ACS Joins Request for Senate to Include CFATS in NDAA

July 23, 2024

RE: Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) Program

Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell:

The undersigned organizations write to urge you to include the language of the Carper-Peters amendment (#2502) to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 (S. 4638), which reauthorizes the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS through October 1, 2026, into the substitute NDAA bill that will be filed soon.

For almost 20 years, the CFATS program provided assistance to and worked hand in hand with the regulated community to ensure that a variety of facilities across the country, containing a threshold of chemicals, are secure from the threat of terrorist attacks. The program regulated security at facilities across many industries—including chemical manufacturing, storage and distribution, energy and utilities, agriculture and food, explosives, mining, electronics, plastics, universities and laboratories, paint and coatings, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. July 27 will mark the one-year anniversary of the lapse of the program. Including reauthorization language in the substitute NDAA bill will get this critical national security program online to help reduce the risk of physical or cyber terrorist attacks and support best industry security practices.

In addition to the support of the undersigned, the CFATS program has the bipartisan support of Congress as demonstrated by the 409-1 House vote on H.R. 4470, Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2023 last summer and the bipartisan bill filed by Senator Peters - joined by Senator Lankford, Senator Capito and Senator Carper- the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2023 (S.2178). Since the lapse of the program, amendments were filed to the House NDAA, House DHS Appropriations, House Interior Appropriations, House Israel Foreign Aid bill and the Senate FAA Reauthorization bill. All of these amendments have had bipartisan support.

It is for the reasons above that we urge you to include the language of the Carper-Peters CFATS amendment (#2502) in the substitute NDAA bill.

Sincerely,