HR 3619 Sent to President

The House finally got around to addressing HR 3169, the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 which made it the first DHS authorization bill to passed this year. The Senate passed the bill in early May, substituting Senate language for bill that passed in the House last October. Title VIII, Port Security, contains the provisions of the bill that might be of interest to the Chemical Security Community

America’s Waterway Watch Program

The bill does establish a waterway watch program designed to encourage reporting of “activities that may indicate that a person or persons may be preparing to engage or engaging in a violation of law relating to a threat or an act of terrorism” {§ 70122(b)}. The bill authorizes $3 million for this program.

TWIC Reader Report

The bill requires DHS to submit a report to Congress when it completes their testing of TWIC “access control technologies” (TWIC Readers). It also requires GAO to review that report and report on the report to Congress. Congress continues to be concerned about the slow pace of TWIC Reader implementation.

Especially Hazardous Cargo

Section 812 establishes yet another category of hazardous material; especially hazardous cargo which is defined as: “anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, chlorine, liquefied natural gas, liquiefied (sic) petroleum gas, and any other substance, material, or group or class of material, in a particular amount and form that the Secretary determines by regulation poses a significant risk of creating a transportation security incident while being transported in maritime commerce” {§812(d)(1)}.

Interestingly this extensive section of the bill requires the Secretary to conduct a study of risk assessments relating to these cargoes while mandating the establishment of a security program to protecting security zones around vessels containing such cargo.

Section 828 adds requirements to existing Port Security Zone rules for the Secretary to establish “(c)redentialing standards, training, and certification for State and local support for the enforcement of security zones for the transportation of especially hazardous cargo” {§70132}.

Miscellaneous TWIC Provisions

The TWIC program continues to attract Congressional attention. Section 814 allows the use of a “secondary authentication system to verify identification” when an individuals fingerprints cannot be taken or read. Section 815 requires an assessment of the adequacy of TWIC enrollment sites. Section 818 addresses the time it takes to get a TWIC issued, both allowing escorted access to individuals awaiting a TWIC to be re-issued and requiring studies about the time it takes get cards issued. And §819 allows the Secretary to extend TWIC expirations to align that expiration with “the expiration of a license, certificate of registry, or merchant mariner document”.

Security Training Program

Section 821 requires the Secretary to establish “comprehensive facility security officer training requirements designed to provide full security training that would lead to certification of such officers”. Among other things it requires that the training program “provide for continuing education and training for facility security officers beyond certification requirements, including a program to educate on the dangers and issues associated with the shipment of hazardous and especially hazardous cargo [emphasis added]” {§70125(b)(4)}. It also repeals §113 of the Safe Port Act (6 U.S.C. 911) which contained less comprehensive training requirements.

Integration of Security Plans

Section 822 required facilities and vessels will share vulnerability assessments conducted by the Coast Guard under 46 USC 70102 with port authorities and “appropriate State or local law enforcement agencies” {§70102(c)(1)} to allow for the integration of security plans for that vessel/facility with “compatible systems operated or maintained by the appropriate State, law enforcement agencies, and the Coast Guard” {§70102(c)(2)}.

Semi-submersibles

Section 911 addresses the issue of semi-submersible craft by requiring the Secretary to submit a report to Congress on the Department’s “comprehensive strategy to combat the illicit flow of narcotics, weapons, bulk cash, and other contraband through the use of submersible and semi-submersible vessels”. While this is envisioned as a counter-narcotics operation, the requirement to conduct an “assessment of the threats posed by submersible and semi-submersible vessels” {§911(1)} should probably also identify the potential for smuggling terrorists and weapons near or into port side chemical facilities.

Moving Forward

Once the President signs this legislation the Secretary and the Coast Guard have a lot of work before them. There are studies to conduct, reports to present to Congress and, of course, new regulations to write. It will take some time to see a practical effect from this newly passed legislation.

