TSA Pipeline Security ICR to OMB

We have had a lot of chemical security related ICRs news this week. On Friday the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that the Transportation Safety Administration had submitted their information collection request to support the pending release of their new Pipeline Security Guideline. This is actually a late submission of the ICR to OMB since the Federal Register 30-day notice on this ICR was submitted on August 16th. With the comment period having closed on September 15th, this late submission has held up OMB action on this ICR by over a week.

This is probably due to the low priority for pipeline security issues at TSA, DHS and Congress. There is no legislative authority for running an active pipeline security activity so the TSA program that this ICR is supporting is a voluntary security reporting program. To the extent that there is no money for a pipeline security program, I suppose that TSA is to be commended for doing even this very limited amount of work on the program.