DHS Publishes 2018 Penalty Adjustment Final Rule

Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule in the Federal Register (83 FR 13826-13839) making the annual inflation adjustments to the statutory maxim penalty amounts for a large number of programs under its supervision. This was a direct final rule with an effective date of April 2^nd, 2018.

For readers of this blog, four of the changes may be of specific interest. They are shown in the table below. The link in the program column is to the paragraph describing the program changes in the rulemaking. The TSA penalties apply to all surface transportation regulations.

Program	Reg Reference	Current	New
CFATS	6 CFR 27.300(b)(3)	$33,333	$34,013
CG, MTSA	46 U.S.C. 70119(a)	$33,333	$34,013
CG, MTSA	46 U.S.C. 70119(b)	$59,893	$61,115
TSA	CFR 1503.401(b)	$11,182	$11,410

This annual direct rulemaking is required by §701 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (PL 114-74). This year the final rule is a tad bit late, since it was supposed to be published by January 15^th.

Interestingly, these new penalties can be assessed for any violations (not previously adjudicated, of course) that occurred since November 2^nd, 2015 when the Bipartisan Budget Act was signed.