DHS Announces PCII Listening Sessions

Today the Department of Homeland Security published a meeting notice in the Federal Register (81 FR 29799-29800) for a series of public listening sessions looking for input on their recent advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for updating the Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) program. The three listening sessions will be held in Arlington, VA. The dates will be May 12^th, May 17^th, and May 19^th.

The Information Sought

DHS is specifically looking for information on (note this is a slightly different list that proposed in ANPRM):

• Automated submissions and an expansion of categorical inclusions;

• Marking PCII;

• Sharing PCII with foreign governments;

• Regulatory access;

• Safeguarding;

• Oversight and compliance;

• Alignment with other information protection programs; and

• The administration of PCII at the State, local, tribal, and territorial level

Public Comments

With five hours on each day available for public oral comments there should be plenty of time for everyone to get their say. Written comments may also be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # DHS-2016-0032). Yes, this notice did include the docket # and it is the same as I provided in an earlier blog post. The deadline for written comments is still July 20^th, 2016.

Commentary

I’m not sure why this notice was delayed in publication, but it certainly makes someone look silly for announcing a meeting for a date that has already passed. The remaining two dates are also fairly short notice, but then again I don’t suspect that DHS really expects anyone to make travel plans to attend these three sessions. These dates are almost certainly targeted at organizations with physical (or at least a lobbyist) presence in the Washington area.

I will be extremely disappointed if there are not more listening date announcements associated with this ANPRM and even more disappointed if they are not scattered across the country.

CFATS Knowledge Center Update – 09-03-14

This afternoon the folks at DHS Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD) updated the CFATS Knowledge Center with a link to a new page that apparently has been up and operational since August 21^st about the CFATS NPRM. That page has a schedule for the listening sessions and a link to a registration web site.

The first listening session is tomorrow at 9:00 am in Washington, DC. That should be interesting with Congress still out of town and presumably much of the press as well; probably more serious discussion and less political posturing. Too bad I could not publicize this sooner. The following sessions will be in:

• Houston, TX – 9-9-14

• Webinar – West Coast Time – 9-12-14

• Atlanta, GA - 9-16-14

• Sacramento, CA – 9-23-14

• Webinar – East Coast Time – 9-26-14

• Chicago, IL – 10-2-14

• Philadelphia, PA – 10-7-14

I’ve registered for the Houston session. I should be there in the afternoon. Look for me if you are going to be in the area.

Tomorrows EO 13650 Listening Session Postponed

I just got an email from the EO 13650 Working Group informing me that tomorrow’s listening session  in Newark, NJ has been rescheduled to February 13^th (next Thursday); same time and place. Unfortunately, the registrations for the session that had been made for tomorrow’s canceled session do not roll over; you must re-register (in-person or teleconference).

The email also announced a new listening session scheduled for later this month (February 19^th) to be held in Baton Rouge, LA. Same kind of schedule, in person registration from noon to 1 pm and then the actual listening session runs from 1:00 pm to 8 pm (all times presumably CST). You can register on-line (in-person or teleconference). As with all of these dual mode listening sessions, if you want to make an oral presentation you must be there in person. Anyone can leave written comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # DHS-2013-0075).

NOTE: The people who write these email notification about the listening sessions always seem to forget to include the docket number for written comments. Fortunately I have some pretty good records.

BTW: It would have been nice if they had told people about this change in the webinar last night. I expect that some people will be showing up in Newark tomorrow and will be even more very upset.