Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records, 43218-43220 [05-14518]

Agencies

• Office of the Secretary; Privacy Office
• DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 142 (Tuesday, July 26, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43218-43220]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-14518]



Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 142 / Tuesday, July 26, 2005 / 
Notices

[[Page 43218]]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Office of the Secretary; Privacy Office

[DHS-2005-0012]
RIN 1660-ZA08


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, Emergency Preparedness and 
Response Directorate, Department of Homeland Security.

ACTION: Notice of Privacy Act system of records.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of 
Homeland Security gives notice that the United States Fire 
Administration, located in its Directorate for Emergency Preparedness 
and Response/Federal Emergency Management Agency, is establishing a new 
system of records that will be maintained in its Access database, which 
is used to track agency activities. The new system of records is 
entitled ``9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 File System; DHS/FEMA/USFA-
1.''
    The 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 Files System is being established 
to support the administration of a program which provides assistance to 
individual emergency relief personnel killed or permanently disabled 
while serving in connection with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 
2001. The system will enable prompt distribution of proceeds from the 
sale by the United States Postal Service of a Heroes ``semipostal'' 
stamp.

DATES: The new system of records will be effective August 25, 2005, 
unless comments are received that result in a contrary determination.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by EPA DOCKET NUMBER: 
DHS-2005-0012 and/or 1660-ZA08 by one of the following methods:
     EPA Federal Partner EDOCKET Web Site: https://www.epa.gov/
feddocket. Follow instructions for submitting comments on the Web site. 
DHS has joined the Environmental Protection Electronic Docket System 
(Partner EDOCKET). DHS and its agencies (excluding the United States 
Coast Guard (USCG) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) 
will use the EPA Federal Partner EDOCKET system. The USCG and TSA 
[legacy Department of Transportation (DOT) agencies] will continue to 
use the DOT Docket Management System until full migration to the 
electronic rulemaking Federal docket management system occurs in 2005.
     Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Fax: (202) 646-4536.
     Mail: Rules Docket Clerk, Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, Office of General Counsel, Room 840, 500 C Street, SW., 
Washington, DC 20472.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rena Y. Kim, Privacy Act Officer, Room 
840, 500 C Street, SW., Washington, DC 20472; (telephone) (202) 646-
3949.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, the 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is establishing a new system of 
records to be maintained by the United States Fire Administration 
(USFA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is part of 
the Department's Directorate for Emergency Preparedness and Response 
(EP&R). The new system of records is entitled ``9/11 Heroes Stamp Act 
of 2001 File System; DHS/FEMA/USFA-1.''
    The 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 File System is a system of 
records established to support the administration of a program, 
authorized by the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001, Pub. L. 107-67, 115 
Stat. 514, which provides assistance to emergency relief personnel 
permanently disabled while serving in connection with the terrorist 
attacks of September 11, 2001, or, in the event the personnel were 
killed, to their personal representative. The system is being 
established to enable prompt distribution of proceeds from the sale by 
the United States Postal Service (USPS) of the Heroes ``semipostal'' 
stamp. A semipostal stamp is a type of postage that is sold for a value 
greater than a regular first class stamp. The proceeds of the price 
differential for the Heroes stamp fund the awards provided for in the 
Heroes Stamp Act after an appropriate deduction is made for the 
reasonable costs of producing and distributing the semipostal stamps. 
The USPS issued the Heroes semipostal stamp in June 2002, and 
discontinued selling it on December 31, 2004. FEMA, USFA, will use the 
9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 File System; DHS/FEMA/USFA-1 to collect 
and maintain the requisite personally identifying information needed to 
determine eligibility for the proceeds from the sale of the stamps. 
Emergency relief personnel or their personal representatives will 
submit applications for benefits.
    Applicants will be asked to submit personally identifying 
information, including name, date of birth, social security number, 
address and telephone number and, if applicable, Department of Justice 
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund claim number. In many cases, 
the emergency relief personnel submitting applications for benefits 
will have also submitted applications to the Department of Justice 
under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. FEMA is 
requesting a claim number in such cases to verify consistency between 
the applications for both programs. FEMA will use all the requested 
information to populate a database for the administration of this 
program.
    The Privacy Act embodies fair information principles in a statutory 
framework governing the means by which the United States Government 
collects, maintains, uses and disseminates personally identifiable 
information. The Privacy Act applies to information that is maintained 
in a ``system of records.'' A ``system of records'' is a group of any 
records under the control of an agency from which information is 
retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifying number, 
symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual. The 
9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 File System is such a system of records.
    The Privacy Act requires each agency to publish in the Federal 
Register a description denoting the type and character of each system 
of records that the agency maintains, and the routine uses that are 
contained in each system in order to make agency record keeping 
practices transparent, to notify individuals regarding the uses to 
which personally identifiable information is put, and to assist 
individuals to more easily find such files within the agency. Below is 
the description of the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 File System; DHS/
FEMA/USFA-1.
    In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), DHS has provided a report of 
this new system of records to the Office of Management and Budget and 
to Congress.

