Spring 2020 Unified Agenda – DHS

Yesterday the Biden Administration published the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda. The DHS portion of the Agenda reflects the regulatory aspirations of the new administration.

Current Agenda

The table below shows those items listed in the current agenda for DHS that I would expect to cover here in this blog.

OS	Final Rule Stage	Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Safeguarding of Controlled Unclassified Sensitive Information (HSAR Case 2015-001)	1601-AA76
OS	Final Rule Stage	Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation: Information Technology Security Awareness Training (HSAR Case 2015-002)	1601-AA78
USCG	Final Rule Stage	Operational Risk Assessments for Waterfront Facilities Handling Liquefied Natural Gas as Fuel and Updates to Industry Standards	1625-AC52
OS	Final Rule Stage	Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Talent Management System	1601-AA84
TSA	Proposed Rule Stage	Vetting of Certain Surface Transportation Employees	1652-AA69
CISA	Proposed Rule Stage	Ammonium Nitrate Security Program	1670-AA00

There have been some changes from the Fall 2020 Unified Agenda. The two HSAR rulemakings and the Coast Guard rulemaking were moved from the Long Term Agenda to the Current Agenda. Nothing new here, they have been flipping back and forth since they were added in 2017. Two items were moved from the Current Agenda to the Long Term Agenda (see below). And I have added the Talent Management System to the list of items that I am following, so it is not really new to the Current Agenda.

Long Term Agenda

The table below shows the items that I would be paying attention to on the Long Term Agenda.

USCG	Identifying Barriers to Autonomous Vessels	1625-AC54
TSA	Protection of Sensitive Security Information	1652-AA08
TSA	Surface Transportation Vulnerability Assessments and Security Plans	1652-AA56
CISA	Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)	1670-AA01
CISA	Removal of Certain Explosive Chemicals From the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards	1670-AA03

The protection of SSI rulemakings and the CFATS explosives rulemakings were both moved to the Long-Term Agenda. The first has a long history of agenda flip-flops. The CFATS move probably reflects a lower administration interest in deregulatory changes.

Expectation Caveat

Any time that we are discussing the Unified Agenda, it should be remembered that this reflects a completely aspirational outlook of the agencies involved. It bears little or no relation to the real world outlook for regulatory progress.