Meeting face-to-face with legislators is the most effective way to get your message heard on Capitol Hill, and Fly-In participation by our members – the constituents of the legislators NACD works with throughout the year – is critical to advancing the day-to-day work NACD does here in Washington. And there’s still plenty for us to accomplish this year.
Earlier this year, Congress narrowly avoided allowing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program to sunset by passing a short-term 15-month extension of the program’s expiration date. Given the circumstances, the passage of the last-minute extension was a major legislative success. Nevertheless, in order to pass a multi-year reauthorization and avoid a similar situation come April 2020, it is imperative Congress commit to working together in a timely manner to ensure the security of the nation.
Earlier this week, I attended the University of Innovative Distribution (UID) in Indianapolis, IN, as program chairman. It has been a true pleasure and source of pride to serve this year as the UID chair. This highly informative four-day conference is a concentrated educational program focused on the unique needs of the wholesale distribution industry.
As our members recently saw, the association and its industry partners were successful in securing a short-term extension to keep the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program going past January 18, 2019.
Chemical distributors depend on reliable, competitive rail service to deliver products to customers in nearly every industry sector. Unfortunately, the railroad industry is currently a near-monopoly with only four rail providers controlling 90 percent of the traffic regulated by outdated policies that hinder competition and fair service.
This year’s Annual Meeting featured a new video highlighting what NACD members are saying about NACD Responsible Distribution® and how it has helped them demonstrate their commitment to continuous performance improvement in every phase of chemical storage, handling, transportation, and disposal. As we look back on 2018, we wanted to highlight the hard work of our members and the remarkable results delivered by their participation in Responsible Distribution.
I have received a number of emails and calls from members in the wake of Tuesday night’s midterm elections asking what the results will mean to chemical distributors. It’s a tough question to answer at this early stage, but there are a couple observations I believe will prove telling over the next two years as we embark upon the 2020 presidential election year.
Last spring, I drafted a blog advocating for Congress to approve a long-term authorization bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) that is set to expire January 19, 2019. The impetus for the piece was for Congress not to wait until the very end of the year when the midterm elections could politicize what is a bipartisan legislative measure. Unfortunately, that very scenario is now taking place, but successful approval of a long-term reauthorization bill is still possible with your help.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published the final rule on TSCA User Fees and officially began collecting the new fees for TSCA activities on October 1. NACD has been closely involved in the development of the rule. We submitted our initial comments in August of 2016 and then sent more extensive comments in February 2018 based on EPA’s proposed rule.
On the heels of an NACD economic analysis showing that approximately $5 billion worth of the chemicals U.S. chemical distributors import will be impacted by the China Section 301 List 3 tariffs, most of those tariffs went into effect earlier this week.