ILTA Hosts Successful Fly-in with DHS, Senate Staff on CFATS Issues

 

Todd Klessman, Deputy Associate Administrator, Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Mike Mashburn, Director, Liquid Terminals, Colonial Terminals; David Wulf,  Director, Office of Chemical Security, DHS Cybersecurity and infrastructure Security Agency; Kelly Murray, Branch Chief, Office of Chemical Security, DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Peter Lidiak, VP Regulatory Affairs, ILTA; Jaime White, Supervisor, Customs and Regulatory Affairs, NuStar; and Andy Wright, VP Legislative Affairs, ILTA pose with the ship’s bell that Wulf installed to ring whenever a new Site Security Plan is approved.

A day after a meeting at which ILTA members and staff planned conference sessions for ILTA’s 40th Annual Conference and Trade Show scheduled for June 8-10, 2020 in Houston, ILTA hosted meetings with the Department of Homeland Security and with staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Nustar’s Supervisor of Customs and Regulatory Affairs Jaime White and Colonial Terminal’s Director of Liquid Operations Michael Mashburn joined ILTA’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Peter Lidiak and Vice President of Legislative Affairs Andy Wright at these successful meetings to discuss CFATS issues. 

The group met with David Wulf, Director, Office of Chemical Security at DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the head of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism program, and members of his staff including Deputy Associate Administrator Todd Klessman and Branch Chief Kelly Murray. The meeting allowed Jaime and Michael to explain the importance of the industry’s efforts to remove the exception to the CFATS regulation that calls for treating gasoline, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel as if they were Chemicals of Interest under CFATS even though they do not meet the program’s standards for “extremely flammable” liquids. 

Director Wulf agreed and explained that CISA was persuaded more than a decade ago that the fuels are not a risk for terrorism and has stopped regulating them as such. He agreed that the regulatory language should be changed to reflect the policy and promised to cooperate with ILTA’s efforts to find a legislative fix for the issue during ongoing Congressional efforts to reauthorize CFATS.

The group then traveled to the U.S. Senate for a meeting with Colleen Berny and Christopher Mulkins, majority and minority committee staff. Colleen and Christopher, of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Commission, are heading negotiations to craft the Senate CFATS reauthorization bill. Michael and Jaime again explained the importance of fixing the CFATS regulatory language on flammable liquids. Both Colleen and Christopher acknowledged the problem and reiterated that they have crafted a fix in the current draft of the legislation. They said they would continue to work with ILTA to tweak the language to solve the problem once and for all. 

ILTA thanks Jaime and Michael for the time they invested in these meetings, which underscored the importance of having company representatives meet with regulators, legislators and their staffs. There is no substitute for the credibility that industry professionals who work with the practical consequences of legislation and regulation bring to these discussions.