OMB Approves CG TWIC Reader Final Rule

On Saturday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced their approval of the final rule for the Coast Guard’s Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) Card Reader Requirements. The final rule had been submitted to OIRA back in April. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rule was published in June of 2013 and I did a series of blog posts on the public comments the CG received about the NPRM.

As I have mentioned earlier this final rule will have no effect on facilities covered by the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program as it only applies to Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) covered facilities which are exempt from CFATS coverage. There is, however, an outside chance that some provisions from this rule could be included in the CFATS revisions that we are expecting to see in the not too distant (hopefully) future.

I expect that the final rule will be published in the Federal Register later this week.