Fall 2017 Regulatory Agenda – DHS

Last week the Trump Administration published their 2017 Fall Unified Agenda. There have been some interesting changes in regulatory planning since their original Unified Agenda was printed in July.

Active Agenda

The following items of interest were on the DHS portion of the Active Agenda:

USCG	Proposed Rule	Revision to Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Requirements for Mariners	1625-AB80
USCG	Final Rule	Marine Transportation--Related Facility Response Plans for Hazardous Substances	1625-AA12
USCG	Final Rule	Tank Vessel Response Plans for Hazardous Substances	1625-AA13
USCG	Final Rule	2013 Liquid Chemical Categorization Updates	1625-AB94
TSA	Proposed Rule	Vetting of Certain Surface Transportation Employees	1652-AA69
TSA	Final Rule	Protection of Sensitive Security Information	1652-AA08
TSA	Final Rule	Security Training for Surface Transportation Employees	1652-AA55

The items on the Active Agenda are regulatory items upon which the Administration intends to take action. Each item has a projected date by which the next regulatory step will be taken, but those dates are aspirational, and should no way be expected to be a deadline for action; some of these items have been on and off the Active Agenda for nearly 10 years.

Only one of these items was on the Active Agenda in the earlier version of the Unified Agenda; 1625-AB80. Three of the items were on the earlier Inactive Agenda; 1625-AB94, 1652-AA08, and 1652-AA55.

Two items were actually from the Inactive Items list that the Administration started publishing in July; 1625-AA12 and 1625-AA13. Both of these rulemakings began with an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in 1996. This move back to the Active Agenda does not really reflect a change in the intention of the Coast Guard to proceed with these two rule-makings. They have, instead, changed the next step in the regulatory process to “Notice of Withdrawal”. Both Agenda entries note that:

“This project supports the Coast Guard's broad roles and responsibilities of maritime safety and maritime stewardship by reducing the consequences of pollution incidents.  In light of the time elapsed since the beginning of this project and since the last comment period, further review is required.  Accordingly, the Coast Guard is withdrawing this entry.”

Long-Term Agenda

The following items were published in the Long-Term Actions agenda:

OS	Ammonium Nitrate Security Program	1601-AA52
OS	Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)	1601-AA69
OS	Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Safeguarding of Controlled Unclassified Sensitive Information (HSAR Case 2015-001)	1601-AA76
OS	Updates to Protected Critical Infrastructure Information	1601-AA77
USCG	Amendments to Chemical Testing Requirements	1625-AB58
USCG	Maritime Security--Vessel Personnel Security Training	1625-AC36
TSA	Surface Transportation Vulnerability Assessments and Security Plans	1652-AA56

Items on the Long-Term Actions portion of the Unified Agenda are rulemaking activities that are on-going, but the responsible agency is not sure when the next step in the process will take place (or in many cases what that next step may be).

Two items were moved from the Active Agenda to the Long-Term Actions list since July; 1601-AA69 and 1652-AA56. Both of these rulemaking activities have a long history of moving back and forth between the two agenda listings.

Inactive Agenda

There are now five DHS rulemaking activities listed on the Inactive List:

• 1601-AA75 Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Conforming Edits

• 1625-AA12 Marine Transportation--Related Facility Response Plans for Hazardous Substances

• 1625-AA13 Tank Vessel Response Plans for Hazardous Substances

• 1652-AA16 Transportation of Explosives from Canada to the United States Via Commercial Motor Vehicle and Railroad Carrier

• 1652-AA50 Drivers Licensed by Canada or Mexico Transporting Hazardous Materials to and Within the United States

The first item is new on this list and I have not been able to find it in any of the earlier versions of the Unified Agenda. I suspect that this rulemaking was designed to make miscellaneous changes to the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) regulations required by the passage of the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014 (PL 113-254). Most of the policy objectives in that law have been implemented by the Infrastructure Security Compliance Division, but there have been none of the required changes made to the language of the CFATS regulations (6 CFR 27). This is probably a non-issue since the current authorization for the program lapses on December 14^th, 2018 and the program will either lapse or be reauthorized by then. The reauthorization legislation will probably make additional changes to the program.