Congressional Hearings – Week of 3-15-10

There will be three hearings this coming week that might be of interest to the chemical security community; nothing dealing directly with chemical facility security directly, but of interest none the less. Coast Guard There will be two hearings concerning the Coast Guard. The first will be a budget hearing before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. This will be held on Wednesday, March 17th, at 10:00. One area of interest that will almost certainly come up is the issue of the implementation of TWIC Readers at MTSA facilities. This final step of the TWIC implementation is behind schedule and the delays are being questioned. The second hearing will be before the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday the 18th, at 10:00 am. They will be conducting hearings on several nominations, including that of Vice Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., to be Commandant of the United States Coast Guard. Adm. Pap has come under criticism for his justification for several proposed reductions of Coast Guard programs in support of port security operations. Counter-Terrorism The Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment of the House Homeland Security Community will be holding a hearing on March 17th, at 10:00 am that should be of interest of anyone with concerns about preventing terrorist attacks. Entitled: “Working with Communities to Disrupt Terror Plots”, this hearing will look at how communities can counter violent extremism. This is of particular import with the continued revelations of more Americans being involved in terror plots and actions here and abroad.