ISCD Updates ANSP Information

Today the folks at DHS ISCD updated their information regarding the ammonium nitrated security program (ANSP) public meetings on two different web sites. First they updated the list of public meeting sites on the ANSP web page. Second they added information about the public meetings to the CFATS Knowledge Center.

Update ANSP Web Page

The updated information on the ANSP web page removed the first two meetings; the ones scheduled for today in Mobile, AL and the one for Thursday in Savannah, GA. Actually the one in Mobile was rescheduled for November 8^th; the one in Savannah was rescheduled for November 1^st.

There was no explanation given for the rescheduling. Hopefully not too many people had already showed up for the Mobile, AL meeting this morning. Since there was no registration for attendees there was no way for ISCD to notify them of the change.

CFATS Knowledge Center

The updated list of meeting sites was included today in an article on the CFATS Knowledge Center. There is a brief note about the meetings in the “Latest News” section that points readers at a generic ‘article’. The actual listing is found in Article 1727 (NOTE: there are no permanent links to Knowledge Center articles or FAQ; enter ‘Article 1727’ in the search box to get the current link).

There are a couple of new pieces of information available in this Article that are not mentioned on the ANSP web site. First the Article notes that “though sign‐in sheets will be provided to voluntarily collect contact information from the attending public and to properly log oral comments received during the meetings”. This is important because DHS will be recording comments at these meetings as part of the public comment process for the NPRM that would establish this program. The notice about this recording and reporting of the public comments is the second new piece of information.

The third new piece of information deals with the lack of point of contact information that I mentioned in my blog posting about the original publication of this list of public meetings. There is still no POC information on the ANSP web site, but this article does provide a telephone number for people with disabilities to request appropriate accommodations. This isn’t quite a POC, but it would probably lead to one if someone were to push hard enough.

Still No Federal Register Announcement

I suspect that the reason for the postponement of the first two meetings is that there was no announcement of the public meetings in the Federal Register. With the large number of meetings scheduled ISCD probably could have gone forward with these meetings without running the risk of complaints, but it is just another indication of the care with which this program development is proceeding.