Notice2021-28135
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records
Primary source
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Published
January 11, 2022
Effective
February 10, 2022
Issuing agencies
Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia
Abstract
Pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (an independent entity established within the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (hereafter "CSOSA" or "Agency")) is issuing a public notice of its intent to create the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia Privacy Act system of records, the "Employee Religious Exception Request Information System." This system of records maintains personal religious information collected in response to religious accommodation requests for religious exception from the federally mandated vaccination requirement in the context of a public health emergency or similar health and safety incident, such as a pandemic, epidemic, natural disaster or national or regional emergency; and/or any other lawful collection of employee information or data that is necessary to ensure a safe and healthy environment for individuals who are occupying PSA facilities, attending PSA-sponsored events, or otherwise engaged in official business on behalf of the Agency. The system of records will assist the Agency in the collection, storing, dissemination, and disposal of employee religious exemption request information collected and maintained by the Agency, as referenced above.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 7 (Tuesday, January 11, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1402-1405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-28135]
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COURT SERVICES AND OFFENDER SUPERVISION AGENCY
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records
AGENCY: Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency.
ACTION: Notice of a new system of records.
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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, as
amended, the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (an
independent entity established within the Court Services and Offender
Supervision Agency (hereafter ``CSOSA'' or ``Agency'')) is issuing a
public notice of its intent to create the Pretrial Services Agency for
the District of Columbia Privacy Act system of records, the ``Employee
Religious Exception Request Information System.'' This system of
records maintains personal religious information collected in response
to religious accommodation requests for religious exception from the
federally mandated vaccination requirement in the context of a public
health emergency or similar health and safety incident, such as a
pandemic, epidemic, natural disaster or national or regional
[[Page 1403]]
emergency; and/or any other lawful collection of employee information
or data that is necessary to ensure a safe and healthy environment for
individuals who are occupying PSA facilities, attending PSA-sponsored
events, or otherwise engaged in official business on behalf of the
Agency. The system of records will assist the Agency in the collection,
storing, dissemination, and disposal of employee religious exemption
request information collected and maintained by the Agency, as
referenced above.
DATES: This new system will be effective upon publication. New or
modified routine uses will be effective February 10, 2022. Submit
comments on or before February 10, 2022.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments identified any of the following
methods:
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Follow the instructions for sending comments. The system of records
will assist the Agency in the collection, storing, dissemination, and
disposal of employee religious exception request information collected
and maintained by the Agency, as referenced above.
<bullet> Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#63100b060a0f024d10170c0806102300100c10024d040c15"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="27544f424e4b46095453484c425467445448544609404851">[email protected]</span></a>psa.gov.
<bullet> U.S. mail or hand-delivery: Office of General Counsel, 800
North Capitol Street NW, Suite 702, Washington, DC 20001
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency
name. All comments received will be posted without change to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>, including any personal information provided.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sheila Stokes, Senior Agency Official
for Privacy, 800 North Capitol Street NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC
20002, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4b38232e22272a65383f24202e380b283824382a652c243d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="fb88939e92979ad5888f94909e88bb988894889ad59c948d">[email protected]</span></a> or phone number (202) 220-5797.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
On September 9, 2021, the President issued Executive 14043,
Executive Order on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Coronavirus
Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees, requiring the COVID-19
vaccination for all Federal employees, subject to such exceptions as
required by law. On October 4, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task
Force (``Task Force'') issued guidance to Federal agencies regarding
collecting information for medical and religious accommodations. In
order to meet the requirements of Executive Order 14043 and the Task
Force recommendations, PSA is creating this system of records notice to
permit the collection of information related to religious
accommodations to the vaccination requirement. PSA maintains the
``Employee Religious Exception Request Information System'' in a
secured electronic file repository. PSA is committed to providing all
staff (employees, detailees, contractors, consultants, interns,
applicants, and volunteers), visitors, and occupants of its facilities
with a safe and healthy environment. To ensure and maintain the safety
of all occupants during standard operations and public health
emergencies or similar health and safety incidents, such as a pandemic,
epidemic, natural disasters or national and regional emergency, PSA may
develop and institute additional safety measures that require the
collection of employee religious exception information from the
federally mandated vaccination requirement. PSA is also committed to
complying with the Federal employee COVID-19 vaccination requirement
established by Executive 14043 unless the employee presents appropriate
information in support of a legally-required exception.
