Louise Slaughter: “these provisions were not in either the House or Senate-passed versions of the Homeland Security bill. They were drafted…”

“these provisions were not in either the House or Senate-passed versions of the Homeland Security bill. They were drafted in secret and slipped into the conference report without the input of any Democrats in the conference. Even worse, these provisions may make chemical facilities more vulnerable to security problems and not less. When we talk about balance, I think Homeland Security was supposed to be about rules and regulations. The new language weakens the Homeland Security Secretary's ability to enforce chemical facility site security plans. It takes the authority away. It allows the Secretary to preempt tougher State laws to ensure chemical facility security, and it severely restricts the rights of citizens to take any legal action to enforce chemical facility security requirements. Securing our chemical plants is far too important to be compromised by a secretive and inadequate security plan. I want to stress that a ``no'' vote on the previous question will not stop consideration of the conference report, but a ``no'' vote will allow the House to remove these inadequate and dangerous provisions. Again, please vote ``no'' on the previous question. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”