 2007 18:21  [Source: ICIS news]

BALTIMORE, Maryland (ICIS news)--Democrats in Congress may well pass piecemeal legislation this year or next that could substantially change new chemical site security regulations now being implemented, industry officials said on Wednesday.

 

Chemical industry government relations officials told a concluding session of a three-day security conference that there is considerable interest in the Democrat-controlled US Congress in making substantial changes to the still new site protection regulations being rolled out by the Department of Homeland Security.

 

“In the House there is legislation that would eliminate the current law’s pre-emption of state legislation, considerably weaken information safeguards for plant security data and allow private party lawsuits to drive security enforcement,” said Jennifer Gibson, vice president for government and public affairs at the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD).

 

Under the existing antiterrorism site security statute, passed by the then Republican-controlled Congress in late 2006, no private right of action lawsuits are allowed and information provided by companies to federal security officials is given a high level of confidentiality to prevent it from falling into the hands of terrorists. 

 

As drawn up by the Department of Homeland Security, implementing regulations also pre-empt state legislation, a fact that has angered many Democrats in Congress who complain that the law approved by Congress made no provision for federal pre-emption.

 

Gibson said it is not likely that Congress will be able to pass a comprehensive bill revamping the existing site security statute, simply because federal legislators have too much else to do.

 

“But Congress might well put piecemeal items of security legislation in appropriations bills, perhaps language to bar federal pre-emption and weaken the information protection measures,” Gibson said.

 

Kent Anderson, president of the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration, agreed that Congress is not likely to deliver a comprehensive new site security bill.  “But it is pretty easy for them to slip something through by adding it to an important spending bill, and it is not likely that the president would veto an important bill over this security matter,” he said.

 

Gibson warned that even a piecemeal legislative adjustment to the existing law could undermine the developing site security regulations.

 

“These new regulations now being put in place need to be allowed a chance to work, and if Congress acts now to change the statute, that will stop chemical site security regulations in their tracks, and we’ll have to start all over again,” she said.

 

The three-day chemical security conference was sponsored by NACD and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA).

By: Joe Kamalick
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