Security Zones; 2024 Republican National Convention; Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Harbor, Kinnickinnic River, Menomonee River and Milwaukee River, Milwaukee, WI

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2024-0254]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA87</RIN> <SUBJECT>Security Zones; 2024 Republican National Convention; Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Harbor, Kinnickinnic River, Menomonee River and Milwaukee River, Milwaukee, WI</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, DHS. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing temporary security zones and a safety zone for navigable waters within Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Harbor, Kinnickinnic River, Menomonee River, and Milwaukee River during the 2024 Republican National Convention. These actions are necessary to protect convention delegates, official parties, dignitaries, the public and surrounding waterways from terrorist acts, sabotage or other subversive acts, accidents, or other causes of a similar nature. Entry of vessels or persons into these zones is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Sector Lake Michigan or designated representative. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective from 8 a.m. on July 13, 2024, to 3 a.m. on July 19, 2024. All Security Zones will be enforced as needed with actual notice. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> type USCG-2024-0254 in the search box and click “Search.” Next, in the Document Type column, select “Supporting & Related Material.” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this proposed rulemaking, call or email Chief Petty Officer Aaron Sunstrom, Sector Lake Michigan Waterways Management Division, U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 770-527-3964, email <E T="03">Aaron.R.Sunstrom@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background Information and Regulatory History</HD> The Coast Guard is issuing this temporary rule under authority in 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). This statutory provision authorizes an agency to issue a rule without prior notice and opportunity to comment when the agency for good cause finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” The Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) with respect to this rule due to it being impracticable and contrary to the public interest. Due to the sensitive security issues related to the Republican National Convention, providing a public notice and comment period would be contrary to the security zone's intended objective of protecting VIPs and the public because we cannot share the sensitive security information details prior to the rule being published. Also, under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Delaying the effective date by first publishing an NPRM and holding a comment period would be contrary to the rule's objectives of ensuring safety of life on the navigable waters and protection of the Republican National Convention and accompanying high-ranking government officials. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Legal Authority and Need for Rule</HD> The Coast Guard may issue security zone regulations under authority in 46 U.S.C. 70051 and 70124. The Captain of the Port, Sector Lake Michigan has determined that these temporary security zones are necessary to provide for the security of the Republican National Convention and the accompanying high-ranking government officials, and to protect against sabotage or terrorist attacks to human life, vessels, mariners, and waterfront venues at or near this event. Additionally, the Coast Guard believes that, given the nature of the First Amendment activity expected and likely type of vessels used by individuals desiring to express their First Amendment rights—namely kayaks and other small vessels—a safety zone designating a voluntary First Amendment Area is necessary to ensure the safety of those vessels and persons who chose to express their views safely and without interference from, or interfering with, other maritime traffic. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Discussion of the Rule</HD> The Republican National Convention will take place in Milwaukee, WI from July 13, 2024, until July 19, 2024. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has designated the 2024 Republican National Convention as a National Special Security Event (NSSE). NSSE's are significant events, which, due to their political, economic, social, or religious significance, may render them particularly attractive targets of terrorism or other criminal activity. The Federal government provides support, assistance, and resources to state and local governments to ensure public safety and security during NSSE's. During this NSSE many high-ranking government officials will be arriving in Milwaukee, WI. The Coast Guard is establishing several security zones and a safety zone in portions of Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Harbor, Kinnickinnic River, Menomonee River, and Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, WI. Voluntary First Amendment Safety Zone 1 includes all waters of Lake Michigan within Milwaukee Harbor north of Discovery World. The area is enclosed by a line connecting the following points: starting at 43 02.62′ N, 087 52.83′ W, then west to 43 02.62′ N, 087 53.21′ W, then southwest to 43 02.55′ N, 087 53.70′ W, then south to 43 02.40′ N, 087 53.76′ W, then southeast to 43 02.35′ N, 087 52.91′ W, then northeast to origin. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event. Security Zone 2 includes all waters of the Milwaukee River between the Cherry Street Bridge and the Michigan Street Bridge. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event as well as continuously from 8:00 a.m. on July 14, 2024, through 3:00 a.m. on July 19, 2024. • No commercial or recreational vessel traffic will be permitted. • Road bridges on the Milwaukee River between Cherry Street and Michigan Street will remain in the down position. • Privately-owned vessels that are docked at the registered owners' places of domicile within the maritime security zone on the Milwaukee River between Cherry Street and Michigan Street may transit the river so long as their vessels do not require the raising of road bridges. Prior to departure from the dock and re-entry into the maritime security zone, the vessel owner must contact the USCG on channel 16 to request an escort. ○ If a privately-owned vessel that is docked within the maritime security zone departs the maritime security zone, it will be subject to screening prior to re-entry into the maritime security zone. • All vessels docked within the maritime security zone may remain stationary. Pedestrian screening is not required to access stationary boats within the maritime security zone. Security Zone 3 includes all waters of the Milwaukee River between the North Humboldt Avenue Bridge and the Cherry Street Bridge. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event. Security Zone 4 includes all waters of the Milwaukee River from the confluence with the Menomonee River at 43 01.92′ N, 087 54.66′ W then north to the Michigan Street Bridge. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event. Security Zone 5 includes all waters of the Milwaukee River from the confluence with the Kinnickinnic River at 43 01.50′ N, 087 54.18′ W, then northwest to confluence with Menomonee River at 43 01.92′ N, 087 54.66′ W. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event. Security Zone 6 includes all waters of the Milwaukee River in the vicinity of the Daniel W. Hoan Bridge. The area is enclosed by a line connecting the following points: starting at 43 01.542′ N, 087 54.127′ W, then east to 43 01.554′ N, 087 53.757′ W, then south to 43 01.511′ N, 087 53.689′ W, then west to 43 01.443′ N 087 54.111′ W, then north to origin. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event as well as continuously from 3:00 p.m. on July 14, 2024, through 11:59 p.m. on July 14, 2024. Vessels greater than or equal to 65 feet are prohibited from entry into, transiting, or anchoring within this security zone unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan or a designated representative. Vessels less than or equal to 64 feet may transit through this security zone but are prohibited from anchoring or loitering; the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan or a designated representative reserves the right to prohibit vessels less than or equal to 64 feet from transiting the security zone as operations dictate. Security Zone 7 includes all waters of the Menomonee River from the confluence with the Milwaukee River at 43 01.92′ N, 087 54.66′ W, then west to include the following: the Menomonee River to the North Emmber Lane Bridge at 43 01.98′ N, 087 55.74′ W; the entire South Menomonee Canal ending at 43 01.68′ N, 087 55.74′ W; and the entire Burnham Canal ending at 43 01.56′ N, 087 55.86′ W. This zone will be enforced intermittently as necessary for the entire duration of the event. Securit ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 27k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━