Coast Guard Announces NMSAC Meeting – 4-2-13

The Coast Guard published a notice (78 FR 16699-16700) in Monday’s Federal Register (available on-line today) about the upcoming meeting of the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) on April 2^nd and 3^rd, 2013 in Washington, DC.

NOTE: Normally I would have provided a link to the organization in the paragraph above but the NMSAC web site is so out-of-date that it has to be the worst US government website that I have ever seen. The most recent entry is a link to the minutes from their May 4^th, 2009 meeting. SHAME

The Meeting

The agenda for the meeting includes:

Cyber Security Executive Order: “NMSAC will be engaged to discuss and hear public comment on the Executive Order and begin initial work in developing a framework for the maritime community.”

Presidential Policy Directive-21: “NMSAC will be engaged to discuss and hear public comment

on PPD-21 and its impacts on the maritime community.”

Maritime Domain Awareness and Information Sharing: Briefing and discussion.

National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI): Briefing and discussion.

Radiation Portal Monitoring: Continue discussion.

Port Security Grant Program: Discussion and develop recommendations.

Public participation is encouraged. The Coast Guard is not only making this available for physical attendees (registration required), but also via phone and web. Written comments on the agenda topics may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket#  USCG-2012-0797). Comments should be submitted by March 29^th, 2013. A period for public oral comments will be held at the end of each day; commenters should register with Ryan Owens, Alternate Designated Federal Official (ADFO) of NMSAC (ryan.f.owens@uscg.mil).

Cybersecurity Framework

The notice is a little misleading, neither the Coast Guard nor NMSAC has been tasked with developing a cybersecurity framework for the maritime community. NIST is responsible for the development of the cybersecurity framework {EO 16336, §7(a)} DHS through NPPD (according to a recent MOU) is going to be providing advice to NIST about critical infrastructure issues. Presumably (ah, hopefully) the Coast Guard will also be providing input to NIST about unique maritime cybersecurity issues.

The Coast Guard, on the other hand, will be responsible for the implementation of the Cybersecurity Framework. A reminder here that though, in general, the implementation is voluntary, §10(a) of the EO does require that:

“Agencies with responsibility for regulating the security of critical infrastructure shall engage in a consultative process with DHS, OMB, and the National Security Staff to review the preliminary Cybersecurity Framework and determine if current cybersecurity regulatory requirements are sufficient given current and projected risks.”

Then they are required to report to the President if they have “clear authority to establish requirements based upon the Cybersecurity Framework to sufficiently address current and projected cyber risks to critical infrastructure, the existing authorities identified, and any additional authority required”. The MTSA rules probably provide sufficient authority to require implementation of the Framework.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this discussion. Of course it may be some time (if ever) before it appears on the NMSAC web site, but I will be watching the blog posts on that meeting from John C.W. Bennet.

NMSAC Meeting – 05-15-12

Today I’ll make up for being on the road yesterday and missing a blog post by making two blog posts in one concerning an upcoming meeting of the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee. Yesterday the  Coast Guard published a notice in the Federal Register (77 FR 25721-25722) that the MNSAC would be meeting on May 15^th & 16^th in Washington, DC. Today they followed up with a notice explaining why they had failed to give the required 15-day advance notice for such a meeting (77 FR 26024).

Partially Closed Meeting

While the majority of the NMSAC meeting will be open to the public there will be one portion of the meeting that will be closed for national security reasons. According to the Notice (77 FR 25722) the close session on the first day of the meeting will include “briefings from personnel from Coast Guard Intelligence Coordination Center regarding current domestic and international security threats to maritime commerce”. If classified information is to be discussed (and it almost certainly is) this is a perfectly legitimate reason to close the session. It would be nice, however, if the Coast Guard would provide an unclassified version of the briefing to the public meeting attendees.

The remainder of the meeting will address the following items:

• Global supply chain initiative;

• Transport Canaday/USCG regulatory harmonization;

• Detain on Board Requirements;

• Port Security Grants for TWIC Readers; and

• Maritime domain awareness and information sharing.

The last item is currently on the agenda for the 16^th. Each day will end with a public comment period. Comments will be limited to 5 minutes and will require pre-registration with Mr. Ryan Owens (ryan.f.owens@uscg.mil). Written comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.regulations.gov; Docket # USCG-2011-0975). All comments should be limited to the agenda topics noted above.

To facilitate public participation beyond the residents of the Washington, DC area provisions have been made for electronic participation via teleconference or an on-line web broadcast. Those wishing to physically attend the meeting should register on-line.

Late Notice

The late notice was weaker than a school boy’s ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuse. This is the second time that the CG has been a couple of days late in publishing notices for this advisory committee’s meetings and the wording is almost identical. One time is an ‘oh well, people are fallible’ situation fully worthy of our pardon. Two times in a row tends to indicate an administrative inability to follow rules and/or learn from previous mistakes. Twenty lashes with an al dente noodle at the next Captain’s Mast.

NMSAC Meeting January 18-19, 2012

The Coast Guard posted a notice in Monday’s Federal Register (77 FR 1076-1077) available on-line on Saturday) that the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) will be holding a public meeting in Arlington, VA on January 18^th and 19^th.

NMASC Agenda

The two day meeting will cover a number of topics of interest to the chemical security community. Those topics include:

• MTSA/CFATS harmonization;

• TWIC update (including TWIC Readers);

• MTSA regulation updates;

• Vessel guard requirements in US ports; and

• Underwater Terrorism Preparedness Program.

Public Participation

A public comment period will be provided at the end of each day’s session. A maximum of 5 minutes will be allowed for each speaker. Speakers need to register with Ryan Owens (phone: 202-372-1108 or email: ryan.f.owens@uscg.mil). Written comments need to be submitted by January 9^th via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket Number USCG-2011-0975).

As with any public meeting the seating will be limited, so advance registration is required. To maximize public participation the Coast Guard will make this meeting available by teleconference (dial 866-717-0091, the pass code to join is 3038389#) or an interactive internet connection (log onto https://connect.hsin.gov/r11254182). It would be helpful if other DHS organizations would follow the lead of the Coast Guard and make their public deliberations truly public.

Small Legal Faux Pax

Federal regulations {41 CFR 102-3.150(a)} require that advisory committee meeting notices are to be published in the Federal Register “at least 15 calendar days prior to an advisory committee meeting”. With a meeting date of the 18^th and an official publication date of the 9^th (or even a public publication date of the 7^th), this deadline was not met.

The crafters of that regulation realized that stuff happens so they made provisions for dealing with exceptions §102-3.150(b) allows for a shorter notice period under ‘exceptional circumstances’ if a clear explanation of the delay is included in publication notice. That did not happen; yet. On Friday a correction to this meeting notice appeared on the Federal Register’s Public Inspection Page; that correction will not actually appear in official Federal Register until Wednesday, January 11^th.

That correction blames the late publication on an “administrative delay due to the Federal holidays”. The Notice was signed by the Coast Guard on December 29^th and should have been published on January 3^rd to meet the GSA deadline. The delay appears to have been within the Coast Guard not the GPO. The other four Coast Guard postings in Monday’s Federal Register were signed as early as December 14^th and as late as December 23^rd.

Fortunately, with the Coast Guard providing remote access, people wishing to participate do not have to make travel arrangements to participate in this meeting. Presuming that the Coast Guard had previously alerted the Committee members and the briefers, it appears that no real harm was done in delaying the printing of this notice.