Fall 2018 Unified Agenda – DHS

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) published the Fall 2018 Regulatory Agenda. In the DHS section of the Agenda we continue to see movement between the Active and Inactive portions of the Agenda, but there are no new rulemakings on the Agenda that will be covered here.

Active Agenda

The table below shows the Active Agenda items that would be covered here in this blog. Rulemaking titles in italics indicate actions moved from the Inactive Agenda in the previous version of the Agenda.

OS	Final Rule	Ammonium Nitrate Security Program	1601-AA52
OS	Final Rule	Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Safeguarding of Controlled Unclassified Sensitive Information (HSAR Case 2015-001)	1601-AA76
OS	Final Rule	Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Information Technology Security Awareness Training (HSAR Case 2015-002)	1601-AA78
USCG	Final Rule	Marine Transportation--Related Facility Response Plans for Hazardous Substances	1625-AA12
USCG	Final Rule	2013 Liquid Chemical Categorization Updates	1625-AB94
USCG	Final Rule	TWIC Reader Requirements; Delay of Effective Date	1625-AC47
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 Ammonium Nitrate Security Program has been a problem for DHS from the beginning. It was mandated by Congress in 2007, but DHS has been unable to craft regulations implementing the requirements of that mandate yet meet cost-benefit analysis requirements for federal regulations. In 2016 DHS commissioned a study on the larger IED precursor issue and a public report on the study was published last year. In the abstract for the rulemaking in this version of the Agenda DHS notes:

“DHS intends to publish a notice announcing the availability of a redacted version of a technical report developed by Sandia National Laboratories titled Ammonium Nitrate Security Program Technical Assessment.”  The report documents Sandia National Laboratories’ technical research, testing, and findings related to the feasibility of weaponizing commercially available products containing ammonium nitrate.  DHS intends to use this notice to solicit comments on the report and its application to the proposed Ammonium Nitrate Security Program rulemaking.”

Inactive Rulemakings

The table below shows the Inactive Active Agenda items that would be covered here in this blog. No new items of interest on this blog have been added to the Inactive Agenda. The only thing removed is the previously discussed Ammonium Nitrate Security Program rulemaking.

OS	Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)	1601-AA69
OS	Updates to Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) Program	1601-AA77
USCG	Amendments to Chemical Testing Requirements	1625-AB58
USCG	Revision to Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Requirements for Mariners	1625-AB80
TSA	Surface Transportation Vulnerability Assessments and Security Plans	1652-AA56

Commentary

The Unified Agenda is NOT a promise that the Administration is going to complete the next stage in the rulemaking process as predicted. That almost never happens (well, every once in a while). This is a regulatory requirement that really means very little. New rulemakings can spring up out of nowhere (as far as the Unified Agenda is concerned) and rulemakings can sit on the UA for decades without action. Having said that, once in a blue moon, the schedule posted in the Unified Agenda actually coincides with reality. We just have to wait and see when that happens next; maybe it will happen with the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program rulemaking.