Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE); Privacy Act of 1974; Amended System of Records, 51446-51449 [E7-17642]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
• Administration for Children and Families
• Children and Families Administration

[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 173 (Friday, September 7, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51446-51449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-17642]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE); Privacy Act of 1974; 
Amended System of Records

AGENCY: Office of Child Support Enforcement, HHS.

ACTION: Notice of Amended System of Records.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirement of the Privacy Act of 1974 
(5 U.S.C. 552a), the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) is 
publishing notice of its amendment of its system of records entitled 
``The Location and Collection System,'' No. 09-90-0074.

DATES: HHS invites interested parties to submit comments on the 
proposed notice October 9, 2007. As required by the Privacy Act (5 
U.S.C. 552a(r)), HHS on August 29, 2007 sent a report of an Amended 
System to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the U.S. 
House of Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Office of Management and 
Budget. The amendments described in this notice are effective upon 
publication unless HHS receives comments that would result in a 
contrary determination.

ADDRESSES: Please address comments to: Linda Deimeke, Director, 
Division of Federal Systems, Office of Automation and Program 
Operations, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Administration for 
Children and Families, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., 4th Floor East, 
Washington, DC 20447, (202) 401-5439.
    Comments received will be available for inspection at the address 
above from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Linda Deimeke, Director, Division of 
Federal Systems, Office of Automation and Program Operations, Office of 
Child Support Enforcement, Administration for Children and Families, 
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., 4th Floor East, Washington, DC 20447, 
(202) 401-5439.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is hereby given that the Office of 
Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) is amending one of its Systems of 
Records, ``The Location and Collection System of Records'' (LCS), No. 
09-90-0074, last published at 70 FR 21200 on April 25, 2005.
    Consistent with section 452 of the Social Security Act (the Act), 
as amended by section 7306 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Public 
Law 109-171, the LCS may be used to compare information concerning 
individuals owing past-due support with information maintained by 
insurers (or their agents) concerning insurance claims, settlements, 
awards, and payments and furnish information resulting from the data 
matches to the State agencies responsible for collecting child support 
from the individuals. Section 7306 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 
amended section 452 of the Act to add a new subsection (l). A technical 
amendment is necessary to designate this provision as subsection (m).

    Dated: August 31, 2007.
Donna Bonar,
Acting Deputy Commissioner, Office of Child Support Enforcement.
09-90-0074

SYSTEM NAME:
    Location and Collection System of Records, HHS, OCSE.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    Office of Child Support Enforcement, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., 
4th Floor East, Washington, DC 20447; Social Security Administration, 
6200 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    Records are maintained to locate individuals for the purpose of 
establishing parentage, establishing, setting the amount of, modifying, 
or enforcing child support obligations, or enforcing child custody or 
visitation orders, and may include (1) information on, or facilitate 
the discovery of, or the location of any individuals: (A) Who are under 
an obligation to pay child support or provide child custody or 
visitation rights; (B) against whom such an obligation is sought; (C) 
to whom such an obligation is owed including the individual's Social 
Security Number (or numbers) (SSN), most recent address, and the name, 
address, and employer identification number of the individual's 
employer; and (D) who have or may have parental rights with respect to 
a child; (2) information on the individual's wages (or other income) 
from, and benefits of, employment (including rights to enrollment in 
group health care coverage); (3) information on the type, status, and 
amount of any assets or debts owed to or by such an individual; and (4) 
information on certain Federal disbursements payable to a delinquent 
obligor that may be offset for the purpose of collecting past-due child 
support.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    Specific records retained in the Location and Collection System of 
Records (LCS) system are: The name of noncustodial or custodial parent 
or child, Social Security Number (SSN) (when available), date of birth, 
place of

