Government Affairs Brief

With urging by the President, Congress moved to approve a measure to avert a potential rail strike that would have had almost certainly had severe negative impacts on the U.S. economy. By a bipartisan vote of 290 to 137, the House approved the measure, HJR 100, and sent it to the Senate. The Senate took up the measure with a 80-15 vote to approve on December 1. President Biden signed the measure into law on December 2.

ILTA is thrilled to announce our opening keynote for the 2023 Annual Operating Conference and Trade Show in Houston May 22-24, 2023: Generation Z expert and acclaimed generations researcher Jason Dorsey shares new insights and groundbreaking research about Gen Z on national TV. Jason is President of The Center for Generational Kinetics, the leading Gen Z and generations research, speaking, and consulting firm. Jason has worked with over 700 clients around the world, including every major industry.

ILTA held its annual membership meeting on November 3, 2022, in West Virginia and over Zoom. The day's discussion covered the organization's successful operating conference & trade show, ILTA's financial health, membership services with a demo of the new community platform Breezio and the voting in of the 2023 Board of Directors. Tim Winters of Sprague Operating Resources, LLC was elected by the membership to become the Board Chairman as Bernt Netland of Intercontinental Terminals Company moved to Chairman Emeritus. ILTA thanks Mr. Winters for his dutiful oversight during the 2022 year and is excited to work with the new Board in 2023. 

On August 31, 2022, EPA issued a proposed rule to amend the EPA Risk Management Program ("EPA RMP" or "RMP"). EPA sought to update the correlating safety program to the OSHA PSM rule, and the two programs work together to mitigate and reduce risk.

EPA is proposing to amend its RMP to include several critical changes. EPA is proposing changes to address accident prevention program requirements, enhancements to the emergency preparedness requirements, increased public availability of chemical hazard information, and several other changes to specific regulatory definitions or points of clarification. These proposed amendments seek to improve chemical process safety; assist in planning, preparedness, and responding to RMP-reportable accidents; and improve public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated sources.

ILTA is continuing its efforts to save terminal operators from making costly capital investments. ILTA formed a working group to prepare comments supporting the USCG's delay when published in the Federal Register. Additionally, ILTA is joining other industry associations to seek legislative changes that will officially change the TWIC Reader dates in law. The legislative language is being advanced during the conference negotiations on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 (NDAA). The NDAA is likely to be passed in the lame-duck session after the November elections. ILTA will continue its advocacy efforts to save terminal operators from making unnecessary capital expenditures.