NACD Welcomes Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Legislation

ARLINGTON, Va., April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) issued the following statement on today's markup of H.R. 4007, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Authorization and Accountability Act of 2014, by the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies:

The National Association of Chemical Distributors applauds Chairman Meehan (R-Penn.) for introducing and marking up this important and focused bill. By providing a commonsense two-year extension of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), this bill brings much-needed stability to the program.

First enacted in 2006, the law has continued in recent years merely as a rider to appropriations bills. As a consequence, the law actually ceased to be law during the government shutdown in October 2013. "Such a result has no place in managing our national system of readiness to prevent terrorist acts," said NACD Vice President of Legislative Affairs John Shanahan. "By authorizing the law for two years, we can avoid absurd results like we saw last October."

While the program has had challenges in the past, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made significant progress in the last 15 months. NACD believes providing a predictable period of time for the agency to continue its progress will provide the confidence for a longer term or permanent extension. While properly limiting the bill's primary focus of extending the program, this legislation also provides DHS with much-needed direction on its personnel surety program and gives facilities the ability to meet site security plans through alternate security plans approved by DHS so the agency's efforts more closely follow the original intent of the program.

Said NACD President Eric R. Byer, "Chairman Meehan has produced a credible, necessary, and bipartisan bill that every member of Congress should support. NACD will continue to work with lawmakers to ensure the ultimate passage of this critical legislation."

NACD and its over 420 member companies are vital to the chemical supply chain providing products to over 750,000 end users. They make a delivery every eight seconds while maintaining a safety record that is more than twice as good as all manufacturing combined. NACD members are leaders in health, safety, security, and environmental performance through implementation of Responsible Distribution, established in 1991 as a condition of membership and a third-party verified management practice. For additional information on our members, their safety record or NACD, visit NACD at www.NACD.com.

Contact: Matthew McKinney
(571) 482-3074
[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100811/NACDLOGO

SOURCE National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD)