TWIC Reader Requirement ANPRM

Today an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that discusses the Coast Guard's preliminary proposals on potential requirements for owners and operators of certain vessels and facilities regulated by the Coast Guard to use electronic readers designed to work with Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) cards as an access control measure will be available for public inspection at the Federal Register website, http://www.regulations.gov.

The ANPRM will publish tomorrow, 27 March 2009. The advance notice is a step toward full implementation of the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 transportation security card requirement as well as requirements of the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 for regulations on electronic readers designed for use with TWICs. The Coast Guard intends to hold one public meeting in the Washington, D.C. region during the ANPRM comment period and the date and details will bepublished in the Federal Register as soon as they are confirmed (we'll post them on this blog, too).

The Coast Guard encourages the public to participate in this rulemaking by submitting comments and related materials to the docket at http://www.regulations.gov, docket number: USCG-2007-28915. All comments received will be posted without change. Please do not provide comments on the ANPRM on this blog.

NMSAC Web 2.0 presence mentioned

Thanks to our friend, Mr. Dennis Bryant, who posted a blurb on his new blog about the NMSAC presence on Facebook, LinkedIn as well as this blog.

For those of you who used to get his daily emails from Knight and Holland (which he stopped doing just recently), he's now putting out the same info on his blog. Check him out.

Next NMSAC meeting has been postponed

As a result of some scheduling conflicts, we will be postponing the March 16 NMSAC meeting until a later date (probably some time in April).

We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Commndant's State of The Cost Guard Address

For your review and comment: