{"id":37787,"date":"2014-07-10T09:30:08","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T14:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=37787"},"modified":"2014-07-10T09:30:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T14:30:21","slug":"u-s-house-passes-bill-extending-anti-terrorism-safeguards-for-chemical-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/07\/10\/u-s-house-passes-bill-extending-anti-terrorism-safeguards-for-chemical-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. House Passes Bill Extending Anti-Terrorism Safeguards For Chemical Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1095\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Rep. Michael McCaul\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/103157755.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1095\" alt=\"Rep. Michael McCaul\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/103157755-300x228.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/103157755-300x228.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/103157755-220x167.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/103157755.jpg 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Michael McCaul<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The House of Representatives has passed a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/beta.congress.gov\/bill\/113th-congress\/house-bill\/4007\/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr+4007%22%5D%7D\" target=\"_blank\">bill<\/a>\u00a0to extend anti-terrorism protections for chemical plants through 2017. The bill\u2019s lead sponsors included two Houston congressmen \u2013 Republican Rep. Michael McCaul and Democratic Rep. Gene Green.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/chemical-security-laws-and-regulations\" target=\"_blank\">rules governing security for high-risk chemical facilities<\/a>\u00a0have been in place since 2007. But under current legislation, they must be renewed annually, along with appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security. That\u2019s led to some problems.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/158019441&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, because of the budget problems, when we shut down the government for thirteen days, this law was not into effect,\u201d says Rep. Green. \u201cWe want to give it its own freestanding law, so there can be some certainty.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Green says the bill has particular resonance for Houston. \u201cIn our district, we have a lot of these chemical facilities, and there\u2019s been a significant amount of both federal tax dollars and industry dollars put into securing those facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The window for the Senate to act on the bill is narrow. Only a few days remain before Congress goes into its August recess. Campaigning for the mid-term elections will take up much of the remaining time in the session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House of Representatives has passed a\u00a0bill\u00a0to extend anti-terrorism protections for chemical plants through 2017. The bill\u2019s lead sponsors included two Houston congressmen \u2013 Republican Rep. Michael McCaul and Democratic Rep. Gene Green. The\u00a0rules governing security for high-risk chemical facilities\u00a0have been in place since 2007. But under current legislation, they must be renewed annually, along [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[296],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37787"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37791,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37787\/revisions\/37791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}