Thursday, January 20, 2011

Reader Comment – Corrected Information on TWIC Reader Rule

Late yesterday afternoon John C.W. Bennett provided some corrective information to a blog posting that I had made last week. I had noted that the OMB reported having received the TWIC Reader NPRM for review. John informs us that a presenter at yesterday’s National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) reported that the OMB is actually reviewing is “a policy document providing interim guidance for voluntary use of TWIC readers in advance of the Final Rule”.

John also noted that the briefer explained that the interim document “could be on the streets in four months” (Note: John’s blog explains that that includes a 30-day OMB review and a public comment period). That makes more sense in light of the reported November time frame for the NPRM submission listed in the Unified Regulatory Agenda published last month. It’s unfortunate that MTSA facilities will have to rely on this interim guidance for TWIC Reader deployment information, but that would certainly be better than waiting blindly for at least two years for a final rule to become effective.

John also points us at his blog posting providing more details about yesterday’s NMSAC meeting.

1 comment:

John C.W. Bennett said...

PJ,

Thanks for the kind words and the exposure.

At this morning's NMSAC session, the Committee was given three briefs that weren't on the original Agenda. Two are relevant to your interests: The progress of the [CDC] Cargo Security Risk Reduction Workgroup and the efforts to harmonize the requirements of CFATS and those of MTSA and its regulations.

I don't know whether you'll find something you don't already know, but here's my write-up of the session:
http://mpsblog.org/2011/01/20/national-maritime-security-advisory-committee-meeting-%E2%80%93-part-2/

Regards,
JB

 
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