10 Proceedings Summer 2025 accordingly. Other Coast Guard Headquarters offices and units then develop plans to address these strategic challenges. This strategic foresight identifies big-pic- ture concerns for the future that inform enterprise-wide regulations and policy. The regulations include a pub- lic comment period to allow everyone to be part of the rulemaking process, and policy is informed by subject matter experts, such as federal advisory committees, to address risk or develop tools to address risk in advance. However, no strategic foresight program can identify all risks that will arise on a national level, let alone on a local port level years in advance. Because of this limitation, captains of the port are constantly communicating changing and emerging challenges within their area of responsibility up the chain of the command to ensure these challenges are compiled and addressed at a national level. New regu- lations, authorities, and policies can help the captain of the port manage these risks holistically, but as they say, “if you’ve seen one port, you’ve seen one port.” As a result, captains of the port have been given tools and authorities they can use to assess risk and address these challenges within their port. There are formal tools developed at the national level and employed locally, such as the Port and Waterways Safety Assessment and Waterways Suitability Assessment. These tools provide a structure for identifying risk factors and evaluating potential mitigation measures through expert input for the Coast Guard and private entities alike. When proper tools may not be available, new efforts are undertaken, such as the Coast Guard’s current effort with a Port and Waterways Safety Board of Inquiry and maritime stake- holder dialogue. The Board of Inquiry is tasked with evaluating the risks to critical port infrastructure due to larger commercial vessels and increased traffic density over recent decades, which could lead to new risk evalu- ation and mitigation tools. Captains of the port also develop solutions to chal- lenges and share them with other units and pass them up the chain of command for possible adoption. One such example is a risk-based container targeting pro- gram that Sector New York developed to reduce risk to the port while better using resources. The notional idea of such a program is included in the National Container Inspection Program manual, and Sector New York took this idea and brought it to reality. With numerous con- tainer ship fires each year because of undeclared or mis- declared hazardous material, the risk-based targeting program focuses on deficiency trends and works with Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center to identify import and export containers with similar characteristics of the previously deficient con- tainers. Random container inspections were leading to a less than 1% deficiency rate. To date, the risk-based targeting program has resulted in a 28% deficiency rate. At the local level, there are also committees in place that help Sector New York ensure the safety, security, and environmental protection of the port. The Area Maritime Security Committee (AMSC), which helps ensure the security of the port, and the Area Committee, whose focus is on environmental protection, are both required by regulation. To focus on safety of the port, in Sector New York’s area of responsibility there are two harbor safety committees. These include the aforementioned Harbor Safety, Navigation and Operations Committee (HOPS) which operates in the harbor itself, and the Hudson River Safety, Navigation, and Operations Committee (HRSNOC) that covers the Hudson River from the George Washington Bridge north to the Port of Albany. These committees have time and time again taken ownership of operations within the port to find nonregulatory solutions to difficult problems. HOPS and HRSNOC are not in place to advise the captains of the port, but these groups are indispensable to the safety of the waterways. Coast Guard personnel and other government agen- cies routinely participate in these committees and in drills, exercises, and workshops to better understand the challenges of shared-use waterways and intervene where necessary and appropriate to help resolve issues. Diverse The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Michael L. Connor, speaks at the signing of a $20 million agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on May 29, 2024. The signing of the agreement is the first step in a project to deepen New York and New Jersey Harbor and further economic growth in the region. Army photo by Brianna Clay
