Inaction by Congress Leaves Americans Vulnerable to Explosive Chemical

Congress went out of session to campaign for midterm elections without enacting any new federal laws to monitor the sales of ammonium nitrate, despite the fact it is a weapon of choice for terrorists both abroad and here in America and can still be widely and easily purchased in the U.S.  This summer members of Congress assured ABC news there would be swift passage of the "Secure Ammonium Nitrate Bill." Congress, however, went out of session without passing it or any federal law that would have monitored the sale of this potential chemical explosive. House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY), who has advocated for better record keeping on sales and registration of facilities that sell the widely distributed fertilizer, says that he and the other sponsors of the bill will reintroduce it when Congress reconvenes in November. THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS Video Brian Ross Investigates Webcast: The Weapon of Choice for Terrorists? Lobbyists Resisting 9/11 Security Upgrades Click Here for More of the Brian Ross Page As co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. King was discouraged by the House’s inaction on this important issue. King said, "Ammonium nitrate is a weapon of choice for terrorists." Yet as a widely used fertilizer, it is easily and cheaply purchased at farm supply and gardening stores around the country. There is no federal law restricting, or even requiring registration of, who can buy it and no background checks required as we discovered in the course of an ABC News undercover investigation. With virtually no questions asked, we were able to make large buys at four separate stores in Virginia and North Carolina. A brochure put out by the fertilizer industry encourages farm stores to identify their customers by requiring a government-issued photo ID. That did not happen at any of the stores we visited. "When you’re talking about something as lethal as ammonium nitrate, we have to have controls in place," Congressman King said. But efforts in Congress to put in place background checks have failed, blocked by lobbyists for the American Farm Bureau as an unnecessary burden on farmers. "Background checks would definitely be something that would cause many of the folks I work for a hard time," Rebeckah Adcock, Director of Congressional Relations at the American Farm Bureau, told ABC News. As to whether a stranger could walk into an agricultural store with cash and buy ammonium nitrate, she replied, "I think that if he was in middle America, it would be unlikely." Our ABC News investigation found otherwise. In two days time, our undercover team, spending less than $300, had assembled 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and, undetected, moved it into a storage shed just a few miles from the White House. A thousand pounds would take down a good-sized building when combined with the right ingredients to make a bomb — something terrorists already know all too well. In order to get even limited controls past the farm bureau lobbyists, Congressman King says he’s had to accept a watered-down version of his bill but will continue to push for regulation of the fertilizer when the House reconvenes in November.