81 FR 94424 - Reissuance of OMB Circular No. A-108, “Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication Under the Privacy Act”

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 247 (December 23, 2016)

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reissued OMB Circular A-108, ``Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication under the Privacy Act.'' The reissued Circular revises and relocates the guidance that previously had been included in Circular A-130, ``Management of Federal Information Resources,'' Appendix I, ``Federal Agency Responsibilities for Maintaining Records About Individuals.'' The reissued Circular replaces the November 28, 2000 version of Appendix I to Circular A-130 and supplements and clarifies existing OMB guidance.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 247 (Friday, December 23, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 94424-94425]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-30901]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Reissuance of OMB Circular No. A-108, ``Federal Agency 
Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication Under the 
Privacy Act''

AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the 
President.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reissued OMB 
Circular A-108, ``Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, 
Reporting, and Publication under the Privacy Act.'' The reissued 
Circular revises and relocates the guidance that previously had been 
included in Circular A-130, ``Management of Federal Information 
Resources,'' Appendix I, ``Federal Agency Responsibilities for 
Maintaining Records About Individuals.'' The reissued Circular replaces 
the November 28, 2000 version of Appendix I to Circular A-130 and 
supplements and clarifies existing OMB guidance.

DATES: Effective upon publication as of December 23, 2016, OMB is 
making reissued Circular A-108 available to the public at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_infopoltech.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kevin Herms, Office of Management and 
Budget, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, at [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    The Privacy Act of 1974, which has been in effect since September 
27, 1975, sets forth a series of requirements governing Federal agency 
practices with respect to certain information about individuals. 
Although the Privacy Act places principal responsibility for compliance 
on agencies, the statute requires the Director of OMB to develop 
guidelines and provide continuing assistance to and oversight of 
implementation by agencies. See 5 U.S.C. 552a(v). The reissuance of 
Circular A-108 describes agency responsibilities for implementing the 
review, reporting, and publication requirements of the Privacy Act of 
1974 and related OMB policies. It supplements and clarifies existing 
OMB guidance, including OMB Circular No. A-130, ``Managing Information 
as a Strategic Resource,'' ``Privacy Act Implementation: Guidelines and 
Responsibilities,'' ``Implementation of the Privacy Act of 1974: 
Supplementary Guidance,'' and ``Final Guidance Interpreting the 
Provisions of Public Law 100-503, the Computer Matching and Privacy 
Protection Act of 1988.'' All OMB guidance is available on the OMB Web 
site at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg_infopoltech.

Comments

    On October 7, 2016, OMB requested public comment (81 FR 69871) and 
posted the proposed Circular A-108 on its Web site. Although some 
commenters were critical of specific aspects of the proposed policy, 
the commenters were generally supportive of the overall Circular and 
the approaches taken.
    While OMB carefully considered all of the comments submitted, some 
of them were beyond the scope of the Circular. Several of the comments 
criticized agency compliance with Privacy Act legal and policy 
requirements, while others appeared to be inconsistent with certain 
statutory provisions or other OMB policy requirements, or would have 
the effect of modifying certain statutory provisions or prohibiting 
certain legally permissible agency actions. The reissuance of Circular 
A-108 and the supplementary guidance and clarification it provides are 
intended to assist agencies in their implementation of, and facilitate 
their compliance with, the Privacy Act's review, reporting, and 
publication requirements. The Circular is meant to establish general 
standards and it would be beyond the scope of the Circular to address 
specific agency practices or compliance efforts or to accept comments 
that may be inconsistent with other legal or policy requirements.
    Several comments identified areas in which the guidance could be 
modified to improve the quality of notice provided to the public in 
agency system of records notices. Based on OMB's consideration and 
responses to the public comments, the revised Circular A-108:
     Revises the routine use section of the guidance to state 
that agency routine uses that only apply to certain records in a system 
of records should indicate their limited scope. In addition, a 
subheading in the section of the Circular describing the scope of a 
system of records was revised to better emphasize the need to consider 
routine uses when determining the scope of a system.
     Requires that the description of linkages between 
different systems be in the ``Policies and Practices for Retrieval of 
Records'' section of the notice, which is included in the Privacy Act 
Issuances. In addition, the language describing the requirement to 
describe linkages

[[Page 94425]]

between different systems was clarified so that agencies better 
understand the requirement and public notice will be improved.
     Includes a ``History'' section in the system of records 
notice templates for agencies to provide citations to the last full 
Federal Register notice, as well as any subsequent notices of revision. 
This will improve transparency and assist the public in learning about 
systems of records as they are established and revised over time.

Howard Shelanski,
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Marc Groman,
Senior Advisor for Privacy, Office of the Director.
[FR Doc. 2016-30901 Filed 12-22-16; 8:45 am]
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