Security Zone; Corpus Christi and La Quinta Ship Channel, Corpus Christi, TX

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2026-0087]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA87</RIN> <SUBJECT>Security Zone; Corpus Christi and La Quinta Ship Channel, Corpus Christi, TX</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary security zone for navigable waters within a 500-yard radius of vessel carrying cargo requiring an elevated level of security in the Corpus Christi and La Quinta Shipping Channels. The security zone is needed to protect the vessels, their cargo, and the surrounding waterway from terrorist acts, sabotage, or other subversive acts, accidents, or events of a similar nature. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Corpus Christi. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective without actual notice from January 23, 2026 through January 28, 2026. For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from January 20, 2026, until January 23, 2026. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view available documents, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and search for USCG-2026-0087. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this rule, contact Lieutenant Tim Cardenas, Sector Corpus Christi Waterways Management Division U.S. Coast Guard; telephone 361-244-4784, or email <E T="03">Timothy.J.Cardenas@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">COTP Captain of the Port</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 and Authority</HD> The Coast Guard received notification that the M/V SM KESTREL will be transiting the Corpus Christi and La Quinta Ship Channels sometime between January 20 and 28, 2026. The Captain of the Port (COTP) Corpus Christi has determined that the vessel will be carrying dangerous cargo that creates a security concern for the vessel and the port. Therefore, the COTP is issuing this rule under the authority in 46 U.S.C. 70051 and 70124, which is needed to protect the vessels, their cargo, and the surrounding waterway from terrorist acts, sabotage, and other subversive acts, accidents, or events of a similar nature in the navigable waters within the security zone. The Coast Guard is issuing this rule without prior notice and comment. As is authorized by 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), the Coast Guard finds that good cause exists for not publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) with respect to this rule because it is impracticable and contrary to the public interest. The Coast Guard was notified of this event on January 12, 2026, but we must establish this security zone by January 20, 2026, to protect the vessels, their cargo, and the surrounding waterways. Therefore, we do not have enough time to solicit and respond to comments. For the same reasons, the Coast Guard finds that under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Discussion of the Rule</HD> This rule establishes a security zone from January 20, 2026, to January 28, 2026. The security zone will cover all navigable waters within 500 yards of the vessel. No vessel or person will be permitted to enter the security zone without obtaining permission from the COTP or their designated representative. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive orders. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Impact on Small Entities</HD> The regulatory flexibility analysis provisions of the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612, do not apply to rules that are not subject to notice and comment. Because the Coast Guard has, for good cause, waived the notice and comment requirement that would otherwise apply to this rulemaking, the Regulatory Flexibility Act's flexibility analysis provisions do not apply here. Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), if this rule will affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions, contact the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. Small businesses may send comments to the Small Business and Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman and the Regional Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards by calling 1-888-REG-FAIR (1-888-734-3247). The Coast Guard will not retaliate against small entities that question or complain about this rule or any policy or action of the Coast Guard. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Collection of Information</HD> This rule will not call for a new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Federalism and Indian Tribal Governments</HD> We have analyzed this rule under Executive Order 13132, Federalism, and have determined that it is consistent with the fundamental federalism principles and preemption requirements described in that Order. Also, this rule does not have tribal implications under Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, because it does not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian tribes. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</HD> As required by The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1531-1538), the Coast Guard certifies that this rule will not result in an annual expenditure of $100,000,000 or more (adjusted for inflation) by a State, local, or tribal government, in the aggregate, or by the private sector. <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. Environment</HD> We have analyzed this rule under Department of Homeland Security Directive 023-01, Rev. 1, associated implementing instructions, and Environmental Planning COMDTINST 5090.1 (series), which guide the Coast Guard in complying with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321-4370f), and have determined that this action is one of a category of actions that do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment. This rule is a security zone. It is categorically excluded from further review under paragraph L60(a) of Appendix A, Table 1 of DHS Instruction Manual 023-01-001-01, Rev. 1. A Record of Environmental Consideration supporting this determination is available in the docket. A Record of Environmental Consideration supporting this determination is available in the docket. <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects in 33 CFR Part 165</HD> Harbors, Marine safety, Navigation (water), Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Security measures, Waterways. </LSTSUB> For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Coast Guard amends 33 CFR part 165 as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 165—REGULATED NAVIGATION AREAS AND LIMITED ACCESS AREAS</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="33" PART="165"> 1. The authority citation for part 165 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority:</HD> 46 U.S.C. 70034, 70051, 70124; 33 CFR 1.05-1, 6.04-1, 6.04-6, and 160.5; Department of Homeland Security Delegation No. 00170.1, Revision No. 01.4. </REGTEXT> <REGTEXT TITLE="33" PART="165"> 2. Add 165.T08-0087 to read as follows: <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 165.T08-0087 </SECTNO> <SUBJECT>Security Zone; Corpus Christi and La Quinta Ship Channels, Corpus Christi, TX.</SUBJECT> (a) <E T="03">Location.</E> The following area is a security zone: all navigable waters encompassing a 500-yard radius around the M/V SM KESTREL while the vessel is loaded with cargo and in the Corpus Christi or La Quinta Ship Channels. (b) <E T="03">Definitions.</E> As used in this section, <E T="03">designated representative</E> means a Coast Guard Patrol Commander, including a Coast Guard coxswain, petty officer, or other officer operating a Coast Guard vessel and a Federal, State, and local officer designated by or assisting the Captain of the Port Corpus Christi (COTP) in the enforcement of the security zone. (c) <E T="03">Regulations.</E> (1) Under the general security zone regulations in subpart D of this part, you may not enter the security zone described in paragraph (a) of this section unless authorized by the COTP or the COTP's designated representative. (2) To seek permission to enter, contact COTP or the COTP's representative on VHF-FM channel 16 or by telephone at 1-800-874-2143. Those in the security zone must comply with all lawful orders or directions given to them by the COTP or the COTP's designated representative. (d) <E T="03">Enforcement periods.</E> While in effect (until January 28, 2026), this section will only be subject to enforcement during the times the ships are loaded and underway. The COTP or a designated representative will inform the public through Broadcast Notices to Mariners (BNMs) and/or Marine Safety Information Bulletins (MSIBs) of the enforcement times and dates for this ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 10k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━