OMB Publishes 2016 Spring Unified Agenda – DHS

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs published the Spring 2016 Unified Agenda, a listing of the status of the current regulations being developed by the Federal government. This version of the Unified Agenda is particularly important because it effectively marks the projected end of the Agenda for the Obama Administration. The Fall version of the agenda will essentially be a lame duck agenda.

DHS Agenda

The table below shows which rulemakings that are on the Spring Agenda for the Department of Homeland Security may be of specific interest to readers of this blog.

Prerule Stage	Updates to Protected Critical Infrastructure Information	1601-AA77
Proposed Rule Stage	Petitions for Rulemaking, Amendment, or Repeal	1601-AA56
Proposed Rule Stage	Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)	1601-AA69
Proposed Rule Stage	Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Safeguarding of Sensitive Information	1601-AA76
Final Rule Stage	Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment Act Implementation	1601-AA80
Final Rule Stage	Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC); Card Reader Requirements	1625-AB21
Final Rule Stage	Revision to Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Requirements for Mariners	1625-AB80
Final Rule Stage	2013 Liquid Chemical Categorization Updates	1625-AB94
Proposed Rule Stage	Security Training for Surface Mode Employees	1652-AA55

There is one new item on this list; Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment Act Implementation (1601-AA80). This lands on the list already in the ‘Final Rule Stage’ because this was a specific requirement from Congress (§701, PL 114-74) so there is no requirement to go through the publish and comment rulemaking process. Congress required that an interim final rule be final on this rulemaking by August 1^st of this year.

One item that was on the 2015 Fall Agenda did fall off of this list; Surface Mode Vulnerability Assessment and Security Plans (1652-AA56). This rulemaking has flip-flopped between the Agenda and the Long-Term actions list for a number of years. It is now back on Long-Term Actions (see below)

Long-Term Actions

OIRA also updated their ‘Long-Term Actions’ section of the Unified Agenda. These are regulatory actions that are technically being worked upon, but nobody expects them to be finished for a variety of reasons in the foreseeable future. The items on the DHS list that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog are listed in the table below.

Long-Term Actions	Ammonium Nitrate Security Program	1601-AA52
Long-Term Actions	Updates to Maritime Security	1625-AB38
Long-Term Actions	Amendments to Chemical Testing Requirements	1625-AB58
Long-Term Actions	Protection of Sensitive Security Information	1652-AA08
Long-Term Actions	Surface Mode Vulnerability Assessment and Security Plans	1652-AA56
Long-Term Actions	Standardized Vetting, Adjudication, and Redress Services	1652-AA61

Cybersecurity

Once again there are no cybersecurity regulations listed on the DHS Unified Agenda (other than the SAR regulation on contractors protecting sensitive information. DHS may have an apparently ever expanding role in cybersecurity, but there is no apparent intent to establish any sort of regulations on the topic.

Rule-Making Schedule

Many of the items on the list of active rulemakings listed above have projected dates for the next step in the publish-comment process. To call these dates illusory would be generous. The TSA security training rulemaking has been on the agenda for almost a decade now with absolutely no action. Deadlines established by Congress are essentially unenforceable. The rulemakings will appear if and when they appear. Anyone that believes the projections included in the Unified Agenda should contact me; I have some property 40 miles south of Key West for sale, cheap.