Date: 2007-10-23
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker. a vote on this legislation is long overdue. The need to regulate ammonium nitrate has been evident since the bombing of the Alfred Murrah building in 1995. This legislation is needed to protect Americans from those who seek to utilize this dangerous chemical in terrorist attacks. But as the chairman said. we must balance this threat to our Nations security with the need for ammonium nitrate to remain accessible because it is a highly effective agricultural fertilizer and :has other legitimate uses in industries like mining. .The legislation before us creates a system of regulation so that ammonium nitrate is available for legitimate use. but does not fall into terrorist hands. a system that keeps us safe. but does not burden farmers. I believe this legislation strikes that balance. We originally took up this legislation in the 109th Congress and we approved it in the Committee on Homeland Security. But the 109th Congress ended before this legislation could be consid ered on the House floor. so Im happy to see this legislation before us again in the 110th Congress. And I thank the chairman for bringing it to us at this time. H.R. 1680 is a bipartisan bill. We worked with our colleagues across the aisle to strengthen the prevention of terrorism component of this bill by insisting on a registration requirement for those who purchase ammonium nitrate rather than just those who sell it. We were happy to see the committee accept three Republican amendments to this bill. I introduced an amendment which requires the Department of Homeland Security to check the name of applicants for ammonium nitrate registration numbers against terrorist watch lists. This will prevent suspected terrorists from acquiring this deadly material and will alert law enforcement authorities of potential plots under way. Other Republican amendments provide civil liability protection for the sellers of ammonium nitrate in the event they refuse to sell ammonium nitrate to suspect purchasers or make reports to law enforcement about suspect purchasers. No seller of ammonium nitrate should be afraid to deny sale of this dangerous material out of fear of legal action. Ammonium nitrate is a legitimate chemical used to fertilize our crops. but its availability. accessibility. ease of bombmaking. cost. and history of prior use make it an obvious material for large explosives that could be employed in terrorist attacks. We need only to look back in recent history to understand that ammonium nitrate can be the terrorist tool of choice: the al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. in November 2003 scores of individuals killed when terrorists detonated ammonium nitrate bombs in Istanbul. in March 2005 British antiterror police seized a half ton of ammonium nitrate from suspects accused of being affiliated with Islamic terrorists. later that month. over 3.000 pounds of ammonium nitrate was stolen by armed terrorists in Thailand. the arrests last summer. June 2006. of 17 people in Canada on charges that they were planning on using ammonium nitrate to make an extremely powerful bomb. Al Qaeda has an Internet hit on how to make ammonium nitrate bombs. An ABC News team last fall demonstrated Mf1864 how easy it might be to acquire ammonium nitrate. With just $300. ABC interns managed to purchase 1.000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in 2 days in farm supply stores from North Carolina to the District of Columbia. No one questioned why they needed ammonium nitrate. No one asked for their identification. That ammonium nitrate was stored in a public storage facility just a few miles from where we stand today. These events have demonstrated vulnerabilities that put us in the crosshairs of terrorist sights right where we live. work and travel. Here in the U.S.. a few of our States. including California. have already begun to imple"ment laws to secure the handling of ammonium nitrate. The chemical and farming industry developed important protections in their respective industries to keep this substance out of the hands of terrorists. These are important efforts. but it creates a patchwork where all a terrorist has to do to build a ammonium nitrate bomb is to travel from New York to Pennsylvania to acquire it. Congress needs to step in to set a national policy. This legislation does just that. It sets a floor across the Nation so that ammonium nitrate is used as intended. that is. to grow our Nations crops. not to create the next Oklahoma City bombing. We believe fair and proportionate regulations will allow ammonium nitrate to continue to be available to legitimate users who are not a security concern while at the same time preventing and deterring its acquisition by those who wish to do us harm. By supporting H.R. 1680. we will take another step in upholding our responsibility to protect the lives and livelihood of our American citizenry. And with that. I reserve the balance of my time.