Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation

AGENCY:

Department of Homeland Security.

ACTION:

Final rule.

SUMMARY:

In this final rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) makes the 2021 annual inflation adjustment to its civil monetary penalties. On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (The 2015 Act). Pursuant to the 2015 Act, all agencies must adjust their civil monetary penalties annually and publish the adjustment in the Federal Register . Accordingly, this final rule adjusts the Department's civil monetary penalties for 2021 pursuant to the 2015 Act and Executive Office of the President (EOP) Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. The new penalties will be effective for penalties assessed after October 18, 2021 whose associated violations occurred after November 2, 2015.

DATES:

This rule is effective on October 18, 2021.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Hillary Hunnings, 202-282-9043, hillary.hunnings@hq.dhs.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I. Statutory and Regulatory Background

II. Overview of Final Rule

III. Adjustments by Component

A. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

B. U.S. Customs and Border Protection

C. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

D. U.S. Coast Guard

E. Transportation Security Administration

IV. Administrative Procedure Act

V. Regulatory Analyses

A. Executive Orders 12866 and 13563

B. Regulatory Flexibility Act

C. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

D. Paperwork Reduction Act

VI. Signing Authority

I. Statutory and Regulatory Background

On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-74 section 701 (Nov. 2, 2015)) (2015 Act). The 2015 Act amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (28 U.S.C. 2461 note) to improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. The 2015 Act required agencies to: (1) Adjust the level of civil monetary penalties with an initial “catch-up” adjustment through issuance of an interim final rule (IFR) and (2) make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation. Through the “catch-up” adjustment, agencies were required to adjust the maximum amounts of civil monetary penalties to more accurately reflect inflation rates.

For the subsequent annual adjustments, the 2015 Act requires agencies to increase the penalty amounts by a cost-of-living adjustment. The 2015 Act directs OMB to provide guidance to agencies each year to assist agencies in making the annual adjustments. The 2015 Act requires agencies to make the annual adjustments no later than January 15 of each year and to publish the adjustments in the Federal Register .

Pursuant to the 2015 Act, DHS undertook a review of the civil penalties that DHS and its components administer. On July 1, 2016, DHS published an IFR adjusting the maximum civil monetary penalties with an initial “catch-up” adjustment, as required by the 2015 Act. DHS calculated the adjusted penalties based upon nondiscretionary provisions in the 2015 Act and upon guidance that OMB issued to agencies on February 24, 2016. The adjusted penalties were effective for civil penalties assessed after August 1, 2016 (the effective date of the IFR), whose associated violations occurred after November 2, 2015 (the date of enactment of the 2015 Act). On January 27, 2017, DHS published a final rule making the annual adjustment for 2017. On April 2, 2018, DHS made the 2018 annual inflation adjustment. On April 5, 2019, DHS made the 2019 annual inflation adjustment. On June 17, 2020, DHS made the 2020 annual inflation adjustment.

II. Overview of the Final Rule

This final rule makes the 2021 annual inflation adjustments to civil monetary penalties pursuant to the 2015 Act and pursuant to guidance OMB issued to agencies on December 23, 2020. The penalty amounts in this final rule will be effective for penalties assessed after October 18, 2021 where the associated violation occurred after November 2, 2015. Consistent with OMB guidance, the 2015 Act does not change previously assessed penalties that the agency is actively collecting or has collected.

The adjusted penalty amounts will apply to penalties assessed after the effective date of this final rule. We discuss civil penalties by DHS component in Section III below. For each component identified in Section III, below, we briefly describe the relevant civil penalty (or penalties), and we provide a table showing the increase in the penalties for 2021. In the table for each component, we show (1) the penalty name, (2) the penalty statutory and or regulatory citation, (3) the penalty amount as adjusted in the 2020 final rule, (4) the cost-of-living adjustment multiplier for 2021 that OMB provided in its December 23, 2020, guidance, and (5) the new 2021 adjusted penalty. The 2015 Act instructs agencies to round penalties to the nearest $1. For a more complete discussion of the method used for calculating the initial “catch-up” inflation adjustments and a component-by-component breakdown to the nature of the civil penalties and relevant legal authorities, please see the IFR preamble at 81 FR 42987-43000.

III. Adjustments by Component

In the following sections, we briefly describe the civil penalties that DHS and its components, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), assess. Other components not mentioned do not impose any civil monetary penalties. We include tables at the end of each section, which list the individual adjustments for each penalty.

A. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) administers only one civil penalty that the 2015 Act affects. That penalty assesses fines for violations of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS). CFATS is a program that regulates the security of chemical facilities that, in the discretion of the Secretary, present high levels of security risk. DHS established the CFATS program in 2007 pursuant to section 550 of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 109-295). The CFATS regulation is located in part 27 of title 6 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Below is a table showing the 2021 adjustment for the CFATS penalty that CISA administers.

B. U.S. Customs and Border Protection

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) assesses civil monetary penalties under various titles of the United States Code (U.S.C.) and the CFR. These include penalties for certain violations of title 8 of the CFR regarding the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (Pub. L. 82-414, as amended) (INA). The INA contains provisions that impose penalties on persons, including carriers and aliens, who violate specified provisions of the INA. The relevant penalty provisions appear in numerous sections of the INA; however, CBP has enumerated these penalties in regulation in one location—8 CFR 280.53. For a complete list of the INA sections for which penalties are assessed, in addition to a brief description of each violation, see the 2016 IFR preamble at 81 FR 42989-42990. For a complete list and brief description of the non-INA civil monetary penalties assessed by CBP subject to adjustment and a discussion of the history of the DHS and CBP adjustments to the non-INA penalties, see the 2019 annual inflation adjustment final rule preamble at 84 FR 13499, 13500 (April 5, 2019).

Below is a table showing the 2021 adjustment for the penalties that CBP administers.

C. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assesses civil monetary penalties for certain employment-related violations arising from the INA. ICE's civil penalties are located in title 8 of the CFR.

There are three different sections in the INA that impose civil monetary penalties for violations of the laws that relate to employment actions: sections 274A, 274B, and 274C. ICE has primary enforcement responsibilities for two of these civil penalty provisions (sections 274A and 274C), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has enforcement responsibilities for one of these civil penalty provisions (section 274B). The INA, in sections 274A and 274C, provides for imposition of civil penalties for various specified unlawful acts pertaining to the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification), the employment of unauthorized aliens, and document fraud.

Because both DHS and DOJ implement the three employment-related penalty sections in the INA, both Departments' implementing regulations reflect the civil penalty amounts. For a complete description of the civil money penalties assessed and a discussion of DHS's and DOJ's efforts to update the penalties in years past, see the IFR preamble at 81 FR 42991. Below is a table showing the 2021 adjustment for the penalties that ICE administers.

D. U.S. Coast Guard

The Coast Guard is authorized to assess close to 150 penalties involving maritime safety and security and environmental stewardship that are critical to the continued success of Coast Guard missions. Various statutes in titles 14, 16, 19, 33, 42, 46, and 49 of the U.S.C. authorize these penalties. Titles 33 and 46 authorize the vast majority of these penalties as these statutes deal with navigation, navigable waters, and shipping. For a complete discussion of the civil monetary penalties assessed by the Coast Guard, see the 2016 IFR preamble at 81 FR 42992.

The Coast Guard has identified the penalties it administers, adjusted those penalties for inflation, and is listing those new penalties in a table located in the CFR—specifically, Table 1 in 33 CFR 27.3. Table 1 in 33 CFR 27.3 identifies the statutes that provide the Coast Guard with civil monetary penalty authority and sets out the inflation-adjusted maximum penalty that the Coast Guard may impose pursuant to each statutory provision. Table 1 in 33 CFR 27.3 provides the current maximum penalty for violations that occurred after November 2, 2015.

The applicable civil penalty amounts for violations occurring on or before November 2, 2015, are set forth in previously published regulations amending 33 CFR part 27. To find the applicable penalty amount for a violation that occurred on or before November 2, 2015, look to the prior versions of the CFR that pertain to the date on which the violation occurred.

Table 4 below shows the 2021 adjustment for the penalties that the Coast Guard administers.

E. Transportation Security Administration

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is updating its civil penalties regulation in accordance with the 2015 Act. Pursuant to its statutory authority in 49 U.S.C. 46301(a)(1), (4), (5), (6), 49 U.S.C. 46301(d)(2), (8), and 49 U.S.C. 114(u), TSA may impose penalties for violations of statutes that TSA administers, including penalties for violations of implementing regulations or orders. Note that pursuant to division K, title I, sec. 1904(b)(1)(I), of Public Law 115-254, 132 Stat. 3186, 3545 (Oct. 5, 2018), the TSA Modernization Act—part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018—the former 49 U.S.C. 114(v), which relates to penalties, was re-designated as 49 U.S.C. 114(u).