System name:
    9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 File System; DHS/FEMA/USFA-1.

Security classification:
    Unclassified.

System location:
    The Access database will be operated at FEMA's facility located at 
the U.S. Fire Administration, National Emergency Training Center 
(NETC), 16825 South Seton Avenue, Emmitsburg, MD 21727. It will also be 
operational from FEMA Headquarters at 500 C Street, SW., Room 832, 
Washington, DC.

[[Page 43219]]

Categories of individuals covered by the system:
    The system covers those individuals who claim benefits under the 9/
11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 (i.e., emergency relief personnel claiming 
to be permanently disabled or the personal representative of emergency 
relief personnel who were killed as a result of the terrorist related 
aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001.)

Categories of records in the system:
    Records include application forms and other information submitted 
in hard copy by the individual seeking benefits under the 9/11 Heroes 
Stamp Act of 2001, or by the individual's personal representative if 
the individual is deceased, and documents submitted in support of the 
claims. This information may include an individual's medical, personal, 
employment, financial and other records obtained or generated to 
adjudicate the Heroes applications as well as September 11th Victim 
Compensation Fund claim numbers where applicable.

Authority for maintenance of the system:
    9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001, Public Law 107-67, section 652, 115 
Stat. 514 (Nov. 12, 2001).

Purpose(s):
    These records are collected or generated for the purpose of 
determining an individual applicant's qualification for and/or 
compensation to benefits under the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories 
of users and the purposes of such uses:
    The information the applicant submits on his or her claim is for 
official use only by FEMA for purposes of determining their eligibility 
for benefits under the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act. The Privacy Act itself 
permits certain disclosures under 5 U.S.C. 552a(b), such as to 
individuals within an agency who have a need for the information in 
order to perform their duties. In addition to those disclosures 
generally permitted under 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) of the Privacy Act, all or a 
portion of the records or information contained in this system may be 
disclosed outside DHS as a routine use pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) 
as follows:
    A. To an agency, organization, or individual for the purposes of 
performing authorized audit or oversight operations.
    B. To a congressional office from the record of an individual in 
response to an inquiry from that congressional office made at the 
request of the individual to whom the record pertains or to a 
Congressional Committee providing oversight or conducting an 
investigation of this program.
    C. To contractors, experts, consultants, and others performing or 
working on a contract, service, grant, cooperative agreement, or other 
assignment for the Federal Government, when necessary to accomplish an 
agency function related to this system of records.
    D. To the Department of Justice (DOJ), the United States Attorney's 
Office, or a consumer-reporting agency for further collection action on 
any debt in relation to the 9/11 Heroes Stamp Act of 2001 when 
circumstances warrant.
    E. Where a record, either on its face or in conjunction with other 
information, indicates a violation or potential violation of law--
criminal, civil or regulatory--the relevant records may be referred to 
an appropriate Federal, State, territorial, tribal, local, 
international, or foreign agency law enforcement authority or other 
appropriate agency charged with investigating or prosecuting such a 
violation or enforcing or implementing such law.
    F. To the Department of Justice or other Federal agency for 
purposes of conducting litigation or proceedings before any court, 
adjudicative or administrative body, when: (a) FEMA, or (b) any 
employee of FEMA in his/her official capacity, or (c) any employee of 
FEMA in his/her individual capacity where DOJ or FEMA has agreed to 
represent the employee, or (d) the United States or any agency thereof, 
is a party to the litigation or has an interest in such litigation and 
when the records are determined by FEMA to be arguably relevant to the 
proceeding.
    G. To the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) or 
other Federal Government agencies pursuant to records management 
inspections being conducted under the authority of 44 U.S.C. sections 
2904 and 2906.
    H. To the Department of Justice for purposes of verifying the 
consistency of information on Heroes Fund applications with information 
submitted to the Department of Justice under the September 11th Victim 
Compensation Fund of 2001.
    I. To other Federal, State, local or private agencies or entities 
as necessary to determine eligibility of applicants for benefits under 
the Heroes Fund.