[[Page 51447]]

birth, sex code, State case identification number, local identification 
number (State use only), State or locality originating request, date of 
origination, type of case (e.g., Temporary Assistance for Needy 
Families (TANF), non-TANF full-service, non-TANF locate only, parental 
kidnapping); home address, mailing address, type of employment, work 
location, annual salary, pay rate, quarterly wages, medical coverage, 
benefit amounts, type of military service (Army, Navy, Marines, Air 
Force, not in service), retired military (yes or no), Federal employee 
(yes or no), recent employer's address, known alias (last name only), 
date requests sent to State and Federal agencies or departments (SSA, 
Treasury, DoD/OPM, VA, USPS, FBI, and SWAs), dates of Federal agencies' 
or departments' responses, date of death, record identifier, employee's 
SSN, SSN verification indicator and any corrected SSN, employee first 
name, middle name, last name, employee address(es), date of birth 
(optional), employee date of hire (optional), employee State of hire, 
wage amount, quarter paid, reporting period; employer name, Federal 
Employer Identification Number or Federal Information Processing System 
(FIPS) Code, State Employee Identification Number of FIPS Code, 
employer address, employer foreign address, employer optional address, 
and employer optional foreign address; multistate employer name, 
address and Federal Identification Number; employee SSN, employee first 
name, middle name, last name, employee address(es), date of birth 
(optional), date of hire (optional), State of hire (optional), employee 
wage amount, quarter paid, reporting period; unemployment insurance 
record identifier, claimant SSN, SSN verification indicator and any 
corrected SSN; claimant first name, middle name, claimant address, SSA/
VA benefit amount, unemployment insurance benefits amount, reporting 
period, quarter paid, payer State, date report processed; State code, 
local code, case number, arrearage amount, collection amount, 
adjustment amount, return indicator, transfer State, street address, 
city and State, zip code, zip code + 4, total debt, number of 
adjustments, number of collections, net amount, adjustment year, tax 
period for offset, type of offset, offset amount, submitting State 
FIPS, locate code, case ID number, case type, and court/administrative 
order indicator. Records used to aid State Child Support Enforcement 
agencies in obtaining information from multistate financial 
institutions may include institution name(s), name control, Taxpayer 
Identification Number(s), year, month, service bureau indicator, 
transfer agent indicator, foreign corporation indicator, reporting 
agent/transmitter, address(es), file indicator, record type, payee last 
name control, SSN(s), payee account number, account full legal title 
(optional), payee foreign country indicator (optional), payee names, 
addresses, account balances (optional), trust fund indicator, account 
balance indicator (optional), account update indicator, account type, 
date of birth; records used to aid State Child Support Enforcement 
Agencies in obtaining information from insurers (or their agents) 
concerning insurance claims, settlements, awards and payments may 
include names, SSNs, and dates of birth of individuals owing past-due 
support. Individuals will be fully informed of the uses and disclosures 
of their records.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    Legal authority for maintenance of the system is contained in 
sections 452 and 453 of the Social Security Act that require the 
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to establish 
and conduct the Federal Parent Locator Service, a computerized national 
location network, which provides location and asset information, 
including addresses and SSN(s) to authorized persons, primarily for the 
purposes of establishing and collecting child support obligations.

