82 FR 18466 - Notice of Request for Revision to and Extension of a Currently Approved Information Collection for Chemical-Terrorism Vulnerability Information

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 74 (April 19, 2017)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department), National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP), Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD), will submit the following Information Collection Request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. DHS proposes to remove five of the six instruments previously approved to support the Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information (CVI) program under the Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards (CFATS) regulations, 6 CFR 27.400. DHS also proposes to extend this collection with revisions to reduce the estimated burden for the remaining instrument in this collection.

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 74 (Wednesday, April 19, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18466-18468]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-07927]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

[Docket No. DHS-2017-0015]


Notice of Request for Revision to and Extension of a Currently 
Approved Information Collection for Chemical-Terrorism Vulnerability 
Information

AGENCY: National Protection and Programs Directorate, DHS.

ACTION: 60-Day Notice and request for comments; Revision of Information 
Collection Request: 1670-0015.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department), 
National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), Office of 
Infrastructure Protection (IP), Infrastructure Security Compliance 
Division (ISCD), will submit the following Information Collection 
Request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. DHS 
proposes to remove five of the six instruments previously approved to 
support the Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information (CVI) program 
under the Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards (CFATS) 
regulations, 6 CFR 27.400. DHS also proposes to extend this collection 
with revisions to reduce the estimated burden for the remaining 
instrument in this collection.

DATES: Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until June 19, 
2017. This process is conducted in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the 
proposed revision to, and extension of, this approved information 
collection through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. All submissions received must include the words 
``Department of Homeland Security'' and the docket number DHS-2017-
0015. Except as provided below, comments received will be posted 
without alteration at http://www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal information provided.
    Comments that include trade secrets, confidential commercial or 
financial information, CVI,\1\ Sensitive Security Information (SSI),\2\ 
or Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) \3\ should not 
be submitted to the public regulatory docket. Please submit such 
comments separately from other comments in response to this notice. 
Comments containing trade secrets, confidential commercial or financial 
information, CVI, SSI, or PCII should be appropriately marked and 
packaged in

[[Page 18467]]

accordance with applicable requirements and submitted by mail to the 
DHS/NPPD/IP/ISCD CFATS Program Manager at the Department of Homeland 
Security, 245 Murray Lane SW., Mail Stop 0610, Arlington, VA 20528-
0610.
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    \1\ For more information about CVI see 6 CFR 27.400 and the CVI 
Procedural Manual at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/chemsec_cvi_proceduresmanual.pdf.
    \2\ For more information about SSI see 49 CFR part 1520 and the 
SSI Program Web page at http://www.tsa.gov.
    \3\ For more information about PCII see 6 CFR part 29 and the 
PCII Program Web page at http://www.dhs.gov/protected-critical-infrastructure-information-pcii-program.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions and requests for additional 
information may be directed to the CFATS Program Manager via email at 
_____________________________________-
[email protected] or telephone at (866) 323-2957.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 550 of the Homeland Security 
Appropriations Act of 2007, Public Law 109-295 (2006), provided the 
Department with the authority to regulate the security of high-risk 
chemical facilities. On April 9, 2007, the Department issued an Interim 
Final Rule (IFR), implementing this statutory mandate at 72 FR 17688. 
In December of 2014, the President signed into law the Protecting and 
Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014 (the 
CFATS Act of 2014), Public Law 113-254, which authorized the Chemical 
Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program in the Homeland Security Act 
of 2002, as amended, Public Law 107-296.\4\
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    \4\ Section 2 of the CFATS Act of 2014 adds a new Title XXI to 
the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Title XXI contains new sections 
numbered 2101 through 2109. Citations to the Homeland Security Act 
of 2002 throughout this document reference those sections of Title 
XXI. In addition to being found in amended versions of the Homeland 
Security Act of 2002, those sections of Title XXI can also be found 
in sec. 2 of the CFATS Act of 2014, or in 6 U.S.C. 621-629.
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    The CFATS regulation (available at 6 CFR part 27) govern the 
security at covered chemical facilities that have been determined by 
the Department to be at high risk for terrorist attack. See 6 CFR part 
27. CFATS represents a national-level effort to minimize terrorism risk 
to such facilities. Its design and implementation balance maintaining 
economic vitality with securing facilities and their surrounding 
communities. The regulations were designed, in collaboration with the 
private sector and other stakeholders, to take advantage of protective 
measures already in place and to allow facilities to employ a wide 
range of tailored measures to satisfy the regulations' Risk-Based 
Performance Standards.
    In 6 CFR 27.400, CFATS establishes the requirements that covered 
persons must follow to safeguard certain documents and other 
information developed under the regulations from unauthorized 
disclosure. This information is identified as ``Chemical-terrorism 
Vulnerability Information'' and, by law, receives protection from 
public disclosure and misuse. The instruments within this collection 
will be used to manage the CVI program in support of CFATS. The current 
information collection for the CVI program (IC 1670-0015) will expire 
on September 30, 2017.\5\
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    \5\ The current information collection for CVI may be found at 
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=201303-1670-003.
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    The Department proposes the following revisions from the previously 
approved collection:
     Removal of the following instruments: (1) ``Determination 
of CVI''; (2) Determination of a ``Need to Know'' by a Public 
Official''; (3) ``Disclosure of CVI Information; (4) Notification of 
Emergency or Exigent Circumstances''; and (5) ``Tracking Log for CVI 
Received'' from this collection. As required by 5 CFR 1320.5, the 
Department reevaluated the continued need for each instrument in this 
collection. This evaluation resulted in a finding these instruments 
have historically been used rarely.
    The Department expects that in many instances when the Department 
may need or want to collect information regarding emergency and/or 
unauthorized disclosure of CVI, the collection would not be covered by 
the Paperwork Reduction Act because the information would be collected 
during the conduct of an investigation involving specific individuals 
or entities. See 44 U.S.C. 3518(c)(2) and 5 CFR 1320.4(a). The 
Department now encourages State and local officials to gain information 
regarding chemical facilities in their jurisdictions from the 
Department rather than from the facilities. Accordingly, these 
officials are now generally directed to IP Gateway. The information 
that must be collected routinely in order for such officials to gain 
access to IP Gateway has been authorized under OMB Control No. 1670-
0009.
     A reduction of the number of respondents for the CVI 
Authorization instrument from 30,000 to 20,000. This estimate is based 
on historical data and the anticipated impact of the Department's 
revision of its Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) and 
enhancement of its risk tiering methodology for the CFATS program. See 
81 FR 47001 (Jul. 20, 2016).

