[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 236 (Monday, December 10, 2007)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 69616-69618]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-23786]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

20 CFR Parts 401 and 402

[Docket No. SSA-2007-0067]
RIN 0960-AG14


Privacy and Disclosure of Official Records and Information

AGENCY: Social Security Administration (SSA).

ACTION: Final rules with request for comment.

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SUMMARY: We are revising our rules to allow us to better preserve the 
anonymity of, and to better protect the physical well-being of, our 
employees who reasonably believe that they are at risk of injury or 
other harm if certain employment information about them is disclosed. 
These changes in the rules are intended to ensure uniform application 
of the policy for at-risk employees. We are again requesting comments 
on these final rules because we revised the language of the proposed 
rules to clarify our intent.

DATES: Effective Date: January 9, 2008.
    Comment Date: To be sure your comments are considered, we must 
receive them by February 8, 2008.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods. 
Regardless of which method you choose, to ensure that we can associate 
your comments with the correct regulation for consideration, you must 
state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA-2007-0067:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. 
(This is the preferred method for submitting your comments.) In the 
Search Documents section, select ``Social Security Administration'' 
from the agency drop-down menu, then click ``submit''. In the Docket ID 
Column, locate SSA-2007-0067 and then click ``Add Comments'' in the 
``Comments Add/Due By'' column.
     Telefax to (410) 966-2830.
     Letter to the Commissioner of Social Security, P.O. Box 
17703, Baltimore, MD 21235-7703.
     Deliver your comments to the Office of Regulations, Social 
Security Administration, 922 Altmeyer Building, 6401 Security 
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on 
regular business days.
    Comments are posted on the Federal eRulemaking Portal. You may also 
inspect them on regular business days by making arrangements with the 
contact person named in this preamble.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Edie McCracken, Social Insurance 
Specialist, Office of Public Disclosure, 3-A-6 Operations Building, 
6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401, (410) 965-6117. For 
information on eligibility or filing for benefits, call our national 
toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or visit our 
Internet Web site, Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Version

    The electronic file of this document is available on the date of 
publication in the Federal Register at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html.

Background

    We approved a recommendation from a national committee on security 
to implement a nationwide program to enhance the safety and security of 
our employees who are victims, or potential victims, of domestic 
violence. It was intended to safeguard the anonymity of at-risk 
employees when requests for their work location and/or phone number 
were received from individuals posing a threat to their personal 
safety, by delaying the disclosure of the information when certain 
conditions were met. This process would have entailed a change in our 
policy that now permits such information requests to be honored. While 
no action was ever taken on the recommendation, we are amending our 
rules to reflect a similar approach that will strengthen our privacy 
and disclosure rules to better safeguard at-risk employees.

[[Page 69617]]

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

    We proposed a modified version of the recommendation to implement a 
nationwide program to enhance the safety and security of our employees 
who are at risk or victims, or potential victims, of domestic violence 
and called it the Identity Protection Program (IPP). We published a 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on June 6, 
2006 (71 FR 32494).
    The NPRM proposed to:
     Amend 20 CFR part 401, Appendix A (b)(3)(c)(4) by removing 
the sentence, ``Location of duty station, including room number and 
telephone number,'' and
     Revise 20 CFR 402.45 by adding a new paragraph (e). New 
paragraph Sec.  402.45(e) will describe the rules governing the release 
of personally identifiable information (employees' telephone numbers 
and duty stations, including room numbers, bay designations, or other 
identifying information regarding buildings or places of employment).
    We have made some revisions to the rules published in the NPRM due 
to the comments we received. We describe these revisions and our 
reasons for making them below.

