Thursday, May 19, 2016

OMB Publishes 2016 Spring Unified Agenda – DHS

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs published the Spring 2016 Unified Agenda, a listing of the status of the current regulations being developed by the Federal government. This version of the Unified Agenda is particularly important because it effectively marks the projected end of the Agenda for the Obama Administration. The Fall version of the agenda will essentially be a lame duck agenda.

DHS Agenda


The table below shows which rulemakings that are on the Spring Agenda for the Department of Homeland Security may be of specific interest to readers of this blog.

Prerule Stage
Updates to Protected Critical Infrastructure Information
Proposed Rule Stage
Petitions for Rulemaking, Amendment, or Repeal
Proposed Rule Stage
Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)
Proposed Rule Stage
Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Safeguarding of Sensitive Information
Final Rule Stage
Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment Act Implementation
Final Rule Stage
Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC); Card Reader Requirements
Final Rule Stage
Revision to Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Requirements for Mariners
Final Rule Stage
2013 Liquid Chemical Categorization Updates
Proposed Rule Stage
Security Training for Surface Mode Employees

There is one new item on this list; Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment Act Implementation (1601-AA80). This lands on the list already in the ‘Final Rule Stage’ because this was a specific requirement from Congress (§701, PL 114-74) so there is no requirement to go through the publish and comment rulemaking process. Congress required that an interim final rule be final on this rulemaking by August 1st of this year.

One item that was on the 2015 Fall Agenda did fall off of this list; Surface Mode Vulnerability Assessment and Security Plans (1652-AA56). This rulemaking has flip-flopped between the Agenda and the Long-Term actions list for a number of years. It is now back on Long-Term Actions (see below)

Long-Term Actions


OIRA also updated their ‘Long-Term Actions’ section of the Unified Agenda. These are regulatory actions that are technically being worked upon, but nobody expects them to be finished for a variety of reasons in the foreseeable future. The items on the DHS list that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog are listed in the table below.

Long-Term Actions
Ammonium Nitrate Security Program
Long-Term Actions
Updates to Maritime Security
Long-Term Actions
Amendments to Chemical Testing Requirements
Long-Term Actions
Protection of Sensitive Security Information
Long-Term Actions
Surface Mode Vulnerability Assessment and Security Plans
Long-Term Actions
Standardized Vetting, Adjudication, and Redress Services

Cybersecurity


Once again there are no cybersecurity regulations listed on the DHS Unified Agenda (other than the SAR regulation on contractors protecting sensitive information. DHS may have an apparently ever expanding role in cybersecurity, but there is no apparent intent to establish any sort of regulations on the topic.

Rule-Making Schedule


Many of the items on the list of active rulemakings listed above have projected dates for the next step in the publish-comment process. To call these dates illusory would be generous. The TSA security training rulemaking has been on the agenda for almost a decade now with absolutely no action. Deadlines established by Congress are essentially unenforceable. The rulemakings will appear if and when they appear. Anyone that believes the projections included in the Unified Agenda should contact me; I have some property 40 miles south of Key West for sale, cheap.

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