[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 227 (Tuesday, November 27, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66155-66158]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-23058]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records--Department of Education 
Federal Docket Management System (EDFDMS)

AGENCY: Office of the General Counsel, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of a new system of records.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended 
(Privacy Act), the Department of Education (Department) publishes this 
notice of a new system of records entitled ``Department of Education 
Federal Docket Management System'' (EDFDMS) (18-09-05).
    EDFDMS contains individually identifying information voluntarily 
provided by individuals who submit public comments on the Department's 
rulemaking documents that are in the Federal Docket Management System 
(FDMS). FDMS is an interagency system that allows the public to search, 
view, download, and comment on Federal agency rulemaking documents 
through a single online system. The public accesses the FDMS Web portal 
at http://www.regulations.gov.

DATES: The Department seeks comment on the new system of records 
described in this notice, in accordance with the requirements of the 
Privacy Act. We must receive your comments on the proposed routine uses 
for the system of records referenced in this notice on or before 
December 27, 2007.
    The Department filed a report describing the new system of records 
covered by this notice with the Chair of the Senate Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Chair of the House 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Administrator of 
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) on November 21, 2007. This system of records will 
become effective at the later date of--(1) The expiration of the 40-day 
period for OMB review on December 31, 2007, unless OMB waives 10 days 
of the 40-day review period for compelling reasons shown by the 
Department, or (2) December 27, 2007, unless the system of records 
needs to be changed as a result of public comment or OMB review.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about the proposed routine uses to 
Elizabeth McFadden, Assistant General Counsel, Regulatory Services 
Division, Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 
400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 6E227, Washington, DC 20202-6110. 
Telephone: (202) 401-6307. If you prefer to send comments through the 
Internet, use the following address: [email protected].
    You must include the term ``EDFDMS'' in the subject line of the 
electronic message.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all comments 
about this notice in room 6E227, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, 
DC, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Eastern time, Monday 
through Friday of each week except Federal holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking 
Record

    On request, we will supply an appropriate aid to an individual with 
a disability who needs assistance to review the comments or other 
documents in the public rulemaking record for this notice. If you want 
to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the 
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth McFadden. Telephone: (202) 
401-6307. If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), 
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in this section.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

    FDMS serves as a central, electronic repository for Federal 
rulemaking dockets and includes Federal Register notices, supporting 
materials such as scientific or economic analyses, and public comments, 
as well as non-rulemaking dockets. Each agency that uses FDMS, 
including the Department, is responsible for managing its own dockets 
and rulemaking documents.
    Through the Department's portion of FDMS, members of the public may 
comment on the Department's rulemaking documents contained in the 
system. In order to submit a comment through the Department's portion 
of FDMS, members of the public only need to complete two fields--the 
``Category'' field and the ``General Comments'' field. To complete the 
``Category'' field, commenters are prompted to select the most 
appropriate category from the following list: Parent/relative, teacher, 
student, individual, public elementary/secondary school, private 
elementary/secondary school, school administrator, institution of 
higher education, lender, guarantor, local educational agency, State 
educational agency, State agency, association/organization, Federal 
agency, child advocate, lobbyist, law firm, tribal organization, and 
other. The ``General Comments'' field in FDMS is a free text field in 
which individuals provide their actual comments. In addition to these 
two required fields, commenters may, but are not required to, provide 
the following information: First name, last name, city, country, State 
or province, e-mail address, organization name, submitter's 
representative, government agency type, and government agency.
    Generally, the Department makes all of the information provided by 
commenters, including commenters' names and other individually 
identifying information provided within the comments, publicly viewable 
on the Federal government's interagency FDMS Web portal at http://www.regulations.gov. FDMS has full text search capability, enabling any 
member of the public to search all public submissions on any Department 
rulemaking in FDMS by any term, including any name and contact 
information submitted in or as part of a comment.
    On the http://www.regulations.gov Web site and in the Department's 
notices of proposed rulemaking, the Department clearly notifies the 
public that, with few exceptions, comments received from members of the 
public (including those comments submitted by mail, commercial 
delivery, or hand delivery) are made publicly available on the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal (http://www.regulations.gov) without change. The 
Department makes efforts to ensure that comments containing material 
the disclosure of which is restricted by Federal law, such as the 
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), are not made 
publicly available. While not publicly posted, the Department will 
retain, evaluate, and consider these comments. EDFDMS is comprised of 
both these comments that are not publicly available, as well as the 
comments on the Department's rulemakings that are available to the

[[Page 66156]]

public through http://www.regulations.gov.

