Homeland Security Dept. Promises Simpler Safety Act Application Officials of the Department of Homeland Security have told industry representatives that it will simply applications for liability protection under the Safety Act, following complaints from technology companies and three congressional committee chairmen. The department began accepting applications last October, but has not approved a single one, according to the congressmen. Industry representatives have complained that the application is too long and complicated and requires disclosure of too much proprietary information. (SAA, 10/31/03) The Safety Act gives the Homeland Security secretary the responsibility for approving qualified anti-terrorism technologies. Sellers of the approved technologies would be granted limited protection from product liability lawsuits. Among other things, they would be allowed to use the “government contractor defense.” That defense generally shields a company from liability as long as it supplies a product that meets government specifications and does not conceal any defects or other safety problems. The department published an interim rule October 16 and began accepting applications. In a meeting with industry representatives this month, department officials said they will soon issue a final rule and “re-do the application to make it simpler,” said Washington lawyer John Clerici, who attended the department’s briefing. In a May 11 letter, the chairmen of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, the House Government Reform Committee and the House Judiciary Committee asked Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to streamline the process for certifying critical anti-terrorism technologies. “The analysis to be undertaken by the department for the designation and certification of a given technology was intended to be simple and straightforward – a means of facilitating transactions, not erecting additional barriers to deployment,” the chairmen wrote. They said the department should “conduct a basic analysis of the technology to confirm that it actually works and would not pose an inherent risk of injury to others.” Then, they said, Congress intended that the department would survey the private insurance market to determine the level of coverage that should be required for the seller of a product. The letter was signed by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox (R- CA), Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Davis said, “In our fight against terrorism and our efforts to protect the homeland, we must harness the creative, cutting-edge technologies being developed by the private sector. The Safety Act must work as intended: To speed up the deployment of these technologies, not to slow them down.” When the department released the application last fall, officials estimated it would take from 36 to 180 hours to fill out. But Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, told the Government Reform Committee that it would take “closer to 1,000 hours.”