Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 27</CFR> <SUBAGY>Transportation Security Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 1503</CFR> <RIN>RIN 1601-AB16</RIN> <SUBJECT>Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Department of Homeland Security (DHS). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule; technical amendment. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> On January 2, 2025, DHS adjusted for inflation its civil monetary penalties for 2025, in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 and Executive Office of the President (EOP) Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. The new penalty amounts were effective for penalties assessed after January 2, 2025, whose associated violations occurred after November 2, 2015. DHS is making a technical amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations to make several clerical revisions to the codified 2025 penalty amounts. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This technical amendment is effective on December 29, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Hillary Hunnings, Attorney-Advisor, 202-878-9252, <E T="03">hillary.hunnings@hq.dhs.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Statutory and Regulatory Background</HD> 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 further improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. The 2015 Act required agencies to make annual adjustments for inflation. On January 2, 2025, DHS published a final rule making the 2025 annual inflation adjustments to its civil monetary penalties pursuant to the 2015 Act and pursuant to guidance OMB issued to agencies on December 17, 2024 (January 2025 rule). See 90 FR 1 (Jan. 2, 2025). The penalty amounts were effective for penalties assessed after January 2, 2025, whose associated violations occurred after November 2, 2015. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Technical Revisions</HD> DHS is making a technical amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations. This technical amendment will make several clerical revisions to the codified 2025 penalty amounts. Specifically, DHS is making clerical revisions in the Coast Guard's and the Transportation Security Administration's codified 2025 penalty amounts. The preamble of the January 2025 rule described inflation adjustments to all 152 Coast Guard penalties. However, for five of the 152 penalties, the Coast Guard inadvertently failed to make corresponding adjustments to the codified penalty table in 33 CFR 27.3. This rule revises Table 1 in 33 CFR 27.3 to include the correct 2025 inflation-adjusted penalty amounts for the affected penalties, consistent with the amounts set out in the preamble of the January 2025 rule. The Coast Guard is revising only the five penalties in the table below. All other penalty amounts in the table remain unchanged. <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="xs100,r100,12"> <TTITLE>Corrected Coast Guard 2025 Penalty Amounts</TTITLE> [Five affected entries] <CHED H="1">Citation</CHED> <CHED H="1">Civil monetary penalty description</CHED> <ENT I="01">46 U.S.C. 8701(d)</ENT> <ENT>Merchant Mariners Documents</ENT> <ENT>$1,562</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">46 U.S.C. 10104(a)(2)</ENT> <ENT>Requirement to Report Sexual Assault and Harassment; Mandatory Reporting by Responsible Entity of a Vessel</ENT> <ENT>52,962</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">46 U.S.C. 10104(d)(2)</ENT> <ENT>Requirement to Report Sexual Assault and Harassment; Company After Action Summary, violation of 10104(d)(1)</ENT> <ENT>26,481</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">46 U.S.C. 10104(d)(2)</ENT> <ENT>Requirement to Report Sexual Assault and Harassment; Company After Action Summary, Daily Noncompliance Penalty</ENT> <ENT>529</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">46 U.S.C. 10104(d)(2)</ENT> <ENT>Requirement to Report Sexual Assault and Harassment; Company After Action Summary, Civil Penalty Maximum</ENT> <ENT>52,962</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> In addition, TSA determined that a statutory revision enacted in May 2024 required an update to the January 2025 rule. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (Pub. L. 118-63, 138 Stat. 1025, 1102 (May 16, 2024)) amended 49 U.S.C. 46301 to raise the statutory maximum civil monetary penalty amounts that TSA may assess for security violations. This rule revises the relevant penalty provisions to incorporate the 2024 statutory amendment to 49 U.S.C. 46301 and the 2025 adjustment for inflation. This rule ensures that the regulatory text accurately reflects TSA's current statutory penalty authority and accordingly the civil monetary penalty amounts as adjusted for inflation. <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s60,r60,r30"> <TTITLE>Corrected TSA 2025 Penalty Amounts</TTITLE> [Two affected entries] <CHED H="1">Citation</CHED> <CHED H="1">Civil monetary penalty description</CHED> <CHED H="1">New penalty amount as adjusted by this final rule</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">49 U.S.C. 46301(a)(1), (4), (5); 49 U.S.C. 46301(d)(8); 49 CFR 1503.401(c)(1)-(2)</ENT> <ENT>Violation of 49 U.S.C. ch. 449 (except secs. 44902, 44903(d), 44907(a)-(d)(1)(A), 44907(d)(1)(C)-(f), 44908, and 44909), or 49 U.S.C. 46302 or 46303, a regulation prescribed, or order issued thereunder by an individual (except an airman serving as an airman), any person not operating an aircraft for the transportation of passengers or property for compensation, or a small business concern</ENT> <ENT>$17,062 (up to a total of 100,000 for individuals or small businesses, $1,200,000 for others).</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">49 U.S.C. 46301(a)(1), (4), (5), (6); 49 U.S.C. 46301(d)(2), (8); 49 CFR 1503.401(c)(3)</ENT> <ENT>Violation of 49 U.S.C. ch. 449 (except secs. 44902, 44903(d), 44907(a)-(d)(1)(A), 44907(d)(1)(C)-(f), 44908, and 44909), or 49 U.S.C. 46302 or 46303, a regulation prescribed, or order issued thereunder by a person operating an aircraft for the transportation of passengers or property for compensation</ENT> <ENT>$42,657 (up to a total of $1,200,000 per civil penalty action).</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Administrative Procedure Act (APA)</HD> DHS is issuing this rule without prior notice and comment because the Department has determined that good cause exists under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). The APA permits an agency to dispense with notice and comment when doing so would be “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). This amendment falls within the unnecessary prong because, for both the Coast Guard and TSA revisions, it makes only non-substantive, corrective revisions to the civil monetary penalty adjustments published in the January 2025 rule. <E T="03">See North Carolina Growers' Ass'n, Inc.</E> v. <E T="03">United Farm Workers,</E> 702 F.3d 755, 766-67 (4th Cir. 2012) (describing the unnecessary prong as “when amendments are minor or merely technical and of little public interest” (citation omitted)). As discussed above, the Coast Guard inadvertently excluded several properly inflation-adjusted penalty amounts from the codified table in 33 CFR 27.3 in the 2025 annual adjustment rule, even though the correct amounts appeared in the preamble. This technical amendment corrects that clerical oversight. The revision is non-substantive, as it merely brings the regulatory text into alignment with the penalty levels listed in the preamble, which the Coast Guard intended to be operative for 2025. Also as discussed above, TSA updated the January 2025 rule to account for a statutory amendment enacted in May 2024 that increased certain maximum penalty authorities under 49 U.S.C. 46301. Without this update, the CFR would continue to reflect the outdated maximum amounts rather than those currently authorized by Congress. Accordingly, this rule revises the regulatory text to reflect the updated statutory maximum amounts. This revision is also non-substantive and corrective, as it merely conforms the CFR to statutorily authorized penalty maximums already in effect that the Department lacks discretion to modify. DHS therefore finds notice and comment unnecessary under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). For the same reasons, DHS also finds good cause under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3) to make this technical amendment effective upon publication. <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects</HD> <CFR>33 CFR Part 27</CFR> Administrative practice and procedure, Penalties. <CFR>49 CFR Part 1503</CFR> Administrative practice and procedure, Investigations, Law enforcement, Penalties. </LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Amendments to the Regulations</HD> Accordingly, for the reasons stated in the preamble, DHS is amending 33 CFR part 27, and 49 CFR part 1503 as follows: Title 33—Navigation and Navigable Waters <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 27—ADJUSTMENT OF CIVIL MONETARY PENALTIES FOR INFLATION</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="33" PART="27"> 1. The authority citation for part 27 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> 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). </REGTEXT> <REGTEXT TITLE="33" PART="27"> 2. In § 27.3, revise the third sentence of the introductory text and table 1 to read as follows: <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 27.3</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>Penalty adjustment table.</SUBJECT> * * * The adjusted civil penalty amounts listed in Table 1 to this section are applicable fo ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 36k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━