The Alliance for Chemical Distribution (ACD), formerly the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD), President and CEO Eric R. Byer joined Congressional, government, and other industry voices for a media briefing to examine the next steps for the reauthorization of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which expired in July 2023.

Byer was joined by the office of U.S. Representative Laurel Lee (FL-15), the National Security Council, the Center for Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Agency, the American Chemistry Council, the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates, the Fertilizer Institute, and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

In his remarks, Byer underscored the consequences of the program’s expiration to small businesses across the nation, many of which are ACD members:

“We represent a lot of small, family-run businesses. We have about 400 [members] globally, most of them are [in the U.S.], multi-generational family small businesses. In fact, 98 percent of our members are quintessential SBA-definition small businesses. One of the huge values of this program has always been the fact that there was always a touch point within the CFATS staff to have our members reach out to them if they have concerns about security, about working with the terrorist screening database, all of those invaluable components of the CFATS program that expired back in July and that they really have not had access to.”

Byer also highlighted the chemical industry’s longstanding support of the program:

“When industry and the federal government get together and essentially agree on a common thread, which is the CFATS program, it’s almost historic. You don’t see small businesses, or any businesses, sitting there saying, ‘we want to be regulated.’ Yet, here we are having successfully seen the program reauthorized four times over the last [16] years to say, ‘look, this is a program that is real benefit to not only to our member companies, but to the customers and end-users in conjunction with the inspectors and CFATS personnel under [the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)].’ That can’t be understated.”

Byer concluded his remarks by stressing the importance of the CFATS program to local first responders.

“It is critical we get this program back online. The first responders want this program. [Law enforcement and fire departments] participating in the CFATS program, along with our members and DHS, is a huge service. They all get on the same page in understanding the layout of warehouses, where chemicals are, and making sure that things like breakaway doors are in place versus not. All of these things are so critical to the nature of what we do within CFATS. The first responders are [critical] to this discussion. They find this program, and continue to find this program, invaluable and we need to get it back online for them as well.”