HR 5346 Introduction

On Wednesday Rep. Thompson (D, MS), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced HR 5346, billed as a bill to enhance the homeland security in the ports and waterways of the US. This bill is essentially Title XI, Port Security, of HR 3619 as it was passed in the House last October. HR 3619 and Politics As I noted earlier this month, the version of HR 3619 that was passed by the Senate was substantially different than the House version; one difference was that the Senate version did not include Title XI. The Conference Committee for this bill has yet to be appointed so it is a little surprising that Chairman Thompson is apparently assuming that Title XI will not be added back to the bill in Conference. It also begs the question that, if Title XI would not be acceptable to the Senate Conferees, how much of a chance will this bill have of being considered in the Senate in the limited amount of time left in the election shortened session. There is another interesting political oddity about HR 5346. HR 3619 was not acted upon by the Homeland Security Committee. It was introduced by Chairman Oberstar of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Report on that bill only included actions by his Committee. One would have thought that it would have been Chairman Oberstar that would have introduced this bill, or at least co-sponsored it. Now I understand that Title XI of HR 3619 does specifically address port security issues and one would think that this would come under the purview of the Homeland Security Committee. This is one of the continuing problems that homeland security issues have in Congress, there are too many committees with their fingers in the homeland security pie. Politically speaking there is another possible explanation for the introduction of this bill. Chairman Thompson might be planning on getting this passed in the House (which could happen fairly quickly since it has essentially already been considered). Instead of trying to get it through the Senate he could be intending on getting it included in the DHS Budget bill (that has yet to be introduced). This is a technique that he has used for a number of pieces of legislation since he became Chairman in 2007. Chemical Security Provisions In my initial blog about HR 3619 I noted that there were a limited number of provisions in that bill that would directly affect the chemical security community. Interestingly all of those provisions were included in Title XI and made it into this bill. There was one significant change to Title XI provisions since I wrote that initial blog that will be of interest. The provisions related to the definition of ‘Especially Hazardous Materials’ were removed. Actually that term was changed to ‘certain dangerous cargo’ and a specific reference to any chemicals was not included in the definition of that term. It now leaves that definition up to regulations to be written by the Commandant. There was one other provision in HR 3619 as passed by the House that I noted in a later blog as being of potential concern to our community. That provision (§ 1332) dealt with Coast Guard actions against semi-submersible vessels used by drug traffickers. That provision was not included in this legislation. Moving Forward This bill should be able to make it through the two committees, Homeland Security and Transportation, that it has been referred to in the House. There should be no major opposition to the bill if/when it makes it to the House floor. The major question is how likely it is to get considered in the Senate. There is very little that looks the least bit controversial to me, but there is some reason that Chairman Thompson thinks that this will not be acceptable to the Senate conferees; so I don’t know.

HR 3619 Passed in House

On Friday the House passed HR 3619, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, on a recorded vote of 385-11. There were a number of floor amendments made to this bill, though none had any affect on the chemical security related concerns that I addressed in my earlier blog on this bill. There are a number of new provisions that might be of interest to the chemical security community. Security Awareness Section 1101 was expanded to provide for a more comprehensive program to encourage reporting of potential terrorist or criminal activity around vessels and port facilities. Rather than just being targeted at the recreational boating community, the revised America’s Waterway Watch Act is now looking at bringing all citizens into the voluntary and anonymous reporting program. The bill is allocating $3 million for each fiscal year through 2015 to support this program through educational materials and training programs. Semi-Submersibles Section 1332 was added requiring the Secretary to develop a “comprehensive strategy to combat the illicit flow of narcotics, weapons, bulk cash, and other contraband through the use of submersible and semi-submersible vessels”. To date these vessels have been periodically intercepted with cargoes of illegal drugs, but as I mentioned in a blog last year, these could certainly be used in attacks against chemical facilities located at ports. Homeland Security Mission Section 1333 was added to make it clear that the homeland security mission of the Coast Guard take priority over the marine safety mission. That homeland security mission includes protecting ports, waterways and marine transportation systems from acts of terrorism as well as preventing the flow of illegal firearms and weapons of mass destruction through those same facilities. Moving Forward The bill was received in the Senate on Monday, but as of Tuesday afternoon had not yet been assigned to a committee, though it will almost certainly be assigned to the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Many provisions of this legislation were already included in a bill (S 1385) that was co-sponsored by Chairman Rockefeller, so I suspect that this bill will probably see prompt action in that Committee.