The Privacy Act

    The Department is publishing this new system of records notice, in 
accordance with the applicable requirements of the Privacy Act, to 
inform the public about how it will collect, maintain, use, and 
disclose the information that members of the public provide when 
commenting on a Department rulemaking that is part of FDMS.
    The Privacy Act applies to information about individuals that 
contains individually identifying information and that is retrieved by 
a unique identifier associated with each individual, such as a name or 
social security number. The information about each individual is called 
a ``record,'' and the system, whether manual or computer-based, is 
called a ``system of records.'' The Privacy Act requires each agency to 
publish notices of systems of records in the Federal Register and to 
prepare reports to OMB and Congress whenever the agency publishes a new 
system of records.
    The portion of the EDFDMS system that comes under the Privacy Act 
includes only the individually identifying information that commenters 
voluntarily submit to the Department when they comment on the 
Department's rulemaking documents in FDMS. The Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. 
552a(e)(4), requires the Department to publish in the Federal Register 
this notice of a new system of records maintained by the Department. 
The Department's regulations implementing the Privacy Act are contained 
in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) in 34 CFR part 5b.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other documents of this 
Department published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable 
Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S. 
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in 
the Washington, DC area, at (202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.


    Dated: November 21, 2007.
Kent D. Talbert,
General Counsel.
    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the General Counsel of 
the Department of Education publishes a notice of a new system of 
records to read as follows:
18-09-05

SYSTEM NAME:
    Department of Education Federal Docket Management System (EDFDMS).

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    The central location is at the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711-0001. Access is available 
through the Internet from other locations.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    Information on individuals who voluntarily provide individually 
identifying information when submitting a public comment or supporting 
materials in response to a Department rulemaking document or notice in 
the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) are covered by this system. 
Although this system may also contain information on and public 
comments submitted by representatives of governmental or organizational 
entities, the purpose for which the Department is establishing this 
system of records is only to cover individuals protected under the 
Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a(a)(2)).

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    The categories of records in the system include: First name, last 
name, category (such as parent/relative, student, teacher, local 
educational agency, or lender), city, country, State or province, email 
address, organization name, submitter's representative, government 
agency type, government agency, additional information provided in the 
``General Comments'' section, and other supporting documentation 
furnished by the submitter.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    Section 206(d) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-347, 44 
U.S.C. 3501 note); 5 U.S.C. 301; and 5 U.S.C. 553.

PURPOSE:
    The EDFDMS system of records permits the Department to identify 
individuals who have submitted comments, in response to the 
Department's rulemaking documents or notices that are in FDMS, so that 
communications or other actions, as appropriate and necessary, can be 
effected. Examples of such communications are seeking clarification of 
a comment and responding directly to a comment.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    The Department may disclose information contained in a record in 
this system of records without the consent of the individual if the 
disclosure is compatible with the purposes for which the record was 
collected. The Department may make these disclosures on a case-by-case 
basis, or, if the Department has complied with the computer matching 
requirements of the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 
1988, as amended, under a computer matching agreement.
    (1) Disclosure to the Public. With few exceptions, the Department 
may disclose information in EDFDMS to any member of the public. EDFDMS 
permits members of the public to search the public comments that are 
received by the Department and included in FDMS by the name of the 
individual submitting the comment. Unless the individual submits a 
comment anonymously, a full-text search, using the individual's name, 
will generally result in the comment and the commenter's information 
being displayed for view. With few exceptions, comments that are 
submitted using the FDMS system will include any information that the 
commenter provided when submitting the comment. In addition, with few 
exceptions, comments that are submitted in writing and then scanned and 
uploaded into the FDMS system will include any identifying information 
about the submitter that is provided in the written comment. If a 
commenter provides individually identifying information about a third 
party, a full-text search using the third party's name, with some 
exceptions, will result in the third party's information being 
displayed for view.

    Note: Identification of an individual commenter or third party 
is possible only if the commenter voluntarily provides his or her 
name or contact information, or that of a third party. If this 
information is not furnished, the submitted comments or supporting 
documentation cannot be linked to the commenter or a third party.

    (2) Disclosure for Use by Other Law Enforcement Agencies. The 
Department may disclose information to any

[[Page 66157]]

