TSA seeks feedback on enhanced transportation security assessments for surface transportation personnel
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) within the DHS has issued a 30-day notice regarding the submission of an Information Collection Request (ICR) with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number 1652-0062 for review and approval. The latest revision under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) aims to enhance transportation security assessments during site visits involving surface transportation security and operational personnel.
The ICR focuses on revising the agency’s information collection activity under the OMB Review: Baseline Assessment for Security Enhancement (BASE) Program, detailing the purpose of the information collection and the expected burden on respondents.
Published in the Federal Register, the TSA has called for comments by June 17, emphasizing the importance of timely submissions to the OMB within 30 days of publication.
The TSA is soliciting comments for its BASE program to evaluate whether the proposed information requirement is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility and assess the accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the burden. The agency is also looking for input to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including using appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
TSA’s BASE program works with transportation assets and system owners/operators to identify their current security posture, identify security gaps, and encourage the implementation of countermeasures applicable to the specific surface mode of transportation. Through a series of established questions, data and results collected through the BASE program will inform TSA’s policy and program initiatives and allow TSA to provide focused resources and tools to enhance the overall security posture within these sectors of the surface transportation community.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), audit GAO-20-404, ‘Passenger Rail Security: TSA Engages with Stakeholders but Could Better Identify and Share Standards and Key Practices” (April 2020), recommended TSA update the BASE cybersecurity questions to ensure they reflect key practices.
TSA concurred with this recommendation and revised the collection to include questions that cover all five core functions of the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity framework. All core functions and a majority of the subcategories are integrated with Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) guidelines and established industry best practices in the newly-developed cybersecurity questions and cybersecurity BASE question sets, strengthening cybersecurity health for the transportation sector.
The notice identified that the estimated annual burden hours will be 885 hours annually, which has decreased since the publication of the 60-day notice, which reported 1,708 annual hours burden (MT/PR BASE 1,196 hours annually + HWY BASE 512 hours annually).
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