TSA assesses these penalties for a wide variety of aviation and surface security requirements, including violations of TSA's requirements applicable to Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC), as well as violations of requirements described in chapter 449 of title 49 of the U.S.C. These penalties can apply to a wide variety of situations, as described in the statutory and regulatory provisions, as well as in guidance that TSA publishes. Below is a table showing the 2021 adjustment for the penalties that TSA administers.

IV. Administrative Procedure Act

DHS is promulgating this final rule to ensure that the amount of civil penalties that DHS assesses or enforces reflects the statutorily mandated ranges as adjusted for inflation. The 2015 Act provides a clear formula for adjustment of the civil penalties, leaving DHS and its components with little room for discretion. DHS and its components have been charged only with performing ministerial computations to determine the amounts of adjustments for inflation to civil monetary penalties. In these annual adjustments DHS is merely updating the penalty amounts by applying the cost-of-living adjustment multiplier that OMB has provided to agencies. Furthermore, the 2015 Act specifically instructed that agencies make the required annual adjustments notwithstanding section 553 of title 5 of the U.S.C. Thus, as specified in the 2015 Act, the prior public notice-and-comment procedures and delayed effective date requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) do not apply to this rule. Further, as described above, this rule makes minor amendments to the regulations to reflect changes required by clear statutory authority, and DHS finds that prior notice and comment procedures and a delayed effective date for these amendments are unnecessary.

V. Regulatory Analyses

A. Executive Orders 12866 and 13563

Executive Orders 12866 (“Regulatory Planning and Review”) and 13563 (“Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review”) direct agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity). Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits, of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of promoting flexibility.

OMB has not designated this final rule a “significant regulatory action” under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866. Accordingly, OMB has not reviewed this rule.

This final rule makes nondiscretionary adjustments to existing civil monetary penalties in accordance with the 2015 Act and OMB guidance. DHS therefore did not consider alternatives and does not have the flexibility to alter the adjustments of the civil monetary penalty amounts as provided in this rule. To the extent this final rule increases civil monetary penalties, it would result in an increase in transfers from persons or entities assessed a civil monetary penalty to the government.

B. Regulatory Flexibility Act

The Regulatory Flexibility Act applies only to rules for which an agency publishes a notice of proposed rulemaking pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b). See 5 U.S.C. 601-612. The Regulatory Flexibility Act does not apply to this final rule because a notice of proposed rulemaking was not required for the reasons stated above.

C. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, 2 U.S.C. 1531-1538, requires Federal agencies to assess the effects of their discretionary regulatory actions. In particular, the Act addresses actions that may result in the expenditure by a State, local, or Tribal government, in the aggregate, or by the private sector of $100,000,000 (adjusted for inflation) or more in any one year. This final rule will not result in such an expenditure.

D. Paperwork Reduction Act

The provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. chapter 35, and its implementing regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, do not apply to this final rule, because this final rule does not trigger any new or revised recordkeeping or reporting.

VI. Signing Authorities

The amendments to 19 CFR part 4 in this document are issued in accordance with 19 CFR 0.2(a), which provides that the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to CBP regulations that are not related to customs revenue functions was transferred to the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to Section 403(l) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Accordingly, this final rule to amend such regulations may be signed by the Secretary of Homeland Security (or his or her delegate).

List of Subjects

6 CFR Part 27

• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Security measures

8 CFR Part 270

• Administrative practice and procedure
• Aliens
• Employment
• Fraud
• Penalties

8 CFR Part 274a

• Administrative practice and procedure
• Aliens
• Employment
• Penalties
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

8 CFR Part 280

• Administrative practice and procedure
• Immigration
• Penalties

19 CFR Part 4

• Exports
• Freight
• Harbors
• Maritime carriers
• Oil pollution
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Vessels

33 CFR Part 27

• Administrative practice and procedure
• Penalties

49 CFR Part 1503

• Administrative practice and procedure
• Investigations
• Law enforcement
• Penalties

Amendments to the Regulations

Accordingly, for the reasons stated in the preamble, DHS is amending 6 CFR part 27, 8 CFR parts 270, 274a, and 280, 19 CFR part 4, 33 CFR part 27, and 49 CFR part 1503 as follows:

Title 6—Domestic Security

PART 27—CHEMICAL FACILITY ANTI-TERRORISM STANDARDS

1. The authority citation for part 27 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 6 U.S.C. 624; Pub. L. 101-410, 104 Stat. 890, as amended by Pub. L. 114-74, 129 Stat. 599; Pub. L. 113-254, 128 Stat. 2898, as amended by Pub. L. 116-150, 134 Stat. 679.

