Privacy Act of 1974; New Computer Matching Program Between the United States Department of Agriculture and the Defense Manpower Data Center of the Department of Defense

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Defense Logistics Agency

Privacy Act of 1974; New Computer Matching Program Between the

United States Department of Agriculture and the Defense Manpower Data

Center of the Department of Defense

AGENCY: Defense Manpower Data Center, Defense Logistics Agency,

Department of Defense.

ACTION: Notice of a new computer matching program between the United

States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Defense

(DoD) for public comment.

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SUMMARY: Subsection (e)(12) of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, (5

U.S.C. 552a) requires agencies to publish advance notice of any

proposed or revised computer matching program by the matching agency

for public comment. The DoD, as the matching agency under the Privacy

Act is hereby giving constructive notice in lieu of direct notice to

the record subjects of a computer matching program between USDA and DoD

that their records are being matched by computer. The record subjects

are USDA delinquent debtors who may be current or former Federal

employees receiving Federal salary or benefit payments and who are

delinquent in their repayment of debts owed to the United States

Government under the Food Stamp Program administered by USDA so as to

permit USDA to pursue and collect the debt by voluntary repayment or by

administrative or salary offset procedures under the provisions of the

Debt Collection Act of 1982.

DATES: This proposed action will become effective March 31, 1994, and

the computer matching will proceed accordingly without further notice,

unless comments are received which would result in a contrary

determination or if the Office of Management and Budget or Congress

objects thereto. Any public comment must be received before the

effective date.

ADDRESSES: Any interested party may submit written comments to the

Director, Defense Privacy Office, Crystal Mall 4, Room 920, 1941

Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202-4502.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Aurelio Nepa, Jr. at telephone

(703) 607-2943.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to subsection (o) of the Privacy

Act of 1974, as amended, (5 U.S.C. 552a), the DoD and USDA has

concluded an agreement to conduct a computer matching program between

the agencies. The purpose of the match is to exchange personal data

between the agencies for debt collection. The match will yield the

identity and location of the debtors within the Federal government so

that USDA can pursue recoupment of the debt by voluntary payment or by

administrative or salary offset procedures. Computer matching appeared

to be the most efficient and effective manner to accomplish this task

with the least amount of intrusion of personal privacy of the

individuals concerned. It was therefore concluded and agreed upon that

computer matching would be the best and least obtrusive manner and

choice for accomplishing this requirement.

A copy of the computer matching agreement between USDA and DoD is

available upon request to the public. Requests should be submitted to

the address caption above or to the USDA, 14th and Independence Avenue,

S.W., Room 4094-S, Washington, DC 20250. Telephone (202) 720-1168.

Set forth below is the notice of the establishment of a computer

matching program required by paragraph 6.c. of the Office of Management

and Budget Guidelines on computer matching published in the Federal

Register at 54 FR 25818 on June 19, 1989.

The matching agreement, as required by 5 U.S.C. 552a(r) of the

Privacy Act, and an advance copy of this notice was submitted on

February 15, 1994, to the Committee on Government Operations of the

House of Representatives, the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the

Senate, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and

Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget pursuant to

paragraph 4d of Appendix I to OMB Circular No. A-130, `Federal Agency

Responsibilities for Maintaining Records about Individuals,' dated June

25, 1993 (58 FR 36075, July 2, 1993). The matching program is subject

to review by OMB and Congress and shall not become effective until that

review period has elapsed.

Dated: February 24, 1994.

Patricia L. Toppings,

Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.

Notice of a Computer Matching Program between the United States

Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense for Debt

Collection

A. Participating agencies: Participants in this computer matching

program are the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the

Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) of the Department of Defense (DoD).

The USDA is the source agency, i.e., the activity disclosing the

records for the purpose of the match. The DMDC is the specific

recipient activity or matching agency, i.e., the agency that actually

performs the computer matching.

