Review - S 5487 Introduced – TWICE Act

Last month, Sen Kennedy (R,LA) introduced S 5487, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential Efficiency (TWICE) Act. The bill would require TSA to develop guidelines to improve returning [from incarceration] citizens’ access to the TWIC program. No new funding is authorized by the bill. 

The bill is similar in intent to HR 5109, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential Efficiency Act, introduced by Rep Carter (D,LA) in September 2025. The House Homeland Security Committee held a business meeting on June 24th, 2026, that included consideration of the HR 5487. The bill was approved by a vote of 30 to 0. On September 16th, the House considered the bill under the suspension of the rule process and passed it on a voice vote. 

Moving Forward  

Kennedy is not a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there is not likely to be sufficient influence for this bill to be considered by that Committee. While I suspect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for this bill were it to be considered, I certainly do not think that there is sufficient time left in the schedule of the 119th Congress to see this bill move through the legislative process. The only way that this bill, or its House counterpart, will make it to the floor in the 119th session of the Senate will be under the unanimous consent process. I would expect an objection to such consideration by any one of several Republican Senators that would consider this to be ‘soft on crime’. 

Commentary  

As I mentioned when this bill was introduced, on September 16th, Laurie Thomas, an expert on all things Coast Guard, MTSA, and TWIC, left a comment on my blog post about the reporting of HR 5109: 

“Just my two cents but I think most facilities would prefer that the just-released establish a pattern of good behavior and compliance with legal norms before coming to work in a place whose risk posture requires a TWIC. Make HR 5109 make sense, please.” 

Nothing in the language of this bill would change the existing TWIC eligibility restrictions for convictions or incarceration for the serious offenses listed in §70105(c); no changes to that subsection have been proposed in this bill. It would simply require TSA to produce formal guidelines on how those restrictions would be applied in practice and what level of assistance TSA would have to provide personnel submitting appeals under 49 CFR 1515.7. Any changes to §1515.7 would have to go through the publish and comment process. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including additional commentary about reducing the time standards for interim disqualifying offenses – see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-5487-introduced-twice-act - subscription required. 

Short Takes – 10-3-26 - Space Geek Edition

The DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published five commercial space launch notices of proposed rulemaking in Monday’s Federal Register (available online today). They include:  

• 91 FR 63180; Docket No.: FAA-2026-9935 – Digital Modernization for Licensing Electronic Application Submissions – Summary: “FAA proposes to amend its commercial space launch and reentry licensing regulations to allow for submission of license and permit applications and requests for waivers, alternative time frames, and safety element approvals through additional electronic methods.” 
• 91 FR 63199; Docket No.: FAA-2026-9940 – Lightning Hazard Mitigation Burden-Reducing Exception – Summary “FAA proposes to amend its commercial space launch and reentry licensing regulations to streamline the licensing process and reduce regulatory burden for license applicants. Specifically, FAA proposes to add an exception for compliance with lightning hazard mitigation requirements for certain licensed launch and reentry operations.” 
• 91 FR 63204; Docket No.: FAA-2026-9941 – Overpressure Blast Effects Analysis Burden Reducing Clarification – Summary “FAA proposes to amend its commercial space launch and reentry licensing regulations to streamline the licensing process and reduce regulatory burden for license applicants. Specifically, FAA proposes to amend the regulations to state that a far-field overpressure blast effects analysis required for license applicants does not need to account for members of the public in hypothetical locations.” 
• 91 FR 63185; Docket No.: FAA-2026-9934 – Simplifying Physical Containment Requirements – Summary: “FAA proposes to amend its commercial space launch and reentry licensing regulations to streamline the licensing process and reduce regulatory burden on operators. Specifically, FAA proposes to relieve the burden by specifying that, when using physical containment as a hazard control strategy, operators do not need to develop flight hazard areas in accordance with FAA's existing flight hazard area analysis requirements.” 
• 91 FR 63190; Docket No.: FAA-2026-9936 – Streamlining Flight Safety Analysis Methodology Means of Compliance – Summary: “FAA proposes to amend its commercial space launch and reentry licensing regulations to streamline the licensing process. Specifically, FAA proposes to alleviate regulatory burden for license applicants by consolidating information required for an operator's flight safety analysis.” 

Each of these rulemakings would be considered to be ‘deregulatory actions’ under EO 14192. 

The FAA is soliciting comments on each of these NPRMs. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; using the listed docket number). Comments should be submitted by November 4th, 2026. 

CISA Sends CIRCIA Reporting Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from CISA on “Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) Reporting Requirements”. The notice of proposed rulemaking for this action was published on April 4th, 2024. The Congressional deadline {6 USC 681b(b)(2)} for publishing the final rule was October 4th, 2025. 

According to the 2026 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:  

“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will finalize regulations to implement certain aspects of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA).  Specifically, CIRCIA directs CISA to develop and implement regulations requiring covered entities to submit reports to CISA regarding covered cyber incidents and ransom payments.  CISA published the NPRM on April 4, 2024. CISA received significant public comments on the proposed rule, many of which emphasized the need to reduce the scope and burden of the proposed reporting requirements, improve harmonization of CIRCIA with other federal cyber incident reporting requirements, and clarify terms. CISA is considering the public comments and examining options for the rulemaking. Additional information about this rulemaking is available at www.cisa.gov/circia.” 

NOTE: The link reported above does not work, it should read “https://www.cisa.gov/topics/cyber-threats-and-advisories/information-sharing/cyber-incident-reporting-critical-infrastructure-act-2022-circia” 

An interesting problem that CISA had to address during the crafting of this regulation is defining who would be required to submit the cyber incident reports. The statute uses the term ‘covered entity’ in setting out the reporting requirement and then give the following broad and vague definition for that term {6 USC 681(4)}: 

“The term ‘covered entity’ means an entity in a critical infrastructure sector, as defined in Presidential Policy Directive 21, that satisfies the definition established by the Director in the final rule issued pursuant to section 681b(b) of this title.” 

I discussed the approach that CISA took to refine this definition in the NPRM. It will be interesting to see what changes CISA may have made in the final rule.