Privacy Act of 1974; Proposed Changes to System of Records

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 66 (Wednesday, April 7, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17041-17042]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-8539]


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RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD


Privacy Act of 1974; Proposed Changes to System of Records

AGENCY: Railroad Retirement Board.

ACTION: Notice of a proposed routine use.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this document is to give notice of a proposed 
routine use to one of the RRB's Privacy Act systems of records.

DATES: The new routine use will be effective 30 calendar days from the 
date of this publication (May 7, 1999), unless comments are received 
before this date which would result in a contrary determination.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Beatrice Ezerski, Secretary to the Board, 
Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 
60611-2092.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: LeRoy Blommaert, Privacy Act Officer, 
Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 
60611-2092, (312) 751-4548.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Discussion of Proposed Routine Use

    The Railroad Retirement Board currently furnishes the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics with the city, state, and five digit zip code of each 
person who receives unemployment benefits from the RRB. The Social 
Security Number is scrambled so that the information furnished is not 
individually identifiable. The Bureau uses this information to 
aggregate unemployment claims by county in its Local Area Unemployment 
Statistics (LAUS) program. The Bureau has requested that in addition 
the RRB furnish the physical street address. Furnishing the physical 
street address would, in cases where the address is a single family 
residence or where the apartment number is part of the address, 
identify the household of the person who received unemployment 
benefits. The Bureau has requested this additional information because 
they have found that a city and zip code does not always produce a 
unique county location (a zip code area may straddle two or more 
counties). A physical street address will always produce a valid county 
location.
    The RRB currently discloses scrambled SSN, city and state address 
information pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(5), namely, ``to a recipient 
who has provided the agency with advance adequate written assurance 
that the record will be used solely as a statistical research or 
reporting record and the record is to be transferred in a form that is 
not individually identifiable'' It is the RRB's interpretation that 
furnishing the physical address requires the publication of a routine 
use because of the possibility that the record with this additional 
information would be individually identifiable.

II. Compatibility of Proposed Routine Use

    We are proposing this routine use in accordance with the Privacy 
Act (5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3)). The Privacy Act permits the disclosure of 
information about individuals without their consent for a routine use 
where the information will be used for a purpose which is compatible 
with the purpose for which the information was originally collected. 
The Office of management and Budget has indicated that a ``compatible'' 
use is a use which is necessary and proper. The RRB considers the 
disclosure of statistical information to the Department of Labor for 
use in developing unemployment statistics on a local area basis a 
proper use. To the extent that the disclosure of the physical address 
is necessary to achieve accurate local area unemployment statistics, 
the RRB believes the use is necessary as well.

III. Altered system report

    On March 29, 1999, the Railroad Retirement Board filed an altered 
system report for this system with the chairmen of the designated 
Senate and House committees and with the Office of management and 
Budget. This was

[[Page 17042]]

done to comply with section 3 of the Private Act of 1974 and OMB 
Circular No. A-130, Appendix I.

    By authority of the Board.
Beatrice Ezerski,
Secretary to the Board.
RRB-21

System Name: Railroad Unemployment and Sickness Insurance Benefit 
System--RRB.
* * * * *

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories 
of users and the purposes of such uses:
* * * * *
    Paragraph ``ff'' is added to read as follows:
* * * * *
    ff. Scrambled Social Security Number and complete home address 
information of unemployment claimants may be furnished to the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics for use in its Local Area Unemployment Statistics 
(LAUS) program.

[FR Doc. 99-8539 Filed 4-6-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7905-01