2. In § 27.300, revise paragraph (b)(3) to read as follows:

Title 8—Aliens and Nationality

PART 270—PENALTIES FOR DOCUMENT FRAUD

3. The authority citation for part 270 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 8 U.S.C. 1101, 1103, and 1324c; Pub. L. 101-410, 104 Stat. 890, as amended by Pub. L. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 and Pub. L. 114-74, 129 Stat. 599.

4. In § 270.3, revise paragraphs (b)(1)(ii)(A) through (D) to read as follows:

PART 274a—CONTROL OF EMPLOYMENT OF ALIENS

5. The authority citation for part 274a continues to read as follows:

Authority: 8 U.S.C. 1101, 1103, 1105a, 1324a; 48 U.S.C. 1806; 8 CFR part 2; Pub. L. 101-410, 104 Stat. 890, as amended by Pub. L. 114-74, 129 Stat. 599.

6. In § 274a.8, revise paragraph (b) to read as follows:

7. In § 274a.10, revise paragraphs (b)(1)(ii)(A) through (C) and the first sentence of paragraph (b)(2) introductory text to read as follows:

PART 280—IMPOSITION AND COLLECTION OF FINES

8. The authority citation for part 280 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 8 U.S.C. 1103, 1221, 1223, 1227, 1229, 1253, 1281, 1283, 1284, 1285, 1286, 1322, 1323, 1330; 66 Stat. 173, 195, 197, 201, 203, 212, 219, 221-223, 226, 227, 230; Pub. L. 101-410, 104 Stat. 890, as amended by Pub. L. 114-74, 129 Stat. 599.

9. In § 280.53, revise paragraphs (b)(1) through (15) to read as follows:

PART 4—VESSELS IN FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC TRADES

10. The authority citation for part 4 continues to read in part as follows:

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 19 U.S.C. 66, 1415, 1431, 1433, 1434, 1624, 2071 note; 46 U.S.C. 501, 60105.

Sections 4.80, 4.80a, and 4.80b also issued under 19 U.S.C. 1706a; 28 U.S.C. 2461 note; 46 U.S.C. 12112, 12117, 12118, 50501-55106, 55107, 55108, 55110, 55114, 55115, 55116, 55117, 55119, 56101, 55121, 56101, 57109; Pub. L. 108-7, Division B, Title II, § 211;

Section 4.92 also issued under 28 U.S.C. 2461 note; 46 U.S.C. 55111;

11. In § 4.80, revise paragraphs (b)(2) and (i) to read as follows:

12. In § 4.92, revise the third sentence to read as follows:

Title 33—Navigation and Navigable Waters

PART 27—ADJUSTMENT OF CIVIL MONETARY PENALTIES FOR INFLATION

13. The authority citation for part 27 continues to read as follows:

Authority: Secs. 1-6, Pub. L. 101-410, 104 Stat. 890, as amended by Sec. 31001(s)(1), Pub. L. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (28 U.S.C. 2461 note); Department of Homeland Security Delegation No. 0170.1, sec. 2 (106).

14. In § 27.3, revise the third sentence of the introductory text and table 1 to read as follows:

Title 49—Transportation

PART 1503—INVESTIGATIVE AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES

15. The authority citation for part 1503 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 6 U.S.C. 1142; 18 U.S.C. 6002; 28 U.S.C. 2461 (note); 49 U.S.C. 114, 20109, 31105, 40113-40114, 40119, 44901-44907, 46101-46107, 46109-46110, 46301, 46305, 46311, 46313-46314; Pub. L. 104-134, as amended by Pub. L. 114-74.

16. In § 1503.401, revise paragraphs (b)(1) and (2) and (c)(1), (2), and (3) to read as follows: