[Federal Register: November 20, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 224)]
[Notices]
[Page 70110-70112]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20no02-109]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Transportation Security Administration
[Docket No. TSA-2002-13827]
Operation Safe Commerce
SUMMARY: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), working in
conjunction with an interagency Executive Steering Committee for
Operation Safe Commerce (OSC), announces a program to identify and fund
business driven initiatives to enhance security for the movement of
cargo through the supply chain. The goal of OSC is to explore business
processes and technology prototypes that protect commercial shipments
from threats of terrorist attack, illegal immigration, and contraband
while minimizing the economic impact upon the transportation system.
The Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle, Tacoma, and the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey will be invited to submit
proposals for funding consideration under this initiative. Persons and
entities representing components of the supply chain may seek funding
through these ports. The ports are encouraged to maximize their
eligibility for funding by including representatives from all
components of the supply chain, including major and minor load centers
and feeder locations, their overseas customers and port partners, and
the shipping lines serving these locations.
The TSA is requesting comments on the proposed project criteria for
the selection of candidate projects submitted by the ports noted above
for funding consideration as Operation Safe Commerce projects.
DATES: Send your comments on or before December 5, 2002.
ADDRESSES: Address your comments to the Docket Management System, U.S.
Department of Transportation, Room Plaza 401, 400 Seventh Street, SW.,
Washington, DC 20590-0001. You must identify the docket number TSA-
2002-13827 at the beginning of your comments, and you should submit two
copies of your comments. If you wish to receive confirmation that TSA
received your comments, include a self-addressed, stamped postcard.
You may also submit comments through the Internet to http://
dms.dot.gov. You may review the public docket containing comments to
these proposed regulations in person in the Dockets Office between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The
Dockets Office is on the plaza level of the NASSIF Building at the
Department of Transportation at the above address. Also, you may review
public dockets on the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Walter (Bud) Hunt, Office of Maritime
and Land Security, Transportation Security Administration, 400 Seventh
Street, SW., TSA-8, Washington, DC 20590; e-mail:
WalterBud.Hunt@tsa.dot.gov; telephone: 202-772-1045.
Background
Over the past several years, the U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT) has sponsored numerous studies, conferences, outreach
initiatives, and operational tests designed to facilitate and improve
the efficiency of inter-modal freight movement. Much of this work has
direct applicability to ensuring container cargo security within the
transportation environment.
In December 2001, Secretary of Transportation Mineta established
the Container Working Group (CWG), which is co-chaired by the DOT and
the U.S. Customs Service (Customs). This group, largely comprised of
Federal agency representatives and members of the trade and
transportation communities, has put forth a number of recommendations
for improving the security of the cargo supply chain that need to be
operationally tested.
Building upon the successes of their existing programs, Customs has
launched two key programs to ensure cargo security: the Customs--Trade
Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and the Container Security
Initiative (CSI). Under C-TPAT, Customs is working with importers,
carriers, brokers and other industry sectors in creating a seamless
security conscious environment throughout the entire international
commercial process. By providing a forum in which the business
community and Customs can exchange anti-terrorism ideas, concepts and
information, C-TPAT allows both the government and the business
community to increase the security and efficiency of the entire
commercial process from the point of manufacture through importation
and distribution. Private sector participants in C-TPAT have made a
commitment to improve the overall security of their supply chains, and
communicate their established security procedures, guidelines, and
expectations to their business partners.
Through the CSI, Customs is working with the foreign ports that
send the highest volume of container traffic into the United States, as
well as the governments in these locations, to facilitate the detection
of potential problems in the supply chain at the earliest possible
opportunity. CSI will establish the necessary foundation for a more
secure international supply chain through the implementation of the
four core CSI elements: (1) Establishing security criteria to identify
high-risk containers; (2) pre-screening those containers identified as
high-risk before they arrive at U.S. ports; (3) using technology to
quickly pre-screen high-risk containers; and (4) developing and using
smart and secure containers.
Operation Safe Commerce (OSC) is an innovative public-private
partnership dedicated to enhancing security throughout international
and domestic supply chains while facilitating the efficient cross-
border movement of legitimate commerce. This initiative began in New
England as a local public-private partnership where Federal, State and
local law enforcement entities and key private sector entities combined
efforts to design, develop, and implement a means to test available
technology and procedures in order to develop secure supply chains. The
OSC New England initiative analyzed a supply chain shipment between
Eastern Europe and New Hampshire. The full container shipment was
fitted with onboard tracking, sensors and door seals. It was constantly
monitored through the various transportation modes as it traveled
through numerous countries and government control functions.