Comments on the NPRM

    When we published the NPRM, we provided the public with a 60-day 
comment period. Four individual members of the public and one advocacy 
organization submitted comments. Because some of the comments submitted 
were detailed, we have summarized the views presented in the comments 
and are responding to the issues raised in the comments that were 
within the scope of the proposed rules.
    Comment: Two members of the public expressed support and agreed 
with the proposal to strengthen our privacy and disclosure rules to 
better safeguard at-risk employees. One commenter urged us to promptly 
move forward with the proposal.
    Response: We appreciate the commenters' support of our proposal.
    Comment: Two members of the public and the advocacy organization 
disagreed with the proposal to strengthen our privacy and disclosure 
rules to better safeguard at-risk employees. They were concerned that 
the public would not have access to our employees when conducting 
claims-related business with us. These three commenters asserted that 
the proposed rules would not improve our service delivery because the 
public would not be able to directly contact the employee who handled a 
specific claim related issue or action.
    Response: These final rules are not intended to impede the prompt 
and courteous service that the public is entitled to receive. We do not 
believe that these changes will negatively affect the service that we 
provide to the public. Telephone calls from the public are received in 
each local field office through one general telephone number. For the 
purpose of conducting ongoing SSA business, however, it may be 
necessary for employees to provide a direct telephone number by which 
they can be reached when assisting members of the public. Under these 
rules, employees will still continue to receive telephone calls 
directly from those members of the public whom they are assisting. Our 
rules would provide an additional level of protection for employees who 
have reason to believe that disclosure of their work location and 
telephone number could add to their risk of injury or other harm. These 
final rules will allow us to use our discretion to withhold the work 
location and/or telephone number of employees who are victims (or 
potential victims) of domestic violence.
    We realize from these comments that the description of our intent 
was misinterpreted. Therefore, we have rewritten Sec.  402.45(e) to 
clarify our intent. Although we are issuing these rules as final rules, 
we are also requesting comments on the text of Sec.  402.45(e), as it 
differs from what we proposed.

Other Changes

    In our NPRM (71 FR 32494) published on June 6, 2006, we incorrectly 
identified the text in Appendix A to part 401 we proposed to remove. 
The correct identification is paragraph (c)(4) of Appendix A to part 
401. We have corrected it in these final rules.

Regulatory Procedures

Executive Order 12866, as Amended

    We have consulted with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
and determined that these final rules meet the criteria for a 
significant regulatory action under Executive Order 12866, as amended. 
Thus, they were subject to OMB review.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    We certify that these final rules do not have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities because they 
affect only individuals. Thus, a regulatory flexibility analysis as 
provided in the Regulatory Flexibility Act, as amended, is not 
required.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    These final rules impose no reporting or recordkeeping requirements 
subject to OMB clearance.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Nos. 96.001, Social 
Security--Disability Insurance; 96.002, Social Security--Retirement 
Insurance; 96.004, Social Security--Survivors Insurance; 96.006, 
Supplemental Security Income)

List of Subjects in 20 CFR Parts 401 and 402

    Administrative practice and procedure, Freedom of information, 
Privacy.

    Dated: August 29, 2007.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.

    Editorial Note: This document was received at the Office of the 
Federal Register on Monday, December 3, 2007.

0
For the reasons set out in the preamble, we are amending Appendix A of 
part 401 and part 402 of chapter III of title 20 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations as set forth below:

PART 401--PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE OF OFFICIAL RECORDS AND 
INFORMATION

0
1. The authority citation for part 401 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: Secs. 205, 702(a)(5), 1106, and 1141 of the Social 
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 405, 902(a)(5), 1306, and 1320b-11); 5 
U.S.C. 552 and 552a; 8 U.S.C. 1360; 26 U.S.C. 6103; 30 U.S.C. 923.

Appendix A--[Amended]

0
2. Appendix A is amended by removing paragraph (b)(3)(c)(4).

PART 402--AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION AND RECORDS TO THE PUBLIC

0
1. The authority citation for part 402 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: Secs. 205, 702(a)(5), and 1106 of the Social Security 
Act; (42 U.S.C. 405, 902(a)(5), and 1306); 5 U.S.C. 552 and 552a; 8 
U.S.C. 1360; 18 U.S.C. 1905; 26 U.S.C. 6103; 30 U.S.C. 923b; 31 
U.S.C. 9701; E.O. 12600, 52 FR 23781, 3 CFR, 1987 Comp., p. 235.


0
2. Section 402.45 is amended by adding paragraph (e) to read as 
follows:


Sec.  402.45  Availability of records.

* * * * *
    (e) Federal employees. We will not disclose information when the 
information sought is lists of telephone numbers and/or duty stations 
of one or more Federal employees if the disclosure, as determined at 
the

[[Page 69618]]

discretion of the official responsible for custody of the information, 
would place employee(s) at risk of injury or other harm. Also, we will 
not disclose the requested information if the information is protected 
from mandatory disclosure under an exemption of the Freedom of 
Information Act.

[FR Doc. E7-23786 Filed 12-7-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4191-02-P