Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act Of 2009
Floor Speech
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Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I appreciate the chance to be on the House floor today to speak in opposition to this bill, and I am particularly delighted to speak after the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Boswell) has just spoken because my message to my colleagues on the Agriculture Committee and others from rural America, whether Republicans or Democrats, is this is a bad bill for rural America and for our agriculture producers and the small businesses that support agriculture in rural America.
While it is a noble effort and something that I think everyone on the House floor would agree on, we need to move in the direction of greater security in regard to chemicals. Aspects of this bill, as indicated by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), really do not relate to security. They are about employee safety, workforce safety, the environment in which we work. It is about environmental rules and regulations. And in some fashion in our legislative process here, the Department of Homeland Security issues have been overcome, the positives that may be there from increasing our security, are overcome by the detrimental costs associated with environmental and labor issues.
So this bill, particularly because of the IST provisions, is a bill that is detrimental. As Mr. Boswell indicated, increasing input costs--fertilizers, chemicals, pesticides--those things matter to production agriculture today, especially today when the economic circumstances in which our farmers find themselves is so narrow, so difficult, anything that increases the cost is very damaging.
Finally, the businesses that support them, they make up a huge component of rural communities across my State, across rural America and across our country, and putting those folks out of business has a significant consequence to the future of the people that I represent.
So I urge my colleagues from all across rural America to oppose this legislation for the dramatic and damaging effect it will have upon the people who produce food and fiber in this country and the businesses that support that effort.
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