Congressional Bills Introduced 01-23-13

Yesterday there were 62 bills introduced in the Senate and 66 bills introduced in the House. Of those 128 bills only two were potentially of specific interest to readers of this blog; both dealt with chemical facility security matters.

Chemical Security at Water Treatment Facilities

S 67 was introduced by Sen. Lautenberg (D,NJ). It would establish regulations for the security of chemicals at water treatment facilities. I’m assuming that it will be patterned after last sessions S 711. This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Last session there was one hearing at that Committee that addressed S 711, but no action was taken.

CFATS Modification

S 68 was also introduced by Lautenberg and it would modify the current CFATS program, probably along the lines of last session’s S 709. This bill was referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. That Committee took no action on S 709 last session as they only addressed the bill by Sen. Collins. I expect that Sen. Carper will have a CFATS bill introduced this session that this Committee will deal with instead of Lautenberg’s bill.