Department of Homeland Security looks to renew program to keep dangerous chemicals out of extremists' hands

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking to renew a program that is meant to keep dangerous chemicals out of the hands of extremists.

But the program, called the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, expired July 28 after Congress failed to renew it. Homeland Security officials say this left gaping holes in the country's national security, and they are calling on Congress to act quickly when it returns this week.

"The risk that terrorists could access and weaponize the dangerous chemicals produced in these facilities increases by the day," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told attendees at the Chemical Security Summit held in northern Virginia last week.

The program requires any facility that has a certain quantity of any of a long list of "chemicals of interest" to report the information to the Department of Homeland Security. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, which falls under DHS, then determines whether the facility is considered high risk and therefore must develop a security plan. The agency assesses the plan to make sure it addresses things like physical security as well as cybersecurity, and then it does inspections to make sure companies are in compliance.