Inside This Issue...

On June 2, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced it has awarded a total of $1 million in grants to nine technical and community colleges to enhance classroom safety curriculums and behind-the-wheel training courses for students enrolled in commercial driver’s license (CDL) training programs. Eligible entities for the annually-awarded commercial motor vehicle (CMV) grants include accredited public and private institutions of higher education, federally recognized Native American Tribal Governments, and city, county and state governments. The CMV Operator Training Grant Program, which was established by Congress in 2005 through the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), has two goals: (1) to expand the number of CDL holders possessing enhanced operator safety training to help reduce the severity and number of crashes on U.S. roads involving commercial motor vehicles; and (2) to assist economically-distressed regions of the U.S. by providing workforce training opportunities for qualified individuals to become CMV operators. View the press release for a list of the institutions that were awarded grants for fiscal year 2008. An announcement regarding application procedures for fiscal year 2009 grants will be posted in late summer 2008 at www.grants.gov.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announces a public meeting of the Agency’s Medical Review Board (MRB). The MRB public meeting will provide the public an opportunity to observe and participate in MRB deliberations about the revision and development of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation (FMCSR) medical standards, in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The MRB meeting will be held from 9am to 11:30am on July 18, 2008. Please refer to June 11 Federal Register notice for the preliminary agenda and more details.

The Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) will meet for purposes of reviewing recommendations from the Essential Technology Task Force (ETTF) on June 25, 2008, in Washington, DC. In addition, the HSAC will receive briefings from Secretary Michael Chertoff and other DHS officials. The meeting will be partially closed to the public. The meeting will take place from 10am to 3:30pm. The meeting will be closed from 10am to 11am, and from 12pm to 3:30pm. Please review the June 11 Federal Register notice for more details about the meeting.

$50 million has been set aside for REAL ID, according the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Summary for fiscal 2009 (FY09) Budget. The $50 million is part of a $39.9 billion FY09 spending bill for the Homeland Security Department, an increase of $2.3 billion over the president’s request, with most of the additional funds going toward first-responder grants. View the FY09 funding chart for more details.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announces its plan to submit the Information Collection Request (ICR) entitled, "Application for Certificate of Registration for Foreign Motor Carriers and Foreign Motor Private Carriers," to the Office of Management and Budget. The ICR requires Mexico-domiciled for-hire and private motor carriers to file an application Form OP-2 if they wish to register to transport property only within municipalities in the United States on the U.S.-Mexico international borders or within the commercial zones of such municipalities to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its review and approval. Public comment on the ICR must be received on or before Aug. 8. View the June 9 Federal Register notice for more details.

Improving Public Access to Documents Act of 2008 (HR 6193) was introduced in the House and will require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and administer policies, procedures, and programs to promote the implementation of the Controlled Unclassified Information Framework applicable to unclassified information that is homeland security information, terrorism information, weapons of mass destruction information and other information within the scope of the information sharing environment established under section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (6 U.S.C. 485). The bill was forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee (Amended) by Unanimous Consent.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces a public workshop to be held on July 1, 2008 from 9am to 4pm, in the Green Auditorium of the NIST Administration Building in Gaithersburg, Maryland, regarding the establishment of an accreditation program and technical requirements for laboratories that perform biometric testing including interoperability, performance, and conformance using internationally recognized standards developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), NIST, and by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS). Additional standards may be identified throughout the development of the accreditation program technical requirements. More information is available in the June 13, 2008 Federal Register notice.

The Office of the Secretary (OST) is amending its drug and alcohol testing procedures to authorize employers to disclose to state commercial driver's license (CDL) authorities the drug and alcohol violations of employees who hold CDLs and operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs), when a state law requires such reporting. This rule also permits third-party administrators (TPAs) to provide the same information to state CDL licensing authorities where state law requires the TPAs to do so for owner-operator CMV drivers with CDLs. The rule is effective as of June 13, 2008. Comments to this interim final rule should be submitted by Aug. 12, 2008. Late-filed comments will be considered to the extent practicable. View the June 13 Federal Register notice for more details.