PURPOSES:
    The primary purpose of the LCS is to improve States' abilities to 
locate parents and collect child support.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    The routine uses of records maintained in the LCS are as follows: 
(1) Request the most recent home and employment addresses and SSN of 
the noncustodial or custodial parents from any State or Federal 
Government department, agency or instrumentality that might have such 
information in its records; (2) provide the most recent home and 
employment addresses and SSN to State Child Support Enforcement (CSE) 
agencies under agreements covered by section 463 of the Act (42 U.S.C. 
663) for the purpose of locating noncustodial parents or children in 
connection with activities by State courts and Federal attorneys and 
agents charged with making or enforcing child custody determinations or 
conducting investigations, enforcement proceedings or prosecutions 
concerning the unlawful taking or restraint of children; (3) provide 
the most recent home and employment addresses and SSN to agents and 
attorneys of the United States, involved in activities in States that 
do not have agreements under section 463 of the Act for purposes of 
locating noncustodial parents or children in connection with Federal 
investigations, enforcement proceedings or prosecutions involving the 
unlawful taking or restraint of children; (4) provide to the State 
Department the name and SSN of noncustodial parents in international 
child support cases, and in cases involving The Hague Convention on the 
Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; (5) provide to State 
agencies data in the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) portion of 
this system for the purpose of administering the CSE program and the 
TANF program; (6) provide to the Commissioner of Social Security 
information for the purposes of verifying reported SSNs, verifying 
eligibility and/or payment amounts under the Supplemental Security 
Income (SSI) program, and for other purposes; (7) provide to the 
Secretary of the Treasury information in the NDNH portion of this 
system for purposes of administering advance payments of the earned 
income tax credit and verifying a claim with respect to employment in a 
tax return; (8) provide to researchers new hire data for research 
efforts that would contribute to the TANF and CSE programs. Information 
disclosed may not contain personal identifiers; (9) provide to State 
CSE agencies, or any agent of an agency that is under contract with the 
State CSE agency, information that will assist in locating individuals 
for the purposes of establishing paternity and for establishing, 
modifying, and enforcing child support obligations; (10) disclose to 
authorized persons as defined in section 463(d)(2) of the Act (42 
U.S.C. 663(d)(2)) records for the purpose of locating individuals and 
enforcing child custody and visitation orders; (11) disclose to the 
State agency administering the Medicaid, Unemployment Compensation, 
Food Stamp, SSI and territorial cash assistance programs new hire 
information for income eligibility verification; (12) disclose to State 
agencies administering unemployment and worker's compensation programs 
new hire information to assist in determining the allowability of 
claims; (13) disclose information to the Treasury Department in order 
to collect past due child support obligation via offset of tax refunds 
and certain Federal payments such as: Federal salary, wage

[[Page 51448]]

and retirement payments; vendor payments; expense reimbursement 
payments and travel payments; (14) disclose to the Secretary of State 
information necessary to revoke, restrict, or deny a passport to any 
person certified by State CSE agencies as owing a child support 
arrearage in an amount specified in section 452(k) of the Act; (15) 
disclose to States information pertaining to multistate financial 
institutions that has been provided by such institutions in order to 
aid State CSE agencies; (16) disclose to the Department of Education 
information in the NDNH portion of this system for purposes of 
enforcing obligations on loans under title IV of the Higher Education 
Act of 1965 that are in default or for collecting overpayments of 
grants awarded under this Act; (17) disclose to the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development information in the NDNH portion of this 
system for purposes of verifying employment and income of individuals 
participating in specified programs and, after removal of personal 
identifiers, to conduct analyses of the employment and income reporting 
of these individuals; (18) disclose information to private individuals 
or companies under contract with OCSE for the purpose of maintaining 
the LCS; (19) disclose to the Department of the Treasury information in 
the NDNH portion of this system for purposes of locating persons who 
owe delinquent nontax debt to the United States and whose debt has been 
referred to the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 
3711(g); and (20) furnish to the State agencies responsible for 
collecting child support from individuals owing past-due child support 
information resulting from comparisons of information concerning such 
individuals with information maintained by insurers (or their agents) 
concerning insurance claims, settlements, awards, and payments.

DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
    None.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, 
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
    LCS records are maintained on disc, computer tape, and hard copy.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    System records can be accessed by either State assigned case 
identification number or SSN.

