[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 74 (Thursday, April 17, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21814-21816]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-08756]


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RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD


Privacy Act of 1974; Revised Systems of Records

AGENCY: Railroad Retirement Board.

ACTION: Notice: Publication of a New Routine Use and Records Retention 
and Disposition of RRB Privacy Act Systems of Records, RRB-5 and RRB-
29.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this document is to publish a new routine use 
to allow disclosure of information to the Internal Revenue Service as 
required by the Affordable Care Act for our Privacy Act Systems of 
Records, RRB-5 and RRB-29. We also updated our records retention and 
disposal for RRB-29.

DATES: These changes become effective as proposed without further 
notice on June 16, 2014. We will file a report of the new routine use 
in RRB Systems of Records Notice for RRB-5 and a new routine use and 
updated records retention and disposition for RRB-29 to the Committee 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of 
Representatives; and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Ms. Martha P. Rico, Secretary to the Board, 
Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 
60611-2092.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Timothy Grant, Chief Privacy 
Officer, Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, 
Illinois 60611-2092; telephone 312-751-4869, or email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We are adding a new routine use to our 
Privacy Act Systems of Records Notices for RRB-5 and RRB-29 to provide 
information to the Internal Revenue Service as required under the 
Affordable Care Act. We are also updating our records retention and 
disposition for RRB-29 to reflect their approved records retention 
schedule from the National Archives and Records Administration.

    Dated: April 11, 2014.

    By Authority of the Board.
Martha P. Rico,
Secretary to the Board.
* * * * *
RRB-5

SYSTEM NAME:
    Master File of Creditable Service and Compensation of Railroad 
Employees.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, 844 Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 
60611.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    All individuals with creditable service under the Railroad 
Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    Name, social security number, RRB claim number, annuity beginning 
date, date of birth, sex, last employer identification number, amount 
of daily payrate, separation allowance or severance payment, creditable 
service and compensation after 1937, home address, and date of death.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    Section 7(b)(6) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 (45 U.S.C. 
231f(b)(6)) and section 12(l) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance 
Act (45 U.S.C. 362(l)).

PURPOSE(S):
    The purpose of this system is to store railroad earnings of 
railroad employees which are used to determine entitlement to and 
amount of benefits payable under the Railroad Retirement Act, the 
Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act and the Social Security Act, if 
applicable. The records are updated daily based on earnings reports 
received from railroad employers and the Social Security Administration 
and are stored in the Employment Data Maintenance Application database 
and the Separation Allowance Lump Sum Award (SALSA) Master File.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS, AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    a. Records may be transferred to the Social Security Administration 
to correlate disability freeze actions and in the cases where the 
railroad employees do not acquire 120 creditable service months before 
retirement or death or have no current connection with the railroad 
industry, to enable SSA to credit the employee with the compensation 
and to pay or deny benefits.
    b. Yearly service months, cumulative service months, yearly 
creditable compensation, and cumulative creditable compensation may be 
released to the employees directly or through their respective 
employer.
    c. Service months and earnings may be released to employers or 
former employers for correcting or reconstructing earnings records for 
railroad employees.
    d. Employee identification and potential entitlement may be 
furnished to the Social Security Administration, Bureau of Supplemental 
Security

[[Page 21815]]

Income, to Federal, State, and local welfare or public aid agencies to 
assist them in processing application for benefits under their 
respective programs.
    e. Employee identification and other pertinent information may be 
released to the Department of Labor in conjunction with payment of 
benefits under the Federal Coal Mine and Safety Act.
    f. The last employer information may be disclosed to the Department 
of Health and Human Services in conjunction with the Parent Locator 
Service.
    g. Pursuant to a request from an employer covered by the Railroad 
Retirement Act or the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, information, 
regarding the employee's potential eligibility for unemployment, 
sickness or retirement benefits may be released to the requesting 
employer for the purpose of determining entitlement to and the rates of 
private supplemental pension, sickness or unemployment benefits and to 
calculate estimated benefits due from the employer.
    h. If a request for information pertaining to an individual is made 
by an official of a labor organization of which the individual is a 
member and the request is made on behalf of the individual, information 
from the record of the individual concerning his anticipated benefit 
may be disclosed to the labor organization official.
    i. Records may be disclosed in a court proceeding relating to any 
claims for benefits by the beneficiary under the Railroad Retirement 
Act or the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act and may be disclosed 
during the course of an administrative appeal to individuals who need 
the records to prosecute or decide the appeal or to individuals who are 
requested to provide information relative to an issue involved in the 
appeal.
    j. All records may be disclosed to the Social Security 
Administration for purposes of administration of the Social Security 
Act.
    k. Service and compensation and last employer information may be 
furnished, upon request, to state agencies operating unemployment or 
sickness insurance programs for the purposes of their administering 
such programs.
    l. The name, address and gender of a railroad worker may be 
released to a Member of Congress when the Member requests it in order 
that he or she may communicate with the worker about legislation which 
affects the railroad retirement or railroad unemployment and sickness 
insurance program.
    m. The service history of an employee (such as whether the employee 
had service before a certain date and whether the employee had at least 
a given number of years of service) may be disclosed to AMTRAK when 
such information would be needed by AMTRAK to make a determination 
whether to award a travel pass to either the employee or the employee's 
widow.
    n. (NEW) Records may be released to the Internal Revenue Service 
for the sole purpose of computing the additional Medicare tax shortfall 
amount. Records released will include the Social Security Number (SSN), 
employer name and Employer Identification Number (EIN). Records 
provided shall not be used for IRS audits or any other unauthorized 
purposes.

DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
    None.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, 
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
    Paper, Magnetic tape and Magnetic disk.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    Social security number, claim number and name.

SAFEGUARDS:
    Paper: Maintained in areas not accessible to the public in metal 
filing cabinents. Offices are locked during non-business hours. 
Building has 24 hour on-site security officers, closed circuit 
television monitoring and intrusion detection systems.
    Magnetic tape and magnetic disk: Computer and computer storage 
rooms are restricted to authorized personnel; on-line query safeguards 
include a lock/unlock password system, a terminal oriented transaction 
matrix, role based access controls and audit trail. For electronic 
records, system securities are established in accordance with National 
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines, including 
network monitoring, defenses in-depth, incident response and forensics. 
In addition to the on-line query safeguards, they include encryption of 
all data transmitted and exclusive use of leased telephone lines.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
    Paper: Retained five years and destroyed in accordance with NIST 
guidelines. Previous years ledger put in storage when current year 
ledger is complete.
    Magnetic tape: Magnetic tape records are retained for 90 days and 
then written over following NIST guidelines. For disaster recovery 
purposes certain tapes are stored 12-18 months.
    Magnetic disk: Continually updated and permanently retained. When 
magnetic disk or other electronic media is no longer servicable, it is 
sanitized in accordance with NIST guidelines.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
    Office of Programs--Director of Policy and Systems, Railroad 
Retirement Board, 844 Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611-2092.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
    Requests for information regarding an individual's record should be 
in writing, including the full name, social security number and 
railroad retirement claim number (if any) of the individual. Before any 
information about any record will be released, the individual may be 
required to provide proof of identity, or authorization from the 
individual to permit release of information. Such requests should be 
sent to: Office of Programs--Assessment & Training, Chief of Employer 
Service and Training Center, Railroad Retirement Board, 844 Rush 
Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611-2092.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE:
    See Notification section above.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURE:
    See Notification section above.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Railroad employer.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.
* * * * *
RRB-29

SYSTEM NAME:
    Railroad Employees' Annual Gross Earnings Master File.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, 844 Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 
60611.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    None.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    Railroad workers whose social security account number ends in 
``30''.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    Gross earnings by individual by month, quarter or year.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    Section 7(c)(2) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 (45 U.S.C. 
231f(c)(2)).

[[Page 21816]]

PURPOSE(S):
    The purpose of this system is to maintain gross earnings reports 
for Financial Interchange sample employees for use in the calculation 
of payroll tax amounts used in the financial interchange 
determinations.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS, AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    a. (New) Records may be released to the Internal Revenue Service 
for the sole purpose of computing the additional Medicare tax shortfall 
amount. Records released will include the Social Security Number (SSN), 
employer name, Employer Identification Number (EIN) and gross earnings 
for a 1-percent sample of active railroad employees in the reference 
year (per 20 CFR 209.13). Records provided shall not be used for IRS 
audits or any other unauthorized purposes.

DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
    None.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, 
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
    Paper, Magnetic tape and Magnetic disk.

RETRIEVABILITY:
    Social security account number.

SAFEGUARDS:
    Paper: Maintained in areas not accessible to the public in metal 
filing cabinents. Access is limited to authorizied RRB employees. 
Offices are locked during non-business hours. Building has 24 hour on-
site security officers, closed circuit television monitoring and 
intrusion detection systems.
    Magnetic tape and magnetic disk: Computer and computer storage 
rooms are restricted to authorized personnel; on-line query safeguards 
include a lock/unlock password system, a terminal oriented transaction 
matrix, role based access controls and audit trail. For electronic 
records, system securities are established in accordance with National 
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines, including 
network monitoring, defenses in-depth, incident response and forensics. 
In addition to the on-line query safeguards, they include encryption of 
all data transmitted and exclusive use of leased telephone lines.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL: (Updated)
    Paper: Original reports are retained for 2\1/2\ years and work 
files are retained for three years. Financial interchange tabulations 
are retained indefinitely, and all other tabulations are retained for 
two years, After the appropriate retention periods, items are destroyed 
in accordance with NIST guidelines.
    Magnetic tape: Original reports on magnetic tape are retained for 
2\1/2\ years and work files are retained for one year. The final 
summarized file is retained for two years. After the appropriate 
retention periods, original reports are returned to employers and all 
other magnetic tapes are written over following NIST guidelines.
    Magnetic disk and electronic media: Original reports are retained 
for 2\1/2\ years, and work files are retained for three years. The 
final summarized file is retained for five years. Financial interchange 
tabulations are retained indefinitely. When magnetic disk or other 
electronic media is no longer required or serviceable, it is sanitized 
in accordance with NIST guidelines.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
    Chief of Benefit and Employment Analysis, Bureau of the Actuary, 
U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, 844 N. Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois 
60611-2092

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
    Requests for information regarding an individual's record should be 
in writing addressed to the System Manager identified above, including 
the full name and social security account number and claim number of 
the individual. Before information about any record will be released, 
the System Manager may require the individual to provide proof of 
identity or require the requester to furnish an authorization from the 
individual to permit release of information.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE:
    See Notification section above.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURE:
    See Notification section above.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Railroad employers.

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.
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[FR Doc. 2014-08756 Filed 4-16-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7905-01-P