Office of the Secretary February 27, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is amending its regulations to exempt portions of a new system of records from certain provisions of the Privacy Act. Specifically, the Department proposes to exempt portions of DMDC 16 DoD, entitled ``Interoperability Layer Service (IoLS)'' from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act because of criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement requirements. In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that obligated the Secretary of Defense to develop access standards for visitors applicable to all military installations in the U.S. The Department of Defense (DoD) developed a visitor system to manage multiple databases that are capable of identifying individuals seeking access to DoD installations who may be criminal and/or security threats. The purpose of the vetting system is to screen individuals wishing to enter a DoD facility, to include those who have been previously given authority to access DoD installations, against the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Wanted Person File. The NCIC has a properly documented exemption rule and to the extent that portions of these exempt records may become part of IoLS, OSD hereby claims the same exemptions for the records as claimed at their source (JUSTICE/FBI-001, National Crime Information Center (NCIC)).

This rule proposes revisions to the Department of Commerce's (Department) regulations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act. The FOIA regulations are being revised to clarify, update and streamline the language of several procedural provisions, including methods for submitting FOIA requests and appeals and the time limits for filing an administrative appeal, and to incorporate certain of the changes brought about by the amendments to the FOIA under the OPEN Government Act of 2007. Additionally, the FOIA regulations are being updated to reflect developments in the case law. The Privacy regulations are being revised to clarify, update and streamline several procedural provisions, including the methods for submitting appeals of Privacy Act requests and the time limits for filing a Privacy Act appeal. Additionally, the Privacy Act regulations are being updated to make technical changes to the applicable exemptions.