SAFEGUARDS:
    1. Authorized Users: All requests from the State IV-D Agency must 
certify that: (1) They are being made to locate noncustodial and 
custodial parents for the purpose of establishing paternity or securing 
child support, or in cases involving parental kidnapping or child 
custody and visitation determinations and for no other purposes; (2) 
the State IV-D agency has in effect protective measures to safeguard 
the personal information being transferred and received from the 
Federal Parent Locator Service; and (3) the State IV-D Agency will use 
or disclose this information for the purposes prescribed in 45 CFR 
303.70.
    2. Physical Safeguards: For computerized records electronically 
transmitted between Central Office and field office locations 
(including organizations administering HHS programs under contractual 
agreements), safeguards include a lock/unlock password system. All 
input documents will be inventoried and accounted for. All inputs and 
outputs will be stored in a locked receptacle in a locked room. All 
outputs will be labeled ``For Official Use Only'' and treated 
accordingly.
    3. Procedural and Technical Safeguards: All Federal and State 
personnel and contractors are required to take a nondisclosure oath. A 
password is required to access the terminal. All microfilm and paper 
files are accessible only by authorized personnel who have a need for 
the information in the performance of their official duties. These 
practices are in compliance with the standards of Chapter 45-13 of the 
HHS General Administration Manual, ``Safeguarding Records Contained in 
Systems of Records,'' and the Department's Automated Information System 
Security Program Handbook.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    Quarterly wage data and unemployment data supplied to the LCS that, 
within 12 months, has not produced a match as a result of any 
information comparison will not thereafter be used for child support 
enforcement purposes. Quarterly wages and unemployment data and new 
hire information will be deleted from the database 24 months after the 
date of entry. An information comparison will be retained for 24 
months. Sample data will be retained only long enough to complete 
research authorized under section 453(j)(5) of the Act. Tax refund and 
administrative offset information will be maintained for six years in 
an active master file for purposes of collection and adjustment. After 
this time, records of cases for which there was no collection will be 
destroyed. Records of cases with a collection will be stored on-line in 
an inactive master file. Records pertaining to passport denial will be 
updated and/or deleted as obligors meet satisfactory restitution or 
other State approved arrangements. Records of information provided to 
authorized users will be maintained only long enough to communicate the 
information to the appropriate State or Federal agent. Thereafter, the 
information provided will be destroyed. However, records pertaining to 
the disclosures, which include information provided by States, Federal 
agencies contacted, and an indication of the type(s) of information 
returned, will be stored on a history tape and in hard copy for five 
years and then destroyed. Records of information provided by financial 
institutions and insurers (or their agents) for the purpose of 
facilitating matches will be maintained only long enough to communicate 
the information to the appropriate State agent. Thereafter, the 
information provided will be destroyed. However, records pertaining to 
the disclosures, which include information provided by States, Federal 
agencies contacted, and an indication of the type(s) of information 
returned, will be stored on a history tape and in hard copy for five 
years and then destroyed.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
    Director, Division of Federal Systems, Office of Automation and 
Program Operations, Office of Child Support Enforcement, Administration 
for Children and Families, 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW., 4th Floor East, 
Washington, DC 20447.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES:
    To determine if a record exists, write to the Systems Manager at 
the address listed above. The Privacy Act provides that, except under 
certain conditions specified in the law, only the subject of the 
records may have access to them. All requests must be submitted in the 
following manner: Identify the system of records you wish to have 
searched, have your request notarized to verify your identity, and 
indicate that you are aware that the knowing and willful request for or 
acquisition of a Privacy Act record under false pretenses is a criminal 
offense subject to a $10,000 fine. Your letter must also provide 
sufficient particulars to enable OCSE to distinguish between records on 
subject individuals with the same name.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
    Write to the Systems Manager specified above to attain access to 
records. Requesters should provide a

[[Page 51449]]

detailed description of the record contents they are seeking.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURE:
    Contact the official at the address specified under System Manager 
above, and identify the record and specify the information to be 
contested and corrective action sought with supporting justification to 
show how the record is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely, or irrelevant.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Information is obtained from departments, agencies, or 
instrumentalities of the United States or any State and from multistate 
financial institutions and insurers (or their agents).

ITEMS EXEMPTED FROM CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE ACT:
    None.

[FR Doc. E7-17642 Filed 9-6-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P