The U.S. Government Accountability Office is recommending the U.S. Department of Homeland Security implement options for chemical facilities to vet their staff for terrorist ties.
According to a report from the GAO published Sept. 8, DHS previously had a program that allowed U.S. facilities with high-risk chemicals to vet their staff for links to terrorism. The Sector Risk Management Agency (SRMA) overseeing the chemical sector is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and it is CISA that is responsible for implementing programs to assist facility owners and operators in identifying and mitigating security risks, officials said.
In 2007, DHS established a regulatory program to mitigate security risks for high-risk chemical facilities. As part of this program, CISA required facilities to vet their personnel and certain unescorted visitors for terrorist ties against the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist. However, that program ended in 2023, the GAO said, and now facilities can’t access the watchlist on their own. Without federal options to vet staff for terrorist links, officials said, these facilities are vulnerable to insider terrorist attacks.
“According to CISA officials and selected private sector stakeholders GAO interviewed, losing access to the terrorist vetting process is the most significant challenge high-risk facility owners and operators have faced since the discontinuation of CISA’s regulatory program, and it has left a gap in chemical facility security that poses substantial risks,” the GAO said.
The GAO said CISA officials and other stakeholders confirmed that losing access to the terrorist vetting process is the most significant challenge high-risk facility owners and operators have faced since the discontinuation of the program, and it has left a gap in security that poses substantial risks. The GAO said CISA was exploring whether the agency’s SRMA authority could be used to set up a vetting process.
More than 89 million people live or work within 2 miles of a U.S. facility using high-risk chemicals, DHS said. According to its estimates, if high-risk chemicals are weaponized, it could cause significant harm to surrounding populations, from fatalities within the facility to the “equivalent impact of a nuclear explosion.”
In its report, the GAO recommended that CISA implement voluntary options for chemical facilities to vet personnel for terrorist ties, and, if necessary, to seek legislative authority to do so.
DHS did not concur with the recommendations.
The GAO said that as CISA has identified the lack of vetting as a security gap posing significant risks, the agency continues to recommend CISA implement voluntary options for terrorist vetting.