Senate Report on S 473 Available

Earlier I wrote that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had reported S 473, the Continuing Chemical Facilities Antiterrorism Security Act of 2011, without a written report. The written report was submitted this week and published yesterday by the GPO.

The only new information in the report is the Congressional Budget Office cost estimate (pages 5 and 6). It notes that there might be a small, but inconsequential increase in income to the Federal government because of fines levied under the program. They note that the program would cost the government $267 million over the period of 2012-16. Interestingly this estimate assumes that DHS will continue spending about $67 million in 2015 and $26 million 2016 after the Collins’ extension expires.