Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should direct the Security Policy and Industry Engagement's Surface Division to clarify TSA's Pipeline Security Guidelines by defining key terms within its criteria for determining critical facilities. (Recommendation 2)
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open
Comments: As of June 2020, TSA reported that it completed a review of the Pipeline Security Guideline criteria for determining critical facilities. TSA sought and received pipeline stakeholder comments following their review of the criteria. According to TSA officials, TSA is sharing draft criteria with federal stakeholders and anticipates completion of the review by December 31, 2020. We will continue to monitor the status of TSA's activities to determine whether our recommendation is fully implemented.
Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should develop a strategic workforce plan for its Security Policy and Industry Engagement's Surface Division, which could include determining the number of personnel necessary to meet the goals set for its Pipeline Security Branch, as well as the knowledge, skills, and abilities, including cybersecurity, that are needed to effectively conduct Corporate Security Reviews (CSR) and Critical Facility Security Reviews (CFSR). (Recommendation 3)
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open
Priority recommendation
Comments: As of June 2020, TSA reported that officials, including TSA's Office of Human Capital Strategic Planning, began collaborating to draft a strategic workforce plan for the pipeline security section of TSA. According to the officials, while this effort was delayed as TSA's Office of Human Capital needed focus on protecting TSA's workforce in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, progress has been made. Phase one of a four-phase process began the week of 6/8/2020, with a Manpower Study to be completed by October 2020. The second phase will be a job skills/competency analysis and the third and fourth phases are position management and classification, and plan development and approval, respectively. TSA estimated completion of the workforce plan by June 30, 2021. We will continue to monitor the status of these efforts to develop a strategic workforce plan in response to this recommendation.
Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should direct the Security Policy and Industry Engagement's Surface Division to identify or develop other data sources relevant to threat, vulnerability, and consequence consistent with the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and DHS critical infrastructure risk mitigation priorities and incorporate that data into the Pipeline Relative Risk Ranking Tool to assess relative risk of critical pipeline systems, which could include data on prior attacks, natural hazards, feedback data on pipeline system performance, physical pipeline condition, and cross-sector interdependencies. (Recommendation 6)
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open
Comments: As of June 2020, TSA officials reported meeting with representatives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in February and March 2019 for their input on the identification of sources relevant to threat, vulnerability, and consequence consistent with the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and DHS critical infrastructure risk mitigation priorities. TSA officials also reported meeting with RAND personnel in March 2020 to discuss possible contract options for addressing this recommendation. Further action on this recommendation has been limited due to work on the COVID-19 response. We will continue to monitor the status of TSA's activities to determine whether our recommendation is fully implemented.
Recommendation: The TSA Administrator should direct the Security Policy and Industry Engagement's Surface Division to take steps to coordinate an independent, external peer review of its Pipeline Relative Risk Ranking Tool, after the Pipeline Security Branch completes enhancements to its risk assessment approach. (Recommendation 7)
Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration
Status: Open
Comments: As of June 2020, DHS officials reported that TSA will take steps to coordinate an independent, external peer review of its Pipeline Relative Risk Ranking Tool after addressing recommendations 4,5, and 6 of this report. DHS estimated that this effort would be completed by April 30, 2021.
