Homeland Security Watch

The Congressional Research Service published a new report this week on chemical plant security:

RL33447: Senate Proposals to Enhance Chemical Facility Security, June 1, 2006

The report compares the Collins-Lieberman bill (S. 2145) with the Lautenberg-Obama bill (S. 2486), and including a useful table that compares every relevant issue on a side-by-side basis.

I’m agnostic on the relative merits of the two bills – my bottom line at this point is getting any substantive bill passed, and both of these past muster. Unfortunately, as I noted last week, the prospects of passing legislation this year are dimming – and meanwhile, Sen. Frist is preparing to use the Senate’s scarce floor time for divisive dross with no chance of passage next week. If there were no other pressing issues on the Senate’s agenda, then fine; but using floor time in this way when sensible chemical security (and port security) legislation is languishing is deeply irresponsible.