HR 6022 Introduced – CFATS Propane Exception

Last month, Rep Burlison (R,MO) introduced HR 6022, the Propane Accessibility and Regulatory Relief Act. The bill would exempt ‘from any CFATS regulation’ “any propane tank with a capacity of up to 126,000 pounds of propane.” No funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Neither Burlison, nor his sole cosponsor {Rep Latta (R,OH)} are members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for primary consideration. This means that there is probably not sufficient influence to see this bill considered in that Committee. Latta is, however, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was assigned for secondary consideration. There may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in that Committee.

Until the CFATS program is reauthorized, there is no reason for either Committee to take up this legislation. If this bill were considered, I suspect that there would be significant opposition to the bill, but it is unclear if there would be sufficient opposition to stop it from moving forward. The will, however, be enough opposition to prevent the bill from being considered under the suspension of the rules process in the House, since that process requires a supermajority for passage. This bill is not politically important enough to move forward under a rule.

Commentary

The agriculture industry has already taken significant efforts {during the regulatory process of approving the DHS chemicals of interest (COI) list} to reduce the coverage of propane as a DHS chemical of interest (COI). Instead of the normal 10,000-lb screening threshold quantity for other flammable release COI, the STQ for propane was set at 60,000 lbs. Additionally, propane stored in tanks holding less than 10,000-lbs need not be counted in determining the amount of propane that would have to be reported in a facility Top Screen.