S 2499 Introduced – CFATS Extension

Last month, Sen Peters (D,MI) introduced S 2499, the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2023. The bill changes the termination date of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program from July 27^th, 2023, to July 27^th, 2025. The bill was introduced on July 26^th, the day before the program terminated.

The language of this bill is nearly identical to the language of S 2178 except that that the earlier bill would have extended the program through 2028. Peters introduced that bill as well.

Moving Forward

While Peters is the Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I do not expect that this bill will move forward (see my commentary below).

Commentary

If this bill had passed the Senate and House on July 27^th, it would have saved the CFATS program from termination. But the program did terminate, all of the existing site security plans were no longer enforceable. If this bill were to pass next month when Congress returns from their summer recess, it would start the program all over again, with all of the previously covered facilities having to restart the regulatory process by filing a new ‘initial’ Top Screen.

At this point any legislation to re-instate the CFATS program is going to have to address the termination. It will have to have some sort of language that would re-instate site security plans as of July 26^th, 2023. Since facilities may have allowed some of the security measures to lapse, the bill would have to provide a time period in which each facility would be required to re-instate all security measures outlined in the previously approved site security plan, along with adding a process to request an extension of the reinstatement requirement. Similar language would be needed to address the facilities which had been notified by the Office of Chemical Security that they were covered by the CFATS program but had not yet had their site security plan approved.