[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 234 (Tuesday, December 9, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57040-57041]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-22310]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket ID ED-2025-OPEPD-0022]


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of a modified system of records.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the U.S. 
Department of Education (Department) is modifying the systems of 
records listed in this notice to incorporate a routine use related to 
investigating potential fraud, waste, and abuse pursuant to Executive 
Order 14249, ``Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, 
and Abuse'' and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-25-
32, ``Preventing Improper Payments and Protecting Privacy Through Do 
Not Pay.'' This modification addresses the requirement under the 
Executive Order to establish a routine use that allows for the 
``disclosure of records to the Department of the Treasury for the 
purposes of identifying, preventing, or recouping fraud and improper 
payments, to the extent permissible by law.''

DATES: Submit your comments on these modified system of records notices 
on or before January 8, 2026.
    The routine use outlined in the section titled ``ROUTINE USES OF 
RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES OF USERS AND 
PURPOSES OF SUCH USES'' will become applicable on the expiration of the 
30-day period of public comment on January 8, 2026, unless they need to 
be changed as a result of public comment. The Department will publish 
any significant changes to the systems of records or routine uses 
resulting from public comment.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at regulations.gov. However, if you require an accommodation or 
cannot otherwise submit your comments via regulations.gov, please 
contact the program contact listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT. The Department will not accept comments submitted by fax or by 
email, or comments submitted after the comment period closes. To ensure 
that the Department does not receive duplicate copies, please submit 
your comments only once. In addition, please include the Docket ID at 
the top of your comments.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to 
submit your comments electronically. Information on using 
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, 
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site 
under ``FAQ''.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments 
received from members of the public available for public viewing in 
their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include 
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly 
available.
    Assistance to Individuals with Disabilities in Reviewing the 
Rulemaking Record: On request, we will provide an appropriate 
accommodation or auxiliary 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 accommodation or aid, please contact the 
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Frank E. Miller, Jr., Senior 
Agency Official for Privacy, Student Privacy Policy Office, Office of 
Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, U.S. Department of 
Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 
453-6631. Email: [email protected].

[[Page 57041]]

    If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and 
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 25, 2025, the President of the 
United States of America issued Executive Order 14249, ``Protecting 
America's Bank Account from Fraud, Waste, and Abuse,'' directing 
Federal agencies to share information with the U.S. Department of the 
Treasury to mitigate fraud, waste, and abuse across the Federal 
government. Section 3(d) of this Executive Order requires Federal 
agencies to modify relevant system of records notices to include a 
routine use allowing for the ``disclosure of records to the Department 
of the Treasury for the purposes of identifying, preventing, or 
recouping fraud and improper payments, to the extent permissible by 
law.''
    Subsequently, on August 20, 2025, the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) issued Memorandum M-25-32, ``Preventing Improper Payments 
and Protecting Privacy Through Do Not Pay,'' clarifying the 
modifications required to be made to system of records notices under 
Executive Order 14249. Specifically, M-25-32 requires a routine use be 
added for any system that may disclose information to the U.S. 
Department of the Treasury for identifying, preventing, or recouping 
improper payments by reviewing payment and award eligibility through 
the Do Not Pay Working System.
    The Department is modifying the systems of records identified in 
this Notice to include the routine use set forth in Section 3(d) of 
Executive Order 14249 and M-25-32, Appendix I.
    Accessible Format: On request to the program contact persons listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities 
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will 
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich 
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file, 
braille, large print, audiotape, compact disc, or other accessible 
format.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site, you can view this 
document, as well as all other Department documents published in the 
Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To use 
PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at the 
site.
    You may also access Department documents published in the Federal 
Register by using the article search feature at 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

Murray Bessette,
Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy 
Development.

    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Acting Assistant 
Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development of 
the U.S. Department of Education (Department) publishes a modified 
system of records notice, as follows:
SYSTEM NAME AND NUMBER:
    The systems of records to be modified by including the new routine 
use described in this notice are listed below. An asterisk (*) 
designates the last publication of the complete document in the Federal 
Register. Any history prior to the last publication in the Federal 
Register is omitted for clarity.

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              SORN No.                        SORN name                             FR citation
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18-04-04...........................  Education Central Automated  80 FR 80331, 64 FR 30114.*
                                      Processing System (EDCAPS).
18-11-17...........................  Financial Management System  73 FR 179.*
                                      (FMS).
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SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    Unclassified.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    The appropriate Department program, as identified in each notice 
listed above, governs each respective system of records.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S):
    The applicable program executive is identified in each notice 
listed above.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    In addition to disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C. 
552a(b), all or a portion of the records or information contained in 
the systems identifier above may be disclosed outside the Department 
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) as follows: ``To the U.S. Department of 
the Treasury when disclosure of the information is relevant to review 
payment and award eligibility through the Do Not Pay Working System for 
the purposes of identifying, preventing, or recouping improper payments 
to an applicant for, or recipient of, Federal funds, including funds 
disbursed by a state (meaning a state of the United States, the 
District of Columbia, a territory or possession of the United States, 
or a federally recognized Indian tribe) in a state-administered, 
federally funded program.''

HISTORY:
    See the notice for the systems listed above.

[FR Doc. 2025-22310 Filed 12-8-25; 8:45 am]
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