Federal, State, local, or foreign agency, or other public authority 
responsible for enforcing, investigating, or prosecuting violations of 
administrative, civil, or criminal law or regulation if that 
information is relevant to any enforcement, regulatory, investigative, 
or prosecutorial responsibility within the receiving entity's 
jurisdiction.
    (3) Enforcement Disclosure. In the event that information in this 
system of records indicates, either on its face or in connection with 
other information, a violation or potential violation of any applicable 
statute, regulation, or order of a competent authority, the Department 
may disclose the relevant records to the appropriate agency, whether 
foreign, Federal, State, Tribal, or local, charged with the 
responsibility of investigating or prosecuting that violation or 
charged with enforcing or implementing the statute, Executive order, 
rule, regulation, or order issued pursuant thereto.
    (4) Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Disclosure.
    (a) Introduction. In the event that one of the parties listed below 
is involved in litigation or ADR, or has an interest in litigation or 
ADR, the Department may disclose certain records to the parties 
described in paragraphs (b), (c), and (d) of this routine use under the 
conditions specified in those paragraphs:
    (i) The Department or any of its components.
    (ii) Any Department employee in his or her official capacity.
    (iii) Any Department employee in his or her individual capacity if 
the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been requested to or has 
agreed to provide or arrange for representation for the employee.
    (iv) Any Department employee in his or her individual capacity 
where the Department has agreed to represent the employee.
    (v) The United States where the Department determines that the 
litigation is likely to affect the Department or any of its components.
    (b) Disclosure to DOJ. If the Department determines that disclosure 
of certain records to DOJ is relevant and necessary to litigation or 
ADR, the Department may disclose those records as a routine use to DOJ.
    (c) Adjudicative Disclosure. If the Department determines that it 
is relevant and necessary to the litigation or ADR to disclose certain 
records to an adjudicative body before which the Department is 
authorized to appear, to an individual, or to an entity designated by 
the Department or otherwise empowered to resolve or mediate disputes, 
the Department may disclose those records as a routine use to the 
adjudicative body, individual, or entity.
    (d) Disclosure to parties, counsels, representatives, or witnesses. 
If the Department determines that disclosure of certain records to a 
party, counsel, representative, or witness is relevant and necessary to 
the litigation or ADR, the Department may disclose those records as a 
routine use to the party, counsel, representative, or witness.
    (5) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act Advice 
Disclosure. The Department may disclose records to DOJ or OMB if the 
Department concludes that disclosure is desirable or necessary in 
determining whether particular records are required to be disclosed 
under the FOIA or the Privacy Act.
    (6) Disclosure to DOJ. The Department may disclose records to DOJ 
to the extent necessary for obtaining DOJ advice on any matter relevant 
to an audit, inspection, or other inquiry related to the programs 
covered by this system.
    (7) Contract Disclosure. If the Department contracts with an entity 
for the purposes of performing any function that requires disclosure of 
records in this system to employees of the contractor, the Department 
may disclose the records to those employees. Before entering into such 
a contract, the Department shall require the contractor to maintain 
Privacy Act safeguards as required under 5 U.S.C. 552a(m) with respect 
to the records in the system.
    (8) Congressional Member Disclosure. The Department may disclose 
the records of an individual to a member of Congress or the member's 
staff in response to an inquiry from the member made at the written 
request of that individual. The member's right to the information is no 
greater than the right of the individual who requested the inquiry.
    (9) Disclosure in the Course of Responding to Breach of Data. The 
Department may disclose records to appropriate agencies, entities, and 
persons when (1) it is suspected or confirmed that the security or 
confidentiality of information in this system has been compromised; (2) 
the Department has determined that as a result of the suspected or 
confirmed compromise, there is a risk of harm to economic or property 
interests, identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security or 
integrity of this system or other systems or programs (whether 
maintained by the Department or by another agency or entity) that rely 
upon the compromised information; and (3) the disclosure is made to 
such agencies, entities, and persons who are reasonably necessary to 
assist the Department in responding to the suspected or confirmed 
compromise and in helping the Department prevent, minimize, or remedy 
such harm.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, 
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
    Records are maintained on electronic storage media and in paper.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    EDFDMS enables record retrieval by various data elements and key 
word searches. These data elements are: document identification number, 
comment tracking number, document title, Code of Federal Regulation 
(CFR) (search for a specific title within the CFR), CFR citation 
(search for the part or parts within the CFR title being searched), 
document type, document sub type, date posted, and comment period end 
date.

SAFEGUARDS:
    As discussed above in routine use (1), Disclosure to the Public, 
any member of the public who accesses FDMS through http://www.regulations.gov and searches the comments associated with the 
Department's rulemakings can view EDFDMS records that are included in 
FDMS.
    To the extent paper records from this system of records are 
maintained, they will be maintained in a controlled facility where 
physical entry is restricted by locks, guards, and administrative 
procedures.
    Access to electronic and paper EDFDMS records that are not 
otherwise available to the public through FDMS is limited to those 
Department and contract staff who require the records to perform their 
official duties consistent with the purposes for which the information 
was collected. Personnel whose official duties require access to either 
electronic or written EDFDMS records that are not otherwise available 
to the public through FDMS are trained in the proper safeguarding and 
use of the information.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    Until the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) 
approves a retention and disposition schedule for EDFDMS, the 
Department will treat all EDFDMS records as permanent.

SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS:
    Elizabeth McFadden, Assistant General Counsel, Regulatory Services 
Division, Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 
400

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Maryland Avenue, SW., room 6E227, Washington, DC 20202-6110.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
    If you wish to determine whether a record exists regarding you in 
the system of records, contact the system manager. Your request must 
meet the requirements of regulations in 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
    If you wish to gain access to your record in the system of records, 
contact the system manager at the address listed under SYSTEM MANAGER 
AND ADDRESS. Requests should contain your full name, address, and 
telephone number. Your request must meet the requirements of 
regulations in 34 CFR 5b.5, including proof of identity.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:
    If you wish to contest the content of a record regarding you in the 
system of records, contact the system manager. Your request must meet 
the requirements of the regulations in 34 CFR 5b.7, including proof of 
identity.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Information maintained in this system of records is obtained from 
anyone who chooses to voluntarily submit a public comment or supporting 
materials in response to a Department rulemaking document or notice, 
including individuals and representatives of Federal, State or local 
governments, businesses, and other organizations.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

[FR Doc. E7-23058 Filed 11-26-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P