Title 6 — Domestic SecurityRelease 119-73

§912 Port Security Exercise Program

Title 6 › Chapter CHAPTER 3— - SECURITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR EVERY PORT › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - SECURITY OF UNITED STATES SEAPORTS › Part Part A— - Port Security Grants; Training and Exercise Programs › § 912

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary, through the Under Secretary for Preparedness and working with the Coast Guard Commandant, must create a Port Security Exercise Program to test and evaluate the ability of federal, state, local, and foreign governments; seaport managers and workers; emergency responders; private companies; or other groups the Secretary chooses, at facilities that must file a plan under 46 U.S.C. 70103(c). The exercises must be held regularly, fit each facility’s needs, be live for the highest-risk sites, and be as realistic as possible using current risk information about threats, weaknesses, and consequences. They must follow national response and preparedness systems, be judged by clear performance measures, produce lessons and best practices that are shared, and lead to corrective actions. The Secretary must also help state and local authorities design and run exercises that meet these rules and must run a program to record lessons, share them, check that fixes are made, and track long-term trends.

Full Legal Text

Title 6, §912

Domestic Security — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary for Preparedness and in coordination with the Commandant of the Coast Guard, shall establish a Port Security Exercise Program (referred to in this section as the “Exercise Program”) for the purpose of testing and evaluating the capabilities of Federal, State, local, and foreign governments, commercial seaport personnel and management, governmental and nongovernmental emergency response providers, the private sector, or any other organization or entity, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, to prevent, prepare for, mitigate against, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and other emergencies at facilities required to submit a plan under section 70103(c) of title 46.

(b)The Secretary shall ensure that the Exercise Program—

(1)conducts, on a periodic basis, port security exercises at such facilities that are—

(A)scaled and tailored to the needs of each facility;

(B)live, in the case of the most at-risk facilities;

(C)as realistic as practicable and based on current risk assessments, including credible threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences;

(D)consistent with the National Incident Management System, the National Response Plan, the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, the National Preparedness Guidance, the National Preparedness Goal, the National Maritime Transportation Security Plan, and other such national initiatives;

(E)evaluated against clear and consistent performance measures;

(F)assessed to learn best practices, which shall be shared with appropriate Federal, State, and local officials, commercial seaport personnel and management, governmental and nongovernmental emergency response providers, and the private sector; and

(G)followed by remedial action in response to lessons learned; and

(2)assists State and local governments and facilities in designing, implementing, and evaluating exercises that—

(A)conform to the requirements of paragraph (1); and

(B)are consistent with any applicable Area Maritime Transportation Security Plan and State or Urban Area Homeland Security Plan.

(c)The Secretary shall establish a port security exercise improvement plan process to—

(1)identify and analyze each port security exercise for lessons learned and best practices;

(2)disseminate lessons learned and best practices to participants in the Exercise Program;

(3)monitor the implementation of lessons learned and best practices by participants in the Exercise Program; and

(4)conduct remedial action tracking and long-term trend analysis.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

6 U.S.C. § 912

Title 6 — Domestic Security

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73