Additional Homeland Security Committee Hearing This Week

Late Monday afternoon, the House Homeland Security Committee announced an additional hearing for this week, a hearing that may be of interest to the chemical security community. The Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection will hold a markup hearing on HR 2200, a bill introduced last week by Rep. Jackson-Lee (D, TX). The title of the bill is the “Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act”. The hearing will be held tomorrow at 10:00 and will be web cast. The bulk of the bill deals with aircraft security measures, but there are three provisions that will probably affect the chemical industry. First, the bill {§301(d)} would require TSA to hire an additional 300 Surface Transportation Security Inspectors to handle a variety of inspections of ground based transportations systems including freight rail. Second, the bill {§1118(e)}would require a new Transportation Security Advisory Committee be established with a Freight Rail Security Working Group. Third, the bill will require the Secretary to report back within 30 days of passage of the bill about the status of a variety of transportation security training program regulations required by the 9-11 Commission Act of 2007. This bill appears to be on the fast track for action in the House Homeland Security Committee. The bill was introduced on April 30th and the GPO print of the bill was not posted until yesterday. The first sub-committee markup will held tomorrow. I would not be surprised to see the full committee markup scheduled for next week.