OSC intends to build upon existing freight and information system
operational tests sponsored by DOT and to support the procedural
programs sponsored by Customs (e.g. C-TPAT and CSI) and to coordinate
these efforts with new initiatives brought forward by the partnerships
that carry out OSC operational testing. The synergies
[[Page 70111]]
among these various efforts are critical to the success of OSC.
Congress, through the 2002 Supplemental Appropriations Act for
Further Recovery From and Response To Terrorist Attacks on the United
States, provided funds for OSC to improve the security of international
and domestic supply chains through discreet pilot projects involving
the three largest container load centers. See Pub. L. 107-206, 116
Stat. 820 (Aug. 2, 2002); S. Rep 107-156, 107th Cong., 2nd sess. 84-85
(May 29, 2002). As a result, the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach,
Seattle, Tacoma, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
(hereafter referred to as load centers) will be invited to submit
proposals for funding consideration under this initiative. Persons and
entities representing components of the supply chain may seek funding
through these ports. The ports are encouraged to maximize their
eligibility for funding by including representatives from all
components of the supply chain, including major and minor ports or port
authorities and feeder locations, their overseas customers and port
partners, and the shipping lines serving these locations.
An Executive Steering Committee (ESC) provides OSC oversight,
guidance, and support. The ESC is co-chaired by the Associate Deputy
Secretary of the Department of Transportation and the Deputy
Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service, and includes representatives
of the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard,
the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and the Office of
Homeland Security. Other appropriate government agencies may be invited
to provide a representative to the ESC.
Goals
The goal of OSC is to explore commercially viable options that
support cargo management systems that keep pace with expanding trade
while protecting commercial shipments from threats of terrorist attack,
illegal immigration, illegal drugs and other contraband. OSC will
address three key components to secure the supply chain through pilot
projects funded by TSA. OSC will demonstrate what is needed to ensure
that parties associated with commercial shipping exert reasonable care
and due diligence in packing, securing and manifesting the contents of
a shipment of goods in a container. OSC will also demonstrate various
methods to ensure that the information and documentation associated
with these shipments is complete, accurate and secure from unauthorized
access. These methods may entail transmitting the associated shipping
information and documentation in a secure electronic format. OSC will
also test supply chain security procedures and practices in order to
determine the impact of these procedures when combined with the
implementation of enhanced manifest data elements and container sealing
procedures (including effective intrusion detection). The ESC will
examine the three components to determine the most effective method to
lessen the susceptibility of a container shipment to being compromised
while in transit in the international or domestic supply chain.
OSC will serve as a technology and business practice ``laboratory''
to identify and explore innovative solution sets that support the
principles and objectives associated with numerous Federal initiatives
such as the CWG, CSI, C-TPAT, and other ongoing initiatives like the
DOT Intelligent Transportation System. The ESC believes successful
operational tests will require innovative public-private partnerships
that bring all the necessary participants together. Private companies
will need to join with representatives from key Federal, State, and
local authorities to support these tests.
Through these public and private partnerships, OSC requires the use
of an actual operating environment to assess various prototypes for the
secure movement of containerized freight. Utilizing these partnerships,
OSC provides a ``virtual laboratory'' for designing and evaluating
security and transportation solutions. OSC thus supports identification
of an appropriate set of standard security practices to govern the
handling and movement of cargo throughout the supply chain. The results
of these tests offer decision makers a timely and sound basis for
developing Federal standards.
Criteria for Operation Safe Commerce Projects
OSC seeks proposals from the transport sector practioners who can
recognize and propose projects that will meet these goals. If these
technologies and procedures are to be successful and minimize the
impact upon all parties, they must employ efficient and cost effective
methods of validating the security of processes for stuffing and
deconsolidating containers, physically securing and monitoring the
containers throughout the supply chain, and exchanging timely and
reliable information. These cost effective solutions must have the
ability to be replicated and scaled for use in commercial shipping
applications.