On June 13, the Senate Appropriations Committee announced its markup schedule. The Homeland Security and Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittees will mark up their bills June 18, with a full committee markup of both June 19. On June 18, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment bills will be in full committee markup. June 20 will see Transportation-Housing and Legislative Branch subcommittee markups. View the complete June schedule on the Senate Committee on Appropriations Web site: http://appropriations.senate.gov/

The federal government has an important role to play in facilitating and accelerating transportation-related capacity and operational improvements at international land border crossings that will improve border travel times and reduce associated national and regional economic costs. To fulfill this role and encourage the greater use of non-traditional transportation project finance, delivery, and facility operation mechanisms at the nation's critical international land border crossings, the DOT is soliciting applications from interested international land border states, bridge and tunnel operators, and private entities to participate in the Transportation Border Congestion Relief (TBCR) Program. The goal of the TBCR Program is to identify and assist international land border states with implementing innovative solutions to address land border travel time delay and facilitate trade and travel without compromising the vital mission of securing America's borders. The DOT intends to select two or more surface transportation projects, a minimum of one on the U.S./Mexico border and one on the U.S./Canada border, which can help improve border travel times. Applications must be received on or before June 30, 2008. View the May 30 Federal Register notice for more.

On June 18 at 10am, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing titled "Protecting Personal Information: Is the Federal Government Doing Enough?" The hearing will take place at 342 Dirksen Building and can be listened to online at www.capitolhearings.com, or hsgac.senate.gov/public/. Contact Michael L. Alexander, Democratic Staff Director at (202) 224-2627 for more information.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently reviewing the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and, as part of a comprehensive national review process, solicits public comment on issues or language in the NIPP that need to be updated in this triennial review cycle. Written comments must be submitted on or before July 7, 2008. View the June 6 Federal Register notice for more information.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) invites the general public and other federal agencies the opportunity to comment on new information collection request 1670-NEW, US-CERT Incident Reporting. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35), as amended by the Clinger-Cohen Act (Pub. L. 104-106), DHS is soliciting comments for this collection. Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until Aug. 11, 2008. This process is conducted in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.1. View the June 11 Federal Register notice for more details.

In a June 9 Federal Register notice, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) responds to petitions for reconsideration of a Sept. 11, 2007 final rule that substantially upgraded Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 214, "Side Impact Protection," by incorporating a vehicle-to-pole test into the standard, adopting technically-advanced test dummies and enhanced injury criteria, and incorporating the advanced dummies into the standard’s moving deformable barrier test. To respond to petitioners' concerns about lead time as quickly as possible, the agency is publishing its response to the petitions in parts. The June 9 Federal Register notice responds to lead time issues, and other matters that need to be resolved or clarified concerning lead time and the phasing-in of the new requirements. A second notice will be published subsequently that addresses the other issues raised by the petitions. The effective date of the final rule is Aug. 8, 2008. If you wish to petition for reconsideration of this rule, your petition must be received by July 24, 2008. View theFederal Register notice for more details.

In a recent report, Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators identified numerous border security vulnerabilities, both at ports of entry and at unmanned and unmonitored land border locations between the ports of entry. In testing ports of entry, undercover investigators carried counterfeit driver's licenses, birth certificates, employee identification cards, and other documents, presented themselves at ports of entry and sought admittance to the U.S. dozens of times. They arrived in rental cars, on foot, by boat, and by airplane. They attempted to enter in four states on the northern border, three states on the southern border, and two other states requiring international air travel. In nearly every case, government inspectors accepted oral assertions and counterfeit identification provided by GAO investigators as proof of U.S. citizenship and allowed them to enter the country. In total, undercover investigators made 42 crossings with a 93 percent success rate. In its most recent work, GAO shifted its focus from ports of entry and primarily performed limited security assessments of unmanned and unmonitored areas between ports of entry. In four states along the U.S.–Canada border, GAO found state roads that were very close to the border that CBP did not appear to monitor. In three states, the proximity of the road to the border allowed investigators to cross undetected, successfully simulating the cross-border movement of radioactive materials or other contraband into the U.S. from Canada. GAO also identified potential security vulnerabilities on federally managed lands adjacent to the U.S.–Mexico border. GAO concluded that CBP faces significant challenges on the northern border, and that a determined cross-border violator would likely be able to bring radioactive materials or other contraband undetected into the U.S. by crossing the U.S.–Canada border at any of the assessed locations. View the report, Border Security: Summary of Covert Tests and Security Assessments for the Senate Committee on Finance, 2003–2007, for more details.

