More Information on PCII ANPRM

On Thursday the Department of Homeland Security published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public input on possible changes to the Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) program. Yesterday the Department also updated its website to provide additional information about the ANPRM. The Federal eRulemaking Portal also provided the docket number for comments on the ANPRM that was missing from the notice.

PCII Web Site

DHS has maintained a rather extensive web site about its PCII program. The landing page for that program was updated yesterday with a new section at the bottom of the page briefly outlining the purpose of this week’s ANPRM. It also provided links to two new web pages dealing with the ANPRM:

• ANPRM on the PCII Program

• PCII ANPRM: Frequently Asked Questions

The first page provides a brief overview of the rulemaking process and explains that the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) expects that this rulemaking process will take about two years and that the expectation is that a notice of proposed rulemaking (the next step in the process) should be published next year.

The second page provides essentially the same information in a slightly different format and just a tad bit more detail.

Docket Number

I noted in Thursday’s blog post about the ANPRM that DHS had made a minor administrative mistake and failed to include the docket number for the ANPRM in the notice. That docket number is important because it is used to access or provide information about this proposed rulemaking on the Federal eRulemaking Portal.

A search of that portal this morning shows that the docket number does actually exist. It is DHS-2016-0032. I still expect that DHS will publish either an amended ANPRM notice or an update to the current notice in the Federal Register that will show this docket number. That almost certainly needs to be done to keep everything kosher.