Disclosure to consumer reporting agencies:
    Privacy Act information may be reported to consumer reporting 
agencies pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(12).

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, 
and disposing of records in the system:
Storage:
    The database will be operated at FEMA's facility located at the 
U.S. Fire Administration, NETC, 16825 South Seton Avenue, Emmitsburg, 
MD 21727, and it will be operational from FEMA Headquarters at 500 C 
Street, SW., Room 832, Washington, DC 20472. FEMA Headquarters manages 
data use at all locations. Data consistency is maintained by regular 
replication of data among the sites and the consolidated master 
database via automated procedures. FEMA has a configuration management 
process that is used to deploy the application in a consistent manner 
throughout the enterprise.
    Copies of paper applications as well as information maintained 
electronically are stored in a work area that is locked when it is not 
staffed. The doors to the work area are kept closed. There is limited 
access given to persons who have a need to have access to the 
information to perform their official duties. Computerized records are 
stored in a database server in a secured file server room. Electronic 
records are stored on a file server in another building and backed up 
nightly.

Retrievability:
    Files and automated data are retrieved by name and/or Social 
Security Number of an individual applicant/claimant or personal 
representative of a claimant, and the name of the deceased, case file 
number, and/or Social Security Number.

Safeguards:
    Use of the Access database will be carefully monitored and reviewed 
on a periodic basis by the system administrator.
    FEMA employs software programs that monitor host and network 
traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change 
information or otherwise cause damage by individuals or group of 
individuals. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change 
information are prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer 
Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure 
Protection Act.
    The system has an audit trail of the changes made to the 
application and the user information associated with that

[[Page 43220]]

change. Hence, the ability to monitor unauthorized access is provided.
    Information in this system is safeguarded in accordance with 
applicable laws, rules and policies, including the DHS Information 
Technology Security Program Handbook. All records are protected from 
unauthorized access through appropriate administrative, physical, and 
technical safeguards. These safeguards include restricting access to 
authorized personnel who have a need-to-know, using locks, and password 
protection identification features. DHS file areas are locked after 
normal duty hours and the facilities are protected from the outside by 
security personnel.

Retention and disposal:
    The paper copy of the application and supporting documentation, 
which are completed by the individual, constitute the official copy of 
the records. The database is kept in support of the paper copy. FEMA 
will treat the disposition of these records--hard copies of the 
application and supporting documentation and any data that is input and 
stored in any electronic databases--the same way. The data in the 
system are considered permanent Federal Government records, as, 9/11 
records are permanent records. This means that NARA will not destroy 
them once FEMA retires the records to NARA. FEMA's disposition 
schedule, which is pending NARA approval under job number N1-311-04-05, 
would retire records to NARA 1 year and 6 months after the closure of 
the file.

System Manager and address:
    Office of the Administrator, USFA, NETC, 16825 South Seton Avenue, 
Emmitsburg, MD 21727.

Notification procedure:
    A request for access to records in this system may be made by 
writing to the System Manager, identified above, in conformance with 6 
CFR part 5, subpart B and 44 CFR part 6, which provides the rules for 
requesting access to Privacy Act records.

Record access procedures:
    Same as Notification Procedure above.

Contesting record procedures:
    Same as Notification Procedure above. State clearly and concisely 
the information being contested, the reasons for contesting it, and the 
proposed amendment to the information sought.

Record source categories:
    The information will come from the individual applicants and/or 
their personal representative, if applicable, and their employer or 
volunteer organization, and financial institution. Information may also 
be obtained from Federal, State or local administrative bodies or 
private insurers that have made relevant determinations regarding the 
disability of individual applicants or their death.

Exemption claimed for the system:
    None.

    Dated: July 18, 2005.
Nuala O'Connor Kelly,
Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Homeland Security.
[FR Doc. 05-14518 Filed 7-25-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-10-P