The Secretary of Homeland Security has designated the E-Verify system as the electronic employment eligibility verification system to be used by federal contractors, pursuant to Executive Order 12989, as amended by the Executive Order entitled "Amended Executive Order 12989, as Amended" of June 6, 2008.
The "Amended Executive Order 12989, as Amended" of June 6, 2008, instructs federal departments and agencies that enter into contracts to require, as a condition of each contract, that the contractor agree to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security to verify the employment eligibility of all persons hired during the contract term by the contractor to perform employment duties within the United States, and all persons assigned by the contractor to perform work within the United States on the federal contract. Pursuant to that Executive Order, the Secretary of Homeland Security designates the E-Verify system, modified as necessary and appropriate to accommodate the policy set forth in the "Amended Executive Order 12989, as Amended" and the implementation of that Executive Order by the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of General Services, and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as the electronic employment eligibility verification system to be used by federal contractors. View the June 13 Federal Register notice.

On June 13, House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Obey is circulating the subcommittee allocations -- known as 302(b)s -- for fiscal year 2009 appropriations bills. These allocations will be considered by the full committee on June 18 at 10:00am. View subcommittee allocations. View the February summary. These allocations reject the cuts found in the President's budget, and allow for modest but important investments in key priorities. Among other key programs the President’s budget slashed were homeland security grants (cut $2 billion), and state and local law enforcement programs at Department of Justice (cut $1.6 billion). Shortchanges in the President's budget include a $1 billion shortfall below the amount required by the Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). View the press release for more details.

AAMVA has changed the section on the homepage that featured buttons linking to information based on audience type. These buttons are now sorted by subject matter (topics of interest to members). What do you think about this new feature and other features on the Web site? Please take a few minutes to respond to our Web Evaluation Survey. Your input is important to the association and will help improve the Web site.

AAMVA University will host an advanced series of training courses beginning July 10:

• July 10: 3-Year Calculations of Serious Violations
• July 15: Advanced ACD
• July 17: Improving Data Quality
• July 22: CDLIS Error Detection and Resolution
• July 24: FEWS Basics (Fraud Emergency Warning System)
• July 29: FEWS Advanced
• July 31: FEWS: Jurisdiction Administration
• Aug. 5: UNI Basics
• Aug. 7: UNI Advanced A
• Aug. 12: UNI Advanced B 

All classes are conducted with live instructors via the web and held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 4pm (EDT). There is no fee for AAMVA members. To view course descriptions, go to the training portal at http://aamva.webroom.com. To attend a class each student must be registered on the site and enrolled into each course (there is self-registration/enrollment on the home page of the portal). If you have questions or are having difficulty with your previous log-in ID, e-mail trainer@aamva.org  (do not create another log-in ID).

If you haven’t already done so, please respond to the following surveys:

• Florida – Driver Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) (Ends 06/27/2008)
• New York – Online Change of Address (Ends 06/23/2008)
• Vermont – Audio Version – Driver Manual (Ends 06/20/2008)
• Vermont – DL/ID Printers (Ends 06/20/2008)
• Florida – Decal Printers (Ends 06/17/2008)
• Nevada - Limousines (Ends 07/11/2008)