CFATS Unlikely to See Funding Level Budge
By Jennifer Scholtes | CQ Today | September 21, 2012

House appropriators on Thursday remained unwilling to budge on their proposed funding level for the Department of Homeland Security’s chemical facility program, despite further pleas from DHS officials.

Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, told department heads that he cannot commit to revisiting appropriations for the Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Standards (CFATS) program while its account still has millions of unobligated dollars and the department’s plans for improving the program have not been completely executed.

“It would be premature to dedicate scarce resources today when there are so many questions that are still unanswered,” Aderholt said during a hearing of his subcommittee.

The CFATS program, which was created in 2006 (PL 109-295) to require the department to review and enforce security plans for facilities housing dangerous chemicals, still has about $20 million on hand for the fiscal year that comes to a close at the end of the month. However, National Protection and Programs Directorate deputy undersecretary Suzanne Spaulding said Thursday that roughly $16 million of that total is currently committed to contracts.

The program has been under close watch from Capitol Hill after an internal memo was leaked in December that laid out how CFATS workers were hired without qualifications needed to do their jobs, employees were performing poorly and there was a general lack of professionalism among the workforce, according to lawmakers who have read the document.

But even before those issues were divulged last winter, appropriators handed down a substantially lower funding level for CFATS, citing the fact that the program has been slow to get going. As of this week, all but two of the nation’s chemical facilities have yet to get site security plans approved under the program.

The spending bill HR 5855 the House passed this summer would allocate just over $45 million for National Protection and Programs Directorate CFATS falls under. That level is almost $48 million less than was enacted for fiscal 2012 and more than $29 million below President Obama’s budget request.

DHS officials told lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month that such an allocation would “essentially cut the legs out from under” the program. The department reinforced that warning to appropriators Thursday.

“Our ability to do a variety of things that will allow us to implement this program and continue the progress we’ve made so far would be seriously hampered,” Spaulding said. “We have turned a corner. There is a lot to be done. . . . If that mark remains where it is, it would have a devastating impact on our ability to implement the program.”

The department estimates that after doling out the roughly $35 million it pays in employee salaries each year, $12 million would be left over to implement the program and develop a process for ensuring ammonium nitrate is kept secure. If the current appropriations proposal sticks, DHS would be forced to stop nearly all activities under CFATS besides reviewing site security plans and doing facility inspections, Spaulding testified.