Business as Usual for Chemical Plants (WP--Gary Hart)

Former Senator Gary Hart of the Hart-Rudman Commission:

Business as Usual for Chemical Plants

Chemical facilities are among the potentially most dangerous components of our critical infrastructure. Securing them requires urgent action.

As hard as it is to believe, the chemical industry has refused to take adequate precautions to safeguard its facilities and surrounding communities.

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The Bush administration's homeland security efforts since the Sept. 11 attacks have ignored this highly vulnerable sector. The White House was silent last summer while industry lobbyists scuttled federal legislation that would have required chemical companies to address their vulnerability to attack. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), died in Congress without a vote, even though a bipartisan Senate committee had passed it unanimously. Meanwhile, in March of this year, the General Accounting Office issued a report urging passage of legislation to require the industry to assess its vulnerability to terrorism and, where necessary, require corrective action.

The Bush administration and its congressional allies nevertheless ignore Corzine's security solution. Even worse, the White House and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) are pushing a separate and far weaker bill, one that would leave millions of Americans vulnerable to chemical terrorism.


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Democrats need to point out that the Republicans are NOT the "homeland security" party. They're the corporate security party.

Bush and Cheney may have ignored his Hart-Rudman report in 2001, but, voters would be foolish to ignore this man's warnings for our nation ever again.

Hart is the man I would trust for a real Homeland Security that focuses on real safety and not the illusion of safety.

Hart should not be ignored again.