DHS Publishes Regulatory Agenda

Earlier this month DHS, along with all of the other major Executive Branch agencies, updated their Unified Agenda web site. Today they published their Regulatory Agenda in the Federal Register (78 FR 44266-44275).

According to the Summary:

“The regulatory agenda is a summary of current and projected rulemakings, as well as actions completed since the publication of the last regulatory agenda [78 FR 1586] for the Department.”

Effectively the Regulatory Agenda is a sub-set of the Unified Agenda and reflects the Department’s estimate of which of the Unified Agenda items is most likely to see regulatory action in the near future. Actually that definition and the term near future are mine not the governments, and it has more than a little sarcasm associated with it. It really is not clear what criteria the government uses to select this short list of regulatory actions as it has historically not born any relationship to future actions.

The items on the Regulatory Agenda notice that might be of specific interest to the chemical security/safety community (there are no cybersecurity measures on the list) include:

• Ammonium Nitrate Security Program 1601-AA52

• Updates to Maritime Security 1625-AB38

• Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC); Card Reader Requirements 1625-AB21

• General Aviation Security and Other Aircraft Operator Security 1652-AA53

Other than establishing a short list of regulatory actions that may (or may not) be taken in the foreseeable future, there is no new information in this document.