PSA will collect religious accommodation requests for PSA staff
(including employees, detailees, contractors, consultants, interns, and
volunteers). Information will be collected, maintained, and disclosed
in accordance with applicable law, regulations, and statutes,
including, but not limited to, the authorities referenced herein. This
newly established system will be included in the PSA inventory of
record systems.
II. Privacy Act
The Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, embodies fair information
practice principles in a statutory framework governing the means by
which Federal agencies collect, maintain, use, and disseminate
individuals' records. The Privacy Act applies to records about
individuals that are maintained in a ``system of records.'' A ``system
of records'' is a group of any records under the control of an agency
from which information is retrieved by the name of an individual or by
some identifying number, symbol, or other identifier particularly
assigned to the individual. The Privacy Act defines an individual as a
United States citizen or lawful permanent resident. Individuals may
request access to their own records that are maintained in a system of
records in the possession or under the control of PSA by complying with
Privacy Act regulations at 43 CFR part 2, subpart K, and following the
procedures outlined in the Records Access, Contesting Record, and
Notification Procedures sections of this notice.
The Privacy Act requires all federal Executive Branch agencies to
publish in the Federal Register a description denoting the existence
and character of each system of records that the agency maintains, and
the routine uses of each system. The ``Employee Religious Exception
Request Information System'' system of records notice is published in
its entirety below. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), PSA [through
CSOSA] has provided a report of this system of records to the Office of
Management and Budget and to Congress.
III. Public Participation
You should be aware your entire comment including your personally
identifiable information, such as your address, phone number, email
address, or any other personal information in your comment, may be made
publicly available at any time. While you may request to withhold your
personally identifiable information from public review, we cannot
guarantee we will be able to do so.
SYSTEM NAME:
PSA, Employee Religious Exception Request Information System.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
Unclassified.
SYSTEM LOCATION:
This system is hosted in a facility maintained by the Court
Services and Offender Supervision Agency at 800 North Capitol Street
NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20004.
SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
The system is maintained by the Pretrial Services Agency for the
District of Columbia Office of Information Technology located at 601
Indiana Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004.
AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
The authority to collect this information derives from 5 U.S.C.
8474, 5 U.S.C. 301, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq., 42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.,
44 U.S.C. 3101, Executive Order 13164 (July 28, 2000), and Executive
Order 13548 (July 10, 2021).
PURPOSE(S) OF THE SYSTEM:
The primary purpose of the secured electronic file repository is to
collect, maintain, use, and--to the extent appropriate and necessary--
disseminate employee religious exception request information collected
by the Agency in
[[Page 1404]]
the context of the federally mandated COVID-19 vaccination requirement.
The purpose of the secured electronic file repository is also to comply
with Executive Order 14043 and applicable implementation guidance. PSA
will use the information in processing religious accommodation requests
and to determine the appropriate health and safety protocols for
employees in the context of the federally mandated COVID-19
vaccination. The secured electronic file repository enables PSA to log,
track, and manage employee religious exception request information
while leveraging technology to protect and secure the privacy of the
records maintained in the system
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
Individuals covered include but are not limited to PSA employees,
detailees, contractors, consultants, interns, applicants, and
volunteers.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
The employee religious exception request information and records
may contain some or all of the following records: Religious
accommodation requests, including Request for a Religious Exception to
the COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement form, notes, religious
affiliation, or records made during consideration of requests, and
decisions on requests. These records may contain general personal data,
including but not limited to the employee's, detailee's, contractor's,
consultant's, intern's, applicant's or volunteer's name, date of birth,
religion, alias, home address, telephone number, age, and email
address, telephone number, job title, email address, work address, and
program office to which the employee is assigned.
RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
Records in this system are obtained directly from the employee,
detailee, contractor, consultant, intern, applicant, and volunteer,
therefore, the accuracy is ensured by collecting the information from
the source who may be required to certify under penalty of perjury that
the information is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge.
ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM INCLUDING CATEGORIES
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
In addition to those disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C.
552a (b) of the Privacy Act, all or a portion of the records or
information contained in this system may be disclosed outside PSA as a
routine use pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a (b)(3) as follows:
A. To the appropriate Federal, State, or local agency responsible
for investigating, prosecuting, enforcing, or implementing a statute,
rule, regulation, or order, where alone or in conjunction with other
information, a violation or potential violation of a civil or criminal
law or regulation is indicated.
B. To a Member of Congress or his or her staff on behalf of and at
the request of the individual who is the subject of the record.
C. To another Federal agency or a party in litigation before a
court or in an administrative proceeding being conducted by a Federal
agency, when the Government is a party to the judicial or
administrative proceeding, and such information is the subject of a
court order directing disclosure or deemed by PSA to be relevant and
necessary to the litigation.
D. To the National Archives and Records Administration in records
management and inspections.
E. By PSA, in the production of summary descriptive statistics and
analytical studies in support of the function for which the records are
collected and maintained, or for related workforce studies. While
published statistics and studies do not contain individual identifiers,
in some instances, the selection of elements of data included in the
study may be structured in such a way as to make the data individually
identifiable by inference.
F. To disclose information to the Department of Justice or in a
proceeding before a court, adjudicative body, or other administrative
body before which CSOSA is authorized to appear, when:
1. PSA, or any component thereof; or
2. Any employee of PSA in his or her official capacity; or
3. Any employee of PSA in his or her individual capacity where the
Department of Justice or PSA has agreed to represent the employee; or
the United States, when PSA determines that litigation is likely to
affect PSA or any of its components, is a party to litigation or has an
interest in such litigation, and the use of such records by the
Department of Justice or PSA is deemed by PSA to be relevant and
necessary to the litigation.
G. To disclose information to officials of the Merit Systems
Protection Board or the Office of the Special Counsel, when requested
in connection with appeals, special studies of the civil service and
other merit systems, review of OPM rules and regulations,
investigations of alleged or possible prohibited personnel practices,
and such other functions as promulgated in 5 U.S.C. 1205 and 1206, or
as may be authorized by law.
H. To disclose information to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (``EEOC'') when requested in connection with investigations
into alleged or possible discrimination practices in the Federal
sector, examination of Federal affirmative employment programs,
compliance by Federal agencies with the Uniform Guidelines of Employee
Selection Procedures, or other functions vested in the Commission.
I. To disclose information to the Federal Labor Relations Authority
or its General Counsel when requested in connection with investigations
of allegations of unfair labor practices of matters before the Federal
Service Impasses Panel.
J. To authorized contractors, vendors, grantees, or volunteers
performing or working on a contract, service, grant, cooperative
agreement, or job for PSA or the Federal government that is in the
performance of an official Federal duty relative to which the
information is deemed relevant.
K. To an appeal, grievance, hearing, or complaints examiner; an
equal opportunity investigator, arbitrator, or mediator; and an
exclusive representative or other person authorized to investigate or
settle a grievance, complaint, or appeal filed by an individual who is
the subject of the record.
L. For Data Breach and Mitigation Response to provide information
to appropriate agencies, entities, and persons when;
(1) PSA suspects or has confirmed that there has been a breach of
the system of records; (2) PSA has determined that as a result of the
suspected or confirmed breach there is a risk of harm to individuals,
PSA (including its information systems, programs, and operations), the
Federal Government, or national security; and (3) the disclosure made
to such agencies, entities, and persons is reasonably necessary to
assist in connection with PSA's efforts to respond to the suspected or
confirmed breach or to prevent, minimize, or remedy such harm.
M. To provide information to another Federal agency or Federal
entity, when PSA determines that information from this system of
records is reