Department of Homeland Security November 18, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Homeland Security is issuing a final rule to amend its regulations to exempt portions of the system of records entitled the Advanced Passenger Information System from certain provisions of the Privacy Act. Specifically, the Department proposes to exempt portions of the Advanced Passenger Information System from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act because of criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement requirements.

This rule finalizes, with modifications, amendments to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations pertaining to private aircraft arriving and departing the United States. This final rule requires private aircraft pilots or their designees arriving in the United States from a foreign port or location destined for a U.S. port or location, or departing the United States to a foreign port or location, to transmit electronically to CBP passenger manifest information for each individual traveling onboard the aircraft. This final rule requires private aircraft pilots or their designees to provide additional data elements when submitting a notice of arrival and requires private aircraft pilots or their designees to submit a notice of departure. Private aircraft pilots (or their designees) will be required to submit the notice of arrival and notice of departure information to CBP through an approved electronic data interchange system in the same transmission as the corresponding arrival or departure passenger manifest information. Under this rule, this data must be received by CBP no later than 60 minutes before an arriving private aircraft departs from a foreign location destined for the United States and no later than 60 minutes before a private aircraft departs a U.S. airport or location for a foreign port or place. This rule also expressly acknowledges CBP's authority to restrict aircraft from landing in the United States based on security and/or risk assessments, or, based on such assessments, to specifically designate and limit the airports where aircraft may land or depart.