S 1632 Introduced – Foreign Cylinder Regulation

Last month, Sen Vance (R,OH) introduced S 1632, the Compressed Gas Cylinder Safety and Oversight Improvements Act of 2023. The bill would require DOT to establish additional regulations relating to the approval of foreign manufacturers of cylinders used in the transport of hazardous chemicals. There is no new spending authorized by this legislation.

This bill is virtually identical to HR 3404 that was introduced on the same day. This is not technically a companion measure since there is one difference between the two bills. In the discussion about authorizing overseas inspection on page 8, line 23, the Senate version corrects the CFR reference that I noted was wrong [subscription required] in the House version.

Moving Forward

Vance and two of his cosponsors {Sen Baldwin (D,WI) and Sen Budd (R,SC)} are member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. As I commented in my post on HR 3404, I suspect that there may be some opposition in the chemical industry to the provisions of this bill, but I do not believe they would be sufficient to stop the bill passing in Committee. They would certainly be sufficient, however, to stop the bill from being considered under the Senate’s unanimous consent process, since this bill is not ‘important’ enough to take-up the Senate’s time under regular order.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my discussion of HR 3404 at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3404-introduced - subscription required.