In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance on computer matching, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) is providi...
Office of Privacy and Open Government, Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce.
ACTION:
Notice of a new matching program.
SUMMARY:
In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance on computer matching, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) is providing notice of the establishment of a new matching program. Pursuant to the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019, Commerce is establishing a new matching program consisting of the computerized comparison of systems of records for Federal benefit programs at Commerce with the Do Not Pay (DNP) Working System, which is administered by Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service. This matching program will enable the Commerce programs listed in the appendix of this notice to compare records maintained in their respective systems of records with records maintained in the DNP Working System for the purposes of identifying and preventing improper payments and conducting any related recovery activities by verifying through DNP prepayment or pre-award eligibility.
DATES:
Comments must be received on or before November 27, 2026. This new matching program will be effective 30 days after publication of this notice through September 10, 2029.
ADDRESSES:
Written comments on this notice may be submitted electronically through the Federal government eRulemaking portal at
www.regulations.gov;
docket number DOC-2026-0397. Electronic submission of comments allows the commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, ensures timely receipt, and enables Commerce to make the comments available to the public. Please note that comments submitted through
www.regulations.gov
will be made available for viewing by the public. Comments on this proposed matching program may also be addressed to email:
PrivacyAct@doc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Nicholas Cormier, Acting Chief Privacy Officer and Director of Open Government,
CPO@doc.gov,
(202) 482-1190.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-503) amended the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) by establishing procedural safeguards related to agencies' use of records when performing certain types of computerized matching. Section 7201 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-508) further amended the Privacy Act regarding protections for individuals when agencies perform these functions. Additionally, the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (31 U.S.C. 3351et seq.) provides the head of the agency operating the DNP Working System with the authority, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to waive the requirements in 5 U.S.C. 552a(o) in any case or class of cases for matching activities conducted under the DNP Initiative (31 U.S.C. 3354). Pursuant to this authority, the Secretary of the Treasury, after consulting with the OMB Director, authorized the issuance of a four-year waiver of the requirement for entering into a matching agreement under 5 U.S.C. 552a(o) for the class of matching programs that meet all of the criteria defined in OMB Memorandum M-25-32,
Preventing Improper Payments and Protecting Privacy through Do Not Pay.
Commerce has determined that the DNP matching program described in this notice is eligible for the waiver described in OMB Memorandum M-25-32, which is effective from September 10, 2025, through September 10, 2029. For purposes of this notice, matching activities conducted between the Federal benefit programs listed in the appendix to this document and the DNP Working System constitute a single agency-wide matching program implementing DNP for Commerce's listed programs.[1]
Categories of Individuals:
Applicants for, or recipients of, Federal funds from those Commerce programs listed in the appendix below.
Categories of Records:
Data elements that will be matched may include:
Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)
Awardee/Payee Name
Awardee/Payee Physical Address, City, State, Zip Code
Awardee/Payee Routing Number and Bank Account Number
Commerce follow-up records may include identity-verification results, supporting documentation, correspondence and notices, contest or correction information, eligibility or payment determinations, and records documenting prevention, recoupment, recovery, referral, or other disposition.
System(s) of Records:
The records contained within the DNP Working System are maintained in the system of records known as Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service .017—Do Not Pay Payment Verification Records (91 FR 28759). This system of records includes those databases designated to be included in the DNP Working System by the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 as well as other databases designated for inclusion by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, or the designee of the Director, in consultation with executive agencies. The Commerce records involved in the matching program are maintained in Commerce systems of records listed in the appendix below.
Appendix
Below is a list of the Commerce programs that will match records with the DNP Working System, and the applicable system of records notice(s) for each Commerce program. For purposes of this notice, matching activities conducted between the Federal benefit programs listed in the following appendix and the DNP Working System constitute a single agency-wide matching program implementing DNP for the agency.
Participating Agencies:
The Commerce programs listed in the appendix of this notice will match against the DNP Working System, which is maintained by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Authority for Conducting the Matching Program:
The Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (31 U.S.C. 3351et seq.) establishes the DNP Initiative and requires, for the purposes of identifying and preventing improper payments, each executive agency to have access to, and use of, the relevant databases in DNP to verify payment or award eligibility. Additional applicable authorities for this matching program include Executive Order 13520,
Reducing Improper Payments
(74 FR 62201); Executive Order 14249,
Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
(90 FR 14011); and OMB Memorandum M-25-32,
Preventing Improper Payments and Protecting Privacy Through Do Not Pay.
Additional information regarding the statutory authorities for the collection and maintenance of information for each of the Commerce programs that will conduct matches with the DNP Working System are contained within the systems of records notices listed in the appendix below.
( printed page 67815)
Purpose(s):
The purposes of the matching program are identifying and preventing improper payments and conducting any related recovery activities by verifying through Do Not Pay prepayment or pre-award eligibility. Data elements that are necessary for eligibility determinations for a relevant Commerce program that are contained in records from Commerce systems of records will be compared with records in the DNP Working System. When there is a match between a record provided by the Commerce program and a record in the DNP Working System, the DNP Working System will provide to the submitting Commerce program notice of a potentially matching record and will identify the database(s) that contain the potentially matching record(s). The Commerce program will then review the information to determine whether additional action is needed. If no matches are identified, the DNP Working System will provide a no match response to the submitting Commerce program.
Commerce operating unit
Agency program name
System of records notice
Federal Register citation
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Marine Sanctuary Program
COMMERCE/NOAA-14, Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program; Office of Education, Educational Partnership Program (EPP); Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program and National Marine Fisheries Service Recruitment, Training, and Research Program
Acting Chief Privacy Officer and Director of Open Government, Office of Privacy and Open Government.
Footnotes
1.
The statutory definition of the term “matching program” means “any computerized comparison of—(i) two
or more
automated systems of records or a system of records with non-Federal records” for certain enumerated purposes.
5 U.S.C. 552a(a)(8)
(emphasis added). There is a separate statutory definition for “Federal benefit program.” See OMB Memorandum M-25-32 at Appendix II, page 2, sec. a.3.iii.1 (recognizing that a single agency matching program may consist of multiple systems of records). Thus, this notice applies to the DNP matching program for multiple Federal benefits programs and associated systems of records within Commerce.
www.regulations.gov
5 U.S.C. 552a