The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has fully implemented its chemical facility anti-terrorism standards (CFATS) expedited approval program, but participation to date has been limited, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Each facility eligible for the program either produces, uses, or stores hazardous chemicals that could be of interest to terrorists or extremist groups who intend to use them to cause mass casualties in the United States.
According to GAO, the program’s guidance identifies specific security measures that eligible high-risk facilities can use to develop expedited security plans, rather than the standard security plans which are slower in nature.
In a Congressionally-mandated report to lawmakers, DHS stated that it was difficult to assess the impact of the expedited program on security due to the fact that only one facility had used it at the time of the report. Additionally, DHS officials stated that they would further evaluate the effect of the program on security if additional facilities adopt the program in the future.
In total, GAO found that only two of the 2,496 eligible facilities opted to use the program and a variety of factors affected its participation.
Officials from the two facilities that adopted the program said they found its prescriptive nature helped them quickly determine what they need to do to implement required security measures and reduced the time and cost to prepare and submit their security plans to DHS.
According to the report, low participation in the program could be attributed to a number of factors including that the program’s security measures might be too strict and prescriptive, that DHS implemented the expedited program only after most eligible facilities submitted their standard security plans, or that the department conducts in-person authorization inspections for its standard facilities but not the expedited ones.
GAO offered no recommendations at this time.