Department of Housing and Urban Development May 19, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended by the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988, as amended, (Pub. L. 100-503), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidelines on the Conduct of Matching Programs (54 FR 25818; June 19, 1989), and OMB Bulletin 89-22, ``Instructions on Reporting Computer Matching Programs to the Office of Management (OMB), Congress and the Public,'' HUD is issuing a public notice of its intent to conduct a recurring computer matching program with the USDA to utilize a computer information system of HUD, the Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System (CAIVRS), with USDA's debtor files. In addition to HUD's data, the CAIVRS database includes delinquent debt information from the Departments of Education, Veterans Affairs, Justice and the Small Business Administration. This match will allow prescreening of applicants for debts owed or loans guaranteed by the Federal government to ascertain if the applicant is delinquent in paying a debt owed to or insured by the Federal government for HUD or USDA direct or guaranteed loans. Before granting a loan, the lending agency and/or the authorized lending institution will be able to interrogate the CAIVRS debtor file which contains the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of HUD's delinquent debtors and defaulters and defaulted debtor records of the USDA and verify that the loan applicant is not in default or delinquent on direct or guaranteed loans of participating Federal programs of either agency. As a result of the information produced by this match, the authorized users may not deny, terminate, or make a final decision of any loan assistance to an applicant or take other adverse action against such applicant, until an officer or employee of such agency has independently verified such information.