The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a bill to modify an existing chemical facility standards program managed by the Department of Homeland Security and also reported several nominations, including for the deputy at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.capitol

The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Programs Authorization and Accountability Act of 2014 (H.R. 4007) was approved by voice vote and requires DHS to establish performance-based standards to improve the security of chemical facilities. It also requires a third party assessment of vulnerabilities in the existing DHS-managed eight-years-old Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program to ensure the department’s accountability of the program.

A version of the bill has already passed the House.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the ranking member on the committee, said in a statement that the bill, which was introduced with Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the committee’s chairman, will reform the CFATS program. Coburn said that after eight years “there is little, if any, evidence to show that the more than half a billion dollars DHS has spent created an effective chemical security regulatory program or measurably reduced the risk of an attack on our chemical industrial infrastructure.”

Coburn released a 50-page report by his office citing a number of errors and problems in DHS’ management of CFATS such as including 100 sites that should not have been a part of the program.

The committee also approved by voice vote the Enhanced Security Clearance Act of 2013 (S. 1618) that requires the Director of National Intelligence to create a plan to eliminate the backlog of delayed investigations of covered individuals. It also requires the director to direct each agency to have a program for enhanced security reviews of covered individuals that are not part of the evaluation program.

The committee also approved several nominations including Joseph Nimmich to be deputy administrator of FEMA and Anne Rung to be administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy within the White House Office of Management and Budget. The nominations were approved by voice vote en bloc.