Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records; (Railroad Retirement Board-Office of Personnel Management), 55021-55022 [2021-21670]

Agencies

• Railroad Retirement Board

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 190 (Tuesday, October 5, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55021-55022]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-21670]


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RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records; (Railroad Retirement 
Board--Office of Personnel Management)

AGENCY: Railroad Retirement Board (RRB).

ACTION: Renewal of computer-matching program.

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SUMMARY: As required by the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the RRB is 
issuing public notice of its renewal of an ongoing computer-matching 
program with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that expired on 
March 1, 2019. The purpose of this notice is to advise individuals 
applying for or receiving benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act of 
the use made by RRB of this information obtained from OPM by means of a 
computer match. We will file a report of this computer-matching program 
with the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 
Senate; the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House 
of Representatives; and the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

DATES: This matching program will take effect November 4, 2021. The 
matching program will continue for 18 months after the effective date 
and may be extended for an additional 12 months, if the conditions 
specified in 5 U.S.C. 552a(o)(2)(D) have been met, with an expiration 
date of April 1, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may comment on this publication by 
writing to Ms. Stephanie Hillyard, Secretary to the Board, Railroad 
Retirement Board,

[[Page 55022]]

844 North Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611-1275.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  Mr. Timothy Grant, Associate Chief 
Information Officer, Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush Street, 
Chicago, Illinois 60611-2092, telephone 312-751-4869 or email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. General

    The Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988, (Pub. L. 
100-503), amended by the Privacy Act of 1974, (5 U.S.C. 552a) as 
amended, requires a Federal agency participating in a computer matching 
program to publish a notice in the Federal Register for all matching 
programs.
    The Privacy Act, as amended, regulates the use of computer matching 
by Federal agencies when records contained in a Privacy Act System of 
Records are matched with other Federal, State, or local government 
records. It requires Federal agencies involved in computer matching 
programs to:
    (1) Negotiate written agreements with the other agency or agencies 
participating in the matching programs;
    (2) Obtain the approval of the matching agreement by the Data 
Integrity Boards (DIB) of the participating Federal agencies;
    (3) Publish notice of the computer matching program in the Federal 
Register;
    (4) Furnish detailed reports about matching programs to Congress 
and OMB;
    (5) Notify applicants and beneficiaries that their records are 
subject to matching; and
    (6) Verify match findings before reducing, suspending, terminating, 
or denying a person's benefits or payments. The last published notice 
for this matching program was March 1, 2018 (78 FR 70971).

B. RRB Computer Matches Subject to the Privacy Act

    We have taken appropriate action to ensure that all of our computer 
matching programs comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act, as 
amended.

Notice of Computer Matching Program, RRB With the Office of Personnel 
Management (OPM)

    Name of Participating Agencies: OPM and RRB.
    Authority for Conducting the Matching Program: Sections 3(a)(1), 
4(a)(1) and 4(f)(1) of the Railroad Retirement Act, as amended, 45 
U.S.C. 231b(a)(1), 231c(a)(1) and 231c(f)(1) require that the RRB 
reduce the Railroad Retirement benefits of certain beneficiaries 
entitled to Railroad Retirement employee and/or spouse/widow benefits 
who are also entitled to a government pension based on their own non-
covered earnings. We call this reduction a Public Service Pension (PSP) 
offset.
    Section 224 of the Social Security Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 424a, 
provides for the reduction of disability benefits when the disabled 
worker is also entitled to a public disability benefit (PDB). We call 
this a PDB offset. A civil service disability benefit is considered a 
PDB. Section 224(h)(1) requires any Federal agency to provide RRB with 
information in its possession that RRB may require for the purposes of 
making a timely determination of the amount of reduction under section 
224 of the Social Security Act. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. Section 552a(b)(3) 
OPM has established routine uses to disclose the subject information to 
RRB.
    Purpose of the Matching Program: The purpose of the match is to 
enable the RRB to (1) identify affected RRB annuitants who are in 
receipt of a Federal public pension benefit but who have not reported 
receipt of this benefit to the RRB, and (2) receive timely and accurate 
Federal public pension benefit information for affected RRB annuitants.
    Categories of Individuals: Individuals receiving Federal public 
pensions or RRB annuities. Categories of Records: OPM will provide the 
RRB once a year via secure electronic file transfer, data extracted 
from its annuity and survivor master file of its Civil Service 
Retirement and Insurance Records. Normally on December of each year, 
OPM transmits to us approximately 2.5 million electronic records for 
matching. The records contain these data elements: Name, social 
security number, date of birth, civil service claim number, first 
potential month and year of eligibility for civil service benefits, 
first month, day, year of entitlement to civil service benefits, amount 
of current gross civil service benefits, and effective date (month, 
day, year) of civil service amount, and where applicable, civil service 
disability indicator, civil service FICA covered month indicator, and 
civil service total service months. The RRB will match the Social 
Security number, name, and date of birth contained in the OPM file 
against approximately the 1.2 million records in our files. For records 
that match, the RRB will extract the civil service payment information.
    Systems of Records: The Privacy Act System of Records designation 
is OPM/Central-1, (Civil Service Retirement and Insurance Records), 
Published in the Federal Register on June 7, 2011 (76 FR 32997). The 
RRB Privacy Act System of Records is RRB-22, Railroad Retirement, 
Survivor, and Pensioner Benefit System, published in the Federal 
Register on May 15, 2015 (80 FR 28018).

    Dated: September 30, 2021.

    By authority of the Board.
Stephanie Hillyard,
Secretary to the Board.
[FR Doc. 2021-21670 Filed 10-4-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7905-01-P