Projects receiving funding under OSC should analyze and prototype a
secure and efficient supply chain by addressing one or more of the
following key components to secure the supply chain:
[sbull] Validate security at the point of origin, to include the
security of the shipment itself (i.e., the security of the facility and
the people where the container is stuffed) and the information that
describes it;
[sbull] Secure the supply chain from the point of origin of the
shipment to its final destination, which shall include all waypoints;
[sbull] Enhance the accuracy and communication of cargo information
used by Federal agencies, carriers, and shippers;
[sbull] Monitor the movement and integrity of cargo in transit
(e.g., pilot the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and
emerging technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS)
transceivers, sensors, electronic seals, container design, and data
querying).
The ESC will provide oversight, guidance and support to OSC
projects so they can integrate with broader governmental objectives and
communicate governmental efforts to address container security and
efficiency. The ESC will review, coordinate, and monitor the projects
funded by OSC. The ESC is considering adopting the following funding
criteria which proposed projects must meet for the ESC to recommend the
project for funding through the TSA:
(a) A private/public partnership (hereafter referred to as the
``partnership'') must be established that includes participants in the
supply chain such as all affected shippers (e.g., exporters, importers,
manufacturers), carriers (all modes), intermediaries (e.g., freight
forwarders, freight consolidators, freight brokers), terminal
operators, labor, local DOT and Customs, and other relevant local and
State governmental officials as needed, depending on the supply chain
being proposed. Partnerships requesting funding for projects must be
sponsored by one of the following U.S. based load centers: Ports of Los
Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle, Tacoma, and the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey
(b) The partnership's proposal should articulate how the
operational test will complement and include stakeholders currently
participating in existing freight and information system operational
tests sponsored by DOT, and the supply chain security initiatives
sponsored by Customs (e.g. C-TPAT and CSI).
[[Page 70112]]
(c) The partnership must obtain signed letters of commitment from
all members of the partnership that describe and quantify the assets
they will utilize during the operational tests.
(d) The partnership must be willing to have all information
resulting from the analysis available to supply chain participants.
Prototyped solutions should reside in the public domain. Proprietary
information (i.e., data relating to specific, identifiable transactions
or assets of participants that are sensitive and of commercial value to
their competitors, or reveals specific threats to the supply chain that
could be exploited) is not considered to be part of the public domain
for purposes of these analyses and operational tests, and will be made
available only by authorized release from the owner of the information.
(e) The partnership must establish a point-of-contact and an
alternate to interface with the ESC or its representative. The point of
contact must be included in the written application.
(f) The partnership must be willing to assemble participants in the
supply chain to test procedures and technologies identified as
potential solutions. The partnership should also consider including
typical supply chain activities originating or transshipped outside the
immediate port area.
(g) The TSA will provide full or partial funding for selected
projects. TSA encourages grant recipients to consider partial funding
of projects from other sources including internal funding.
TSA invites comments on these proposed criteria. Once finalized,
these criteria may also be used in the selection of future projects
under OSC.
Proposal Submission
Partnerships that meet the above criteria should submit their
applications for grants to the address provided in the forthcoming
Grant Program Announcement (GPA).
External Funding Through Grants
The GPA will contain instructions on how to submit the application.
Subject matter experts, in accordance with a Technical Evaluation Plan,
will review the applications. Evaluations and final selection of the
application will be based on criteria published in the GPA. TSA will
administer the grants issued under the OSC.
Federal Advisory Committee
The OSC ESC will seek industry and private sector input and
discussion on OSC related issues by soliciting feedback and comments
from existing Federal Advisory Committees already designated to afford
the Departments of Treasury and Transportation advice. Consequently,
the Customs Operational Advisory Committee (COAC) and the Marine
Transportation System National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC) will serve
this purpose and will be invited to afford the OSC ESC comments, input,
and advice on OSC related issues at the request of the OSC ESC.
Comments
TSA is providing a 15-day comment period during which members of
the public are invited to submit comments on the selection criteria for
projects to be funded under OSC. Before finalizing the selection
criteria, consideration will be given to any written comments that are
received by the TSA prior to the end of the comment period. A 15-day
comment period is being provided due to the urgent necessity for TSA to
move forward in achieving the goals of OSC. Comments received after the
comment period will be considered to the extent that it is practicable.
The TSA specifically requests comments on the project criteria for OSC
and comments on specific potential projects including whether
consideration should be given to projects that test shipments
originating in specific countries of interest. Commenters should not
use this process to propose projects for funding under OSC. They should
follow the process described in the forthcoming GPA.
Issued in Washington, DC on November 12, 2002.
J.M. Loy,
ADM, Acting Under Secretary of Transportation for Security.
[FR Doc. 02-29441 Filed 11-19-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4110-62-P