ISCD Publishes CFATS PSP Information

This afternoon the DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) published a link on the CFATS landing page to a new web site for their Personnel Surety Program (PSP). This is happening the day before the intended publication of their PSP notice in the Federal Register (a draft copy available here).

The new web page explains that three of the four personnel surety requirements in RBPS #12 have been in effect since the RBPS Guidance document was published six years ago. All facilities with authorized site security plans have addressed those three requirements in their SSP. The remaining requirement, vetting plant personnel and unescorted visitors for potential terrorist ties, has been held up while ISCD put together a program for screening these personnel against the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).

Readers of this blog will remember that back in August the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) finally approved the ISCD information collection request which authorized it to collect information from chemical facilities in support of the PSP. A little over a month later ISCD published a fact sheet outlining how the PSP program would operate for Tier I and Tier II facilities (Tiers III and IV will be added to the program at a later date).

Today’s publication of the PSP web site provides a brief overview of the four approved methods that facilities can use (alone or in combination) to complete the terrorist screening PSP requirement. Additional details will be laid out in the notice published in tomorrow’s Federal Register and the PSP User Manual that will be published in the near (hopefully) future.

I’ll have a more detailed post about the PSP notice tomorrow.