TSA Extends Surface Transport Security Training Rule Compliance Date Again

Yesterday the TSA published a final rule in the Federal Register (86 FR 23629-23633) amending their Security Training for Surface Transportation Employees rule which was published last year and amended similarly twice, in May 2020 and October 2020. Yesterday’s rule also extends two of the compliance dates in the amended rule. It also corrects what TSA is calling ‘citation errors’ in the original rule.

Extension Dates

First, the rule extends the compliance deadline in §1570.109(b) for security program submission from March 22, 2021, to June 21, 2021.

For owner/operators that have already submitted their security program to TSA (about 30% of the affected organizations), the rule provides an additional 90 days (15 months instead of 12 months) from the date of TSA approval to complete the initial training required by 49 CFR 1570.111(a)(1).

Citation Errors

The first error being corrected is in §1570.203(a). TSA is (as it described in the preamble to the original rule) specifically adding bus operations of a public transportation owner/operator and OTRB owner/operator that are required to provide security training under the rule to the “reporting significant security concerns” requirements of §1570.203(a).

Secondly, the rule addresses an incorrect citation in §1582.101(c). It changes “described in §1580.301” to read “described in § 1580.101”.

Finally, again in §1582.101(c), it changes “paragraph (a)(1) or (a)(2)” to read “paragraph (a) or (b)”.

Effective Date

This direct final rule became effective yesterday, May 4^th, 2021.