The Department's Methodology in Estimating the Burden for the Chemical-
Terrorism Vulnerability Information Authorization Number of Respondents

    The current information collection estimated that 30,000 
respondents (rounded estimate) would submit a request for a CVI 
Authorization annually. Based on data collected between CY 2014-2016, 
13,115 respondents on average submitted information to obtain CVI 
Authorization on an annual basis. Historical data also indicates that 
the peak number of respondents for this instrument was 18,727 in 2008. 
However, the Department expects that annual usage in the next three 
years may increase from the CY 2014-2016 average based on new users who 
must become CVI authorized to submit Top-Screens following the 
Department's revision of CSAT and enhancement of its risk tiering 
methodology. See 81 FR 47001 (Jul. 20, 2016). For these reasons, the 
Department has revised the estimated number of respondents to 20,000.

Estimated Time per Respondent

    In the current information collection, the estimated time per 
respondent to prepare and submit a CVI Authorization is one hour. Based 
on data collected between Calendar Year (CY) 2014-2016 by the CSAT 
system measuring time spent by users to complete this instrument, the 
average response time is 0.50 hours (30 minutes). Based upon this data, 
the Department proposes to reduce the estimated time per respondent to 
prepare and submit this instrument to 0.50 hours (30 minutes).

Annual Burden Hours

    The annual burden hours for the CVI Authorization is [0.50 hours x 
20,000 respondents x 1 response per respondent], which equals 10,000 
hours.

Total Capital/Startup Burden Cost

    The Department provides access to CSAT free of charge and assumes 
that each respondent already has computer hardware and access to the 
internet for basic business needs. Therefore, there are no annualized 
capital or start-up costs incurred by chemical facilities of interest 
or high-risk chemical facilities for this information collection.

Total Recordkeeping Burden

    There are no recordkeeping burden costs incurred by chemical 
facilities of interest or high-risk chemical facilities for this 
information collection.

[[Page 18468]]

Total Annual Burden Cost

    The Department assumes that the majority of individuals who will 
complete this instrument are Site Security Officers (SSOs), although a 
smaller number of other individuals may also complete this instrument 
(e.g., Federal, State, and local government employees and contractors). 
For the purpose of this notice, the Department maintains this 
assumption. Therefore, to estimate the total annual burden, the 
Department multiplied the annual burden of 10,000 hours by the average 
hourly wage rate of SSOs of $67.72 per hour. Therefore, the total 
annual burden cost for the CVI Authorization instrument is $677,200 
[10,000 total annual burden hours x $67.72 per hour].

Analysis

    Agency: Department of Homeland Security, National Protection and 
Programs Directorate, Office of Infrastructure Protection, 
Infrastructure Security Compliance Division.
    Title: CFATS Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information.
    OMB Number: 1670-0015.
    Instrument: Chemical-terrorism Vulnerability Information 
Authorization.
    Frequency: ``On occasion'' and ``Other''.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Number of Respondents: 20,000 respondents (rounded estimate).
    Estimated Time per Respondent: 0.50 hours.
    Total Burden Hours: 10,000 annual burden hours.
    Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
    Total Recordkeeping Burden: $0.
    Total Burden Cost: $677,200.

David Epperson,
Chief Information Officer, National Protection and Programs 
Directorate, Department of Homeland Security.
[FR Doc. 2017-07927 Filed 4-18-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 9110-9P-P