Chemical Facility Security: Reauthorization, Policy Issues, and Options for Congress
December 23, 2010 - R40695
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities for security purposes. This authority expires in March 2011. The 111th Congress took action to extend this program and debated the scope and details of reauthorization. Some members of Congress supported an extension, either short or long term, of the existing authority. Other members called for revision and more extensive codification of chemical facility security regulatory provisions. The tension between continuing and changing the statutory authority was exacerbated by questions regarding the current law's effectiveness in reducing chemical facility risk and the sufficiency of federal funding for chemical facility security. Key policy issues debated in previous Congresses contributed to the reauthorization debate. These issues included the universe of facilities that should be considered as chemical facilities; the appropriateness and scope of federal preemption of state chemical facility security activities; the availability of information for public comment, potential litigation, and congressional oversight; and the role of inherently safer technologies. The 112th Congress may take various approaches to this issue. Congress might allow the statutory authority to expire. Congress might permanently or temporarily extend the expiring statutory authority in order to observe the impact of the current regulations and, ...