Review - HR 4470 Mark Up 7-12-23 – CFATS Extension

Yesterday, the House Homeland Security Committee conducted a markup hearing that include consideration of HR 4470, the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2023. Substitute language was adopted by voice vote. Ten other amendments were offered, but none were agreed to. The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program is currently set to sunset (programmatically die) on July 27^th, 2023.

Substitute Language

The substitute language offered by Rep Lee (R,FL) made a relatively simple change to the ‘is amended by’ language of §2 of the bill, changing “by striking ‘July 27, 2023’ and inserting ‘September 30, 2025’” to read “striking ‘2023’ and inserting ‘2025’." This revised language would mean that the CFATS program would sunset (lacking further congressional action) on July 27^th, 2023 instead of September 30^th. This means that a future extension would again require stand-alone legislation instead of an extension being able to be added to a DHS spending bill or CR.

Moving Forward

Typically, we would have to see a written report published by the Committee before the bill could be considered in the House, but the bill could be reported favorably without a written report which could happen as soon as today. The House could take up this bill under suspension of the rules next week which would still leave time for the Senate to consider the bill under the unanimous consent process before the July 27^th deadline.

 

For details about the amendments that were considered but not approved, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4470-mark-up-7-12-23 - subscription required.