Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Gary Peters (D-MI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced a bill on June 27, 2023, to extend the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which is set to expire on July 27, 2023.
Created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the CFATS program ensures facilities holding high-risk chemicals have security measures in place to reduce the risk of chemicals being stolen or weaponized by terrorists.
The CFATS program, managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), identifies and regulates chemical facilities vulnerable to terrorist exploitation. Facilities regulated by CFATS must report what chemicals they store to CISA and if deemed high-risk, the facility then develops a plan to address three main security issues: release, theft or diversion, and sabotage. As of May 2023, CFATS covers approximately 3,200 facilities. The Senators’ Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act would extend this vital anti-terrorism program for five years.
Chemical facilities often store substances that can threaten the safety of communities if deliberately misused. According to CISA, terrorists are more likely to use industrial and other commercially available chemicals, many of which are found in facilities across the United States, than sophisticated nerve agents such as sarin due to their widespread prevalence, relatively simple pathway to weaponization, and potential to cause serious harm. CFATS has been extended with bipartisan support by Congress four times, including most recently in 2020 through efforts led by Lankford, Peters and Carper.
However, on June 12 a bipartisan U.S. House committee questioned the CISA's approach to protecting facilities against terrorist attacks and urged CISA director Jen Easterly to provide additional information into several aspects of the program.
Chemical industry groups, including the National Association of Chemical Distributors and the American Chemistry Council, welcome and encourage the reauthorization of CFATS.
“As one of the most successful chemical security programs in existence, the CFATS program serves a critical role to our industry by protecting our nation’s high-risk chemical facilities from acts of terror and providing the industry with the stability needed to make important investments,” said Eric Byer, president and CEO of the National Association of Chemical Distributors, in an earlier press release.