ABOUT the PT and OTRB ISACs
Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) were created pursuant to Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63, May 1998), which provided a foundation for industry and government to form a public-private partnership to reduce vulnerability of America’s critical infrastructure.
In 2002, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOT) designated the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) as the Transportation Sector’s lead for creating and operating the Public Transportation (PT) Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). The Federal Transit Administration (FTA), a DOT agency, funded the center’s start-up and operations. Since its transfer to DHS, TSA has worked closely with DOT on transportation security issues. A collaborative partnership—between TSA and its surface transportation security partners—to address information sharing and analysis, as well as recommended security practices development, has grown.
The TSA, FTA, and APTA have collaborated through the Mass Transit Sector Coordinating Council (SCC) to streamline the information-sharing environment within the public transit industry, and to eliminate redundancy. Several agreements have formalized the partnerships, objectives, goals, and responsibilities.
Critical to national transportation security policy, the importance of information sharing was documented in public law—Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-53, August 3, 2007). The Secretary [of Homeland Security] shall provide for the reasonable costs of the Information Sharing and Analysis Center for Public Transportation…. The Secretary [of Homeland Security] (A) shall require public transportation agencies that the Secretary determines to be at high risk of terrorist attack to participate in the ISAC; (B) shall encourage all other public transportation agencies to participate in the ISAC; (C) shall encourage the participation of non-profit employee labor organizations representing public transportation employees, as appropriate; and, (D) shall not charge a fee for participating in the ISAC.