[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 182 (Thursday, September 21, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65187-65188]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-20477]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

[Docket No. USCG-2023-0589]


Availability of Coast Guard Data to the Public in Implementation 
of the Open Government Data Act and To Support Coast Guard Rulemaking

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.

ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard announces the availability of Coast Guard data 
to the public in implementation of the Open Government Data Act and in 
support of Coast Guard rulemaking. The Coast Guard anticipates that the 
online data and geospatial dashboard will empower the general public, 
affected entities, and other interested parties to engage more 
effectively in Coast Guard rulemakings. We encourage you to submit 
comments describing what additional resources or data would help you 
participate in Coast Guard rulemakings.

DATES: Comments must be submitted to the online docket via https://www.regulations.gov on or before January 19, 2024.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by docket number USCG-
2023-0589 using the Federal Decision-Making Portal at https://www.regulations.gov. See the ``Public Participation and Request for 
Comments'' portion of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for further 
instructions on submitting comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about this document 
call or email Evan Morris, Coast Guard Office Standards Evaluation and 
Development; telephone 571-608-6719, email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Public Participation and Comments

    We encourage you to submit comments on your data needs to 
participate more effectively in Coast Guard rulemakings. We will 
consider all submissions and may adjust our public facing resources to 
improve public participation in the rulemaking process based on your 
comments.
    Submitting comments. We encourage you to submit comments through 
the Federal Decision-Making Portal at https://www.regulations.gov. To 
do so, go to https://www.regulations.gov, type USCG-2023-0589 in the 
search box and click ``Search.'' Next, look for this

[[Page 65188]]

document in the Search Results column, and click on it. Then click on 
the Comment option. If your material cannot be submitted using http://www.regulations.gov, contact the person in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this document for alternate instructions.
    Viewing material in docket. Public comments will also be placed in 
our online docket and can be viewed by following instructions on the 
https://www.regulations.gov Frequently Asked Questions web page. We 
review all comments received, but we may choose not to post off-topic, 
inappropriate, or duplicate comments that we receive.
    Personal information. We accept anonymous comments. Comments we 
post to https://www.regulations.gov will include any personal 
information you have provided. For more about privacy and submissions 
in response to this document, see DHS's eRulemaking System of Records 
notice (85 FR 14226, March 11, 2020).

Discussion

    The Coast Guard Office of Standards Evaluation and Development (CG-
REG) is endeavoring to provide to the public as much U.S. Coast Guard 
data as possible and practicable--resource permitting--in 
implementation of Title II within the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act 
of 2018, named the Open Government Data Act. The Open Government Data 
Act guides federal agencies to make data open by default, subject to 
certain provisions such as (i) risks and restrictions related to the 
disclosure of personally identifiable information and (ii) security 
considerations. This notice shares several U.S. Coast Guard websites 
where our data resources are available to the public.
    The ``Annual Vessel Statistics'' page provides the public with 
access to the universe of commercial vessels the U.S. Coast Guard 
regulates. The statistics available at the time of this notice are for 
2021 and 2022; future year statistics will be provided as available. 
This page also allows you to download a list of publicly available 
information of these vessels by the vessel's commercial service. On 
this page, we present the aggregated information. We have also analyzed 
this information and created a dashboard which help any user quickly 
understand the scale and change in vessel populations by routes, 
responsible districts, and classification. The web address for the 
``Annual Vessel Statistics'' page is https://dco.uscg.afpims.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Prevention-Policy-CG-5P/Commercial-Regulations-Standards-CG-5PS/Office-of-Standards-Evaluation-and-Development-CG-REG/Annual-Vessel-Statistics/2022-Annual-Vessel-Statistics/.
    In addition, we have created an interactive geospatial dashboard on 
ArcGIS Pro that displays significant maritime incidents that involved 
the U.S. Coast Guard from 2012 to 2022. This dashboard defines a 
significant maritime incident as an incident that resulted in at least 
$100,000 of property damage or an incident that resulted in three or 
more injuries or one fatality. This data comes from the Coast Guard's 
Marine Investigation Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) database. This 
information is displaying publicly available information from the Coast 
Guard's Port State Information eXchange system: https://cgmix.uscg.mil/PSIX/Default.aspx. The web address for the Significant Maritime 
Incident GIS Dashboard is https://dco.uscg.afpims.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Prevention-Policy-CG-5P/Commercial-Regulations-Standards-CG-5PS/Office-of-Standards-Evaluation-and-Development-CG-REG/Annual-Vessel-Statistics/GIS/.
    This Significant Maritime Incident Dashboard is a visual aid which 
can help end users better understand specific aspects of the affected 
populations for the ongoing Coast Guard rulemakings that are on the 
Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (https://www.reginfo.gov). The data may be useful for public participation in 
our current Unified Agenda regulatory actions, such as Claims 
Procedures Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Regulatory 
Identification Number: 1625-AA03), Marine Casualty Reporting on the 
Outer Continental Shelf (1625-AB99), Shipping Safety Fairways Along the 
Atlantic Coast (1625-AC57), Safety Management Systems for Domestic 
Passenger Vessels (1625-AC65), and Towing Vessel Firefighting Training 
(1625-AC64).
    We encourage you to submit comments describing your data needs to 
participate more effectively in Coast Guard rulemaking. In particular, 
the U.S. Coast Guard requests responses to the following questions:
    1. What data could the U.S. Coast Guard provide that would 
encourage your participation in rulemakings?
    2. What data could the U.S. Coast Guard provide that would help 
your academic research to inform future rulemakings?
    3. In addition to the Unified Agenda, how do you recommend the U.S. 
Coast Guard publicize information about rulemaking activities?
    Based on public comment, other factors, and available USCG 
resources, we may continue to expand the availability of U.S. Coast 
Guard data resources that may be useful for participating in the 
rulemaking process.
    This notice is issued under authority of 44 U.S. Code 3506(b)(6).

T. Brown,
Office Chief, U.S. Coast Guard, Standards Evaluation and Development.
[FR Doc. 2023-20477 Filed 9-20-23; 8:45 am]
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