Late EO 13650 Listening Session Updates

Today the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 3602) providing ‘updated’ information concerning public listening sessions for the President’s Executive Order on Improving Chemical Safety and Security. (EO 13650). This updates information provided in a November Federal Register Notice.

Unfortunately, four of the five listening sessions listed in this update have already taken place, three of them had taken place when Assistant Secretary Durkovich signed this notice on January 10^th (no reason is given for the delay between her signature and today’s posting). Fortunately, readers of this blog were already updated on these listening sessions back in December.

The link to the OSHA EO 13650 web site for information about these listening sessions is also apparently out of date, as it has no information about the location and times of the sessions. I have received an email from the EO 13650 Working Group with really updated information that includes a February 5^th Listening Session in Newark, NJ. It provides links for the on-line registration for either attending in person or via teleconference.

Today’s Federal Register notice is indicative of how well the Working Group is meeting their time deadlines; a day late and a dollar short.

Regulatory Agenda Published 1-7-14

Today various agencies of the Federal government published their Regulatory Agenda in the Federal Register. This semi-annual exercise follows the on-line publication of the Fall 2013 Unified Agenda back in November and presents each agency’s list of “the most important significant regulatory actions that the agency reasonably expects to issue in proposed or final form in that fiscal year”. For readers of this blog the Regulatory Agendas of note will be DHS (79 FR 1170-1177), DOT (79 FR 1190-1209), EPA (79 FR 1216-1223) and DOL (79 FR 1184-1189).

Here is my list of the chemical safety and security items in those four listings. I have covered most of the DHS items in some detail over the years and have provided coverage of the DOT rulemakings as well. There is no need to mention the EPA and the one OSHA rule has been on the CSB Wish List for over a decade; enough said.

Department of Homeland Security

320 Ammonium Nitrate Security Program (Reg Plan Seq No. 68) 1601–AA52

324 Updates to Maritime Security 1625–AB38

329 Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC); Card Reader Requirements (Reg Plan Seq No. 80) 1625–AB21

337 Security Training for Surface Mode Employees (Reg Plan Seq No. 86) 1652–AA55

338 Standardized Vetting, Adjudication, and Redress Services (Reg Plan Seq No. 87) 1652–AA61

Department of Transportation

376 Pipeline Safety: Safety of On-Shore Liquid Hazardous Pipelines (Reg Plan Seq No. 118) 2137–AE66

Environmental Protection Agency

None

Department of Labor

353 Combustible Dust 1218–AC41

Commentary

Given the President’s Executive Order on Improving Chemical Safety and Security the lack of chemical safety and security rules in the Regulatory Agenda, particularly from EPA and DOL is kind of pathetic.

Oh, and cybersecurity rules? I can’t find any outside of one DOD-FAR listing (427, FAR Case 2011-020). But cybersecurity is a priority for this Administration, yep is says it right here in the fine print. Please excuse the sarcasm.

Of course, this whole Unified Agenda exercise is more than a little pathetic. Most of the items on the Agenda have been there without change for years. Meanwhile, real-life rulemakings get fast tracked without spending any time on these lists.