6 U.S.C. § 204 — Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee

(a) Establishment The head of the Transportation Security Administration (called the "Administrator" in this section) must create the Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee inside the TSA. This section calls it the "Advisory Committee." (b) Duties The Advisory Committee can advise, consult with, report to, and make recommendations to the Administrator about surface transportation security. That includes helping develop, refine, and carry out policies, programs, rulemakings, and security directives for surface transportation. The Committee must use risk-based approaches — focusing on the biggest threats — when doing its work. (c) Membership The Committee has two kinds of members. Voting members are appointed by the Administrator. Nonvoting members, who only advise, are picked by the TSA itself, the Department of Transportation, the Coast Guard, and any other federal agency the Administrator thinks is appropriate. The Administrator picks voting members from stakeholders across every kind of surface transportation — passenger rail, freight rail, mass transit, pipelines, highways, buses, school buses, and trucking. These members can come from industry associations, labor unions, groups representing riders and equipment makers, law enforcement, first responders and security experts, and any other group the Administrator finds fitting. The voting members choose their own chairperson. Each voting member serves a 2-year term, but stays on the job until the Administrator appoints a replacement. Members can be reappointed. The Administrator can remove a member for cause at any time, and can also remove a member who should not have access to classified or sensitive security information. Members do not get paid by the government for serving on the Committee. The Administrator must make the Committee meet at least twice a year, in person or online, and can call extra meetings when needed. At least one meeting per year must be announced in the Federal Register and on a public website, and must be open to the public. The Committee must keep a record of who attended each meeting. Unless another federal law says otherwise, meeting minutes must be posted on the public website described in subsection (e)(5) — though the Committee can redact or summarize minutes to protect classified or sensitive information. Within 60 days of a voting member's appointment, and before that member gets any access to classified or sensitive security information, the Administrator must decide whether that member should be restricted from such access. If not restricted, and if the member signs a nondisclosure agreement, the member may get access to sensitive security information relevant to their work. Access to classified information follows Executive Order 13526 (or whatever order replaces it). Members must protect sensitive security information under the federal regulations in 49 CFR part 1520, and must protect classified information according to the rules for its classification level. The Advisory Committee can meet jointly with the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, the Maritime Security Advisory Committee, and the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee to discuss shared security issues across different modes of transportation. The Committee can also ask outside subject-matter experts for help on issues within its scope. (d) Reports The Committee must periodically send reports to the Administrator on topics the Administrator or a majority of Committee members ask about. Each year, the Committee must also send an annual report to the Administrator and to the relevant congressional committees, describing its activities, findings, and recommendations from the past year. Within 6 months of getting that report, the Administrator must publish a public version of it, following the privacy rules in 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b). (e) Administration response The Administrator must actually consider the Committee's information, advice, and recommendations when making surface transportation security policy. Within 90 days of receiving a recommendation, the Administrator must send the Committee written feedback: either a plan for implementing it (if the Administrator agrees) or an explanation of why not (if the Administrator disagrees). Within 30 days after sending that feedback, the Administrator must tell the relevant congressional committees what the feedback was, and give them a briefing if they ask for one. If the Administrator agreed to a recommendation, then within 90 days of receiving it — and every three months after that until it's fully carried out — the Administrator must send Congress or post on the public website a status update. Finally, the Administrator must keep a public website listing the Committee's members and how to contact the Committee. (f) Nonapplicability of FACA The Federal Advisory Committee Act does not apply to this Advisory Committee or to any subcommittee it creates.