Office of the Secretary September 20, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

This proposed rule implements Section 713 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2009 (FY 2009), Public Law 110-417. Section 713 states the Secretary shall establish a smoking cessation program under the TRICARE program. The smoking cessation program under TRICARE shall, at a minimum, include the following: the availability, at no cost to the beneficiary, of pharmaceuticals used for smoking cessation, with the limitation on the availability of such pharmaceuticals to the mail-order pharmacy program under the TRICARE program; smoking cessation counseling; access to a toll-free quit line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; and access to print and Internet web-based tobacco cessation material. Per the statute, Medicare-eligible beneficiaries are excluded from the TRICARE smoking cessation program.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense is exempting those records contained in DMDC 14 DoD, entitled ``Defense Clearance and Investigations Index (DCII)'', pertaining to investigatory material compiled for law enforcement purposes to enable OSD components to conduct certain investigations and relay law enforcement information without compromise of the information, protect investigative techniques and efforts employed, and identities of confidential sources who might not otherwise come forward and who furnished information under an express promise that the sources' identity would be held in confidence. The exemption will allow DoD to provide protection against notification of investigatory material including certain reciprocal investigations and counterintelligence information, which might alert a subject to the fact that an investigation of that individual is taking place, and the disclosure of which would weaken the on-going investigation, reveal investigatory techniques, and place confidential informants in jeopardy who furnished information under an express promise that the sources' identity would be held in confidence. Further, requiring OSD to grant access to records and agency rules for access and amendment of records would unfairly impede the investigation of allegations of unlawful activities. To require OSD to confirm or deny the existence of a record pertaining to a requesting individual may in itself provide an answer to that individual relating to an on-going investigation. The investigation of possible unlawful activities would be jeopardized by agency rules requiring verification of record, disclosure of the record to the subject, and record amendment procedures. This direct final rule makes nonsubstantive changes to the Office of the Secretary Privacy Program rules. These changes will allow the Department to add an exemption rule to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Privacy Program rules that will exempt applicable Department records and/or material from certain portions of the Privacy Act. This change will allow the Department to move part of the Department's personnel security program records from the Defense Security Service Privacy Program to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Privacy Program. This will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of DoD's program by preserving the exempt status of the applicable records and/ or material when the purposes underlying the exemption(s) are valid and necessary. This rule is being published as a direct final rule as the Department of Defense does not expect to receive any adverse comments, and so a proposed rule is unnecessary.