Review - TSA Publishes BASE Program 60-day ICR Revision Notice

Today, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published a 60-day information collection request (ICR) revision notice in the Federal Register (88 FR 77602-77603) for their Baseline Assessment for Security Enhancement (BASE) Program (1652-0062) for public transportation passenger rail (PTPR) and highway and motor carrier (HWY) industries. Today’s notice reports that the TSA has reviewed the questions in the BASE questionnaires and removed 52 questions that were no longer relevant. The table below shows a comparison between the currently approved ICR and the changes that TSA proposed today.

Public Comments

TSA is soliciting public comments on this ICR revision. TSA requests that comments be submitted by email (TSAPRA@tsa.dhs.gov). Comments should be submitted by January 12^th, 2024.

Commentary

I have been critical of TSA’s ICR notices over the years, particularly in regard to the lack of data explaining changes made in the burden estimate. Today’s notice shows a much better understanding of the purpose of the ICR process. In a perfect bureaucratic world, the notice would have included more information about the questions removed from the questionnaire, but for the purpose of understanding the changes in the burden estimate, that information is not germane.

 

For a more detailed look at the ICR data, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/tsa-publishes-base-program-60-day - subscription required.