B. Purpose of the match: Upon the execution of this agreement, USDA

will provide and disclose certain food stamp debtor records to DMDC so

that DMDC can identify and locate any Federal personnel, employed or

retired from service with the Federal Government, who may owe

delinquent debts to the Federal Government for overissued Food Stamp

Program benefits. USDA will use this information to initiate

independent collection of those debts under the provisions of the Debt

Collection Act when voluntary payment is not forthcoming. These

collection efforts will include requests by USDA of the employing

agency to apply administrative and/or salary offset procedures until

such time as the obligation is paid in full.

C. Authority for conducting the match: The legal authority for

conducting the matching program is contained in the Debt Collection Act

of 1982 (Pub. L. 97-365), 31 U.S.C. Chapter 37, Subchapter I (General)

and Subchapter II (Claims of the United States Government), 31 U.S.C.

3711, Collection and Compromise, 31 U.S.C. 3716, Administrative Offset,

5 U.S.C. 5514, Installment Deduction for Indebtedness (Salary Offset);

7 U.S.C. 2022 (Collection and Disposition of Claims); 10 U.S.C. 136,

Assistant Secretaries of Defense; Section 206 of Executive Order No.

11222; 4 CFR Ch. II, Federal Claims Collection Standards (General

Accounting Office--Department of Justice); 5 CFR 550.1101-550.1108,

Collection by Offset from Indebted Government Employees (OPM); 7 CFR

part 3, Debt Management (Agriculture); 7 CFR 273.18 (Claims against

households).

D. Records to be matched: The systems of records maintained by the

respective agencies under the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C.

552a, from which records will be disclosed for the purpose of this

computer match are as follows: USDA will use records from the system of

records published as Claims Against Food Stamp Recipients--USDA FNS-3,

last published at 56 FR 50552 on October 7, 1991, and amended at 58 FR

48633 on September 17, 1993.

DoD will use the record system identified as S322.11 DMDC, entitled

`Federal Creditor Agency Debt Collection Data Base', last published in

the Federal Register at 58 FR 10875 on February 22, 1993.

E. Description of computer matching program: USDA, as the source,

will provide DMDC with a magnetic tape of individuals delinquent in

repayment of overissued food stamp benefits. The tape will contain data

elements of name, SSN, and internal account number on a total of

200,000 delinquent debtors. Upon receipt of the computer tape file of

debtor accounts, DMDC as the recipient matching agency, will perform a

computer match using all nine digits of the SSN of the file against a

DMDC computer data base. The DMDC computer data base, established under

an interagency agreement between DoD, OPM, OMB and the Treasury

Department, consists of employment records of approximately 10 million

Federal employees. Matching records, `hits' based on the SSN, will

produce the member's name, service or agency, category of employee,

salary or benefit amounts, and current work or home address. The hits

will be furnished to USDA. USDA will be responsible for verifying and

determining if the data of the DMDC reply tape file are consistent with

USDA's source file and to resolve any discrepancies or inconsistencies

on an individual basis. USDA will also be responsible for making final

determinations as to positive identification, amount of indebtedness

and recovery efforts as a result of the match.

F. Inclusive dates of the matching program: This computer matching

program is subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget and

Congress. If no objections are raised by either, and the mandatory 30

day public notice period for comment has expired for this Federal

Register notice with no significant adverse public comments in receipt

resulting in a contrary determination, then this computer matching

program becomes effective and the respective agencies may begin the

exchange of data 30 days after the date of this published notice at a

mutually agreeable time and will be repeated annually. Under no

circumstances shall the matching program be implemented before the 30

day public notice period for comment has elapsed as this time period

cannot be waived. By agreement between USDA and DoD, the matching

program will be in effect and continue for 18 months with an option to

renew for 12 additional months unless one of the parties to the

agreement advises the other by written request to terminate or modify

the agreement.

G. Address for receipt of public comments or inquiries: Director,

Defense Privacy Office, Crystal Mall 4, Room 920, 1941 Jefferson Davis

Highway, Arlington, VA 22202-4502. Telephone (703) 607-2943.

[FR Doc. 94-4598 Filed 2-28-94; 8:45 am]

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