Review - CFATS and the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda

As I mentioned in a blog post earlier today, the Biden Administration published the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda yesterday. There are three rulemakings related to the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program listed on the current Unified Agenda.

The DHS portion of the Current Agenda lists 87 rulemakings that the Department hopes to move forward this year. The DHS Long-Term Agenda lists 47 rulemakings that the Department does not expect to undertake actions on in the coming year. The three CFATS Rulemakings are:

• Ammonium Nitrate Security Program (1670-AA00),

• Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (1670-AA01), and

• Removal of Certain Explosive Chemicals From the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (1670-AA03)

The first rulemaking is on the Current Agenda, the remaining two on the Long-Term Agenda.

The abstract for the ANSP rulemaking in the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda explains that “CISA is planning to issue a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM).” The entirely aspirational date for publishing that SNPRM is November 2021.

According to the abstract for the CFATS rulemaking: “CISA is reviewing the comments received on the retrospective analysis and determining the next appropriate step for this rulemaking.”

According to the abstract for the explosive chemicals rulemaking: “CISA will review and consider all comments received and then determine the next appropriate step for this rulemaking.”

For both of these two Long-Term Agenda items, placement here does not mean the rulemaking is dead, just that CISA has not placed a high priority on moving forward to the next step.

For a more detailed analysis of these proposed rulemakings see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/cfats-and-the-spring-2021-unified (subscription required).