Yesterday the Environment and Economy Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed on a voice vote an amended version of HR 908, the Full Implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Act. This makes it the second CFATS extension bill approved by a House subcommittee this session.
The sole amendment considered, and passed, by the Subcommittee was proposed by Rep Shimkus (R, IL) the Subcommittee Chair. The amendment added §3 authorizing appropriations supporting the CFATS program through FY 2017. The authorized spending level would be set at $89.9 Million. This is down (9%) from the $99 Million requested by the Administration for FY 2012 and even further down (14%) from the $105 Million budgeted in FY 2010.
There is nothing in the hearing record that suggests where the funding savings would come from. The most easily controlled variable in the funding equation would be the number of chemical security inspectors. I guess that the case could be made that since the Department has been (very) slow to complete their SSP inspection process that they don’t really need that many inspectors; shortsighted but the case could be made.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Please remind me what the other bill is that passed a subcommittee. Also were there any markups on 908?
Thanks,
Corinne
Corrine:
HR 901 was passed by a subcommittee of the Homeland Securtiy Committee (http://chemical-facility-security-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/hr-901-marked-up-in-sub-committee.html).
The only change (markup) to this bill was the addition of the spending authorization discussed above.
Post a Comment