HR 2868 Status 11-09-09

Yesterday HR 2868 was formally received in the Senate. According to Thomas.LOC.gov, the bill was assigned just to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Many observers had also expected it to be assigned to the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee because of the two titles dealing with security at water facilities. Those facilities and the EPA are normally covered under the Commerce Committee not Homeland Security. Additional Senate Action InsideEPA.com reported yesterday [subscription required] that two Senators, Susan Collins (R, ME) and Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) were preparing to submit their own versions of chemical facility security legislation. At least one major difference between the two of them was expected to be IST provisions. Sen. Collins has been an opponent of government mandated IST while Sen. Lautenberg has been a supporter. I have no idea why Lautenberg has waited so long to introduce this legislation. With Sen. Collins one would guess that she has been avoiding a repeat of the 2006 intra-committee conflict she had with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I, DE). This has been one of the few bones of contention between these two leaders of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Having said that, these two will be the pair most likely to craft a truly bipartisan approach to the IST issue.