Secretary Chertoff testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday during a hearing entitled “Holding the Department of Homeland Security Accountable for Security Gaps”. The Secretary was the only witness testifying at the hearing. From the opening remarks of the Chairman, Representative Bennie B. Thompson (D-MS), it was apparent that the committee was concerned about rumors that Secretary Chertoff would soon be appointed to the vacant position of Attorney General, and wanted to know where the Department stood on various on-going projects. In fact, the committee provided a “to-do list” for Secretary Chertoff to complete before he leaves the department.
There was only a brief, general mention of the new chemical facility regulations in the Secretary’s testimony. He reiterated past comments about his confidence in the chemical industry’s cooperation because it was in their self-interest to cooperate.
He spent significantly more time talking about in-transit chemical issues; specifically referring to the proposed rule issued last year to regulate the transport of Toxic by Inhalation (TIH) chemicals by rail. He described this proposed rule as a formalization of previously reached agreements with the railroad industry.
Less than two pages of the 23 pages of prepared testimony covered these two issues. The remainder of the submitted testimony covered other areas of DHS responsibility. Chemical security also appeared to be low on the committees priority list; none of the items on the committee’s To-Do list dealt with chemical facility security.
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