Review - CISA Publishes OBP TRIPwire 60-day ICR Notice

Today CISA’s Office For Bombing Prevention (OBP) published a 60-day information collection request (ICR) reinstatement with change notice in the Federal Register (90 FR 2012-2013) for “Technical Resource for Incident Prevention (TRIPwire) User Registration”. The latest ICR approval for this program expired on August 31^st, 2023.

The table below shows the previously approved burden estimate along with the burden estimate provided in today’s ICR notice.

Request for Comments

CISA is soliciting comments on this ICR. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket #CISA-2024-0038). Comments should be submitted by March 11^th, 2025.

Commentary

The notice reports that this is a “reinstatement with changes”. There is nothing in this notice that describes what changes are being proposed in the program. The burden estimate is essentially the same (the minor difference in the burden hours appears to be a difference in rounding rules used) for this and the previously approved version of the ICR.

It is disappointing to see the OBP continue to use the same numbers for the estimated number of new program registrations that they have been using since the original ICR was submitted. The program has been operating for a number of years and OBP certainly has data on the recent history of new registrations that could be used to update that number to reflect the current state of the program.

 

For more information on this ICR notice, including details about the components that go into this collection, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/cisa-publishes-obp-tripwire-60-day - subscription required.

Review - HR 6873 Introduced – Bombing Prevention

Last month, Rep Malinowski (D,NJ) introduced HR 6873, the Bombing Prevention Act of 2022. The bill amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002, adding a new Subtitle D, Bombing Prevention. That Subtitle establishes (the existing) Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP). Additionally, the bill would add bombing prevention research coordination and information sharing to the responsibilities of DHS S&T. No spending is authorized by the bill.

The bill was considered by the House Homeland Security Committee last week. After the bill was amended by a voice vote, it was adopted by a vote of 33 to 0.

With the approval of the bill by the House Homeland Security Committee last week, this bill will be cleared to move to the Full House as soon as the Committee publishes their Report. This bill will almost certainly be considered under the suspension of the rules process. That would mean limited floor debate, no amendments from the floor and would require a super-majority for passage. The bill will pass, when considered, with strong bipartisan support.

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-6873-introduced - subscription required.

 

DHS Publishes 2016 CSSS Presentations

This week the DHS Chemical Sector-Specific Agency (CSSA) finally got around to updating the Chemical Sector Security Summit (CSSS) web site to provide links to a number of the presentations for the 2016 CSSS that was held last July.

CSSS Presentations

As with all ten of the CSSS to date, the CSSA has not provided links to all of the presentation that were made at the CSSS, but the list of presentations included is informative and useful. This year’s list includes:

• Keynote Address (webcast) https://share.dhs.gov/p5wokztr7et/

• CFATS Update (webcast) https://share.dhs.gov/p5wokztr7et/

• Unmanned aerial systems https://share.dhs.gov/p1q16s5zpla/

• First Responder – Chemical Facility Response Planning https://share.dhs.gov/p9n0za7br14/

• What to Expect During a CFATS Inspection (webcast) https://share.dhs.gov/p8qeyz3qduq/

• Personnel Surety Program Overview https://share.dhs.gov/p13chl6f7m0/

• Compliance Inspections Lessons Learned (webcast) https://share.dhs.gov/p2o28kncglg/

• Chemical Security on a Global Front Chemical Security on a Global Front https://share.dhs.gov/p4qi18pazca/

• Chemical Facilities and Regional Resiliency Assessment Program – Lessons Learned https://share.dhs.gov/p1eou6o7gmw/

• DHS Voluntary Programs Update (webcast) https://share.dhs.gov/p3uyb44cbzy/ (slides - https://share.dhs.gov/p21djdnrym6/)

This is the first year that the CSSS included web casts from the meeting. There were more webcasts available in real time, but the list above does include some interesting presentations. I really, again, want to congratulate DHS for including these web casts in both the meeting and presentation list. I would also note David Wulf’s efforts (and those of the folks that work for him) in getting this done.

Sorry about showing the URLs, but I wanted to point out that at least someone at DHS is doing something to shorten the length of their links. Now, whether this particular method is a good thing or not is open to discussion because you cannot tell by looking at the URL what the link is to, nor if it is up to date. I also suspect that it might make spoofing an DHS site easier with a URL shortener site.

CSSA Web-Site

I do not follow the CSSA web site nearly as closely as I probably should. In fact, I only routinely (weekly) look at the CSSS web site for changes. In any case the CSSA updated their web site last month and it provides some links to some useful information, some of it even new.

I am disappointed, however, in the “Safety and Security for Small and Midsize Chemical Facilities” page. They definitely should take the word “chemical” off of the title since the page just provides links to probably valuable information for generic small and midsize businesses. Just sayn.

On the much better side of the information available, if you click through a number of links, is a page from the Office of Bombing Prevention on a wide variety of courses on dealing with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), including planning, identification and response. I have not had a chance to check out any of the individual on-line courses, but this looks like a wealth of good information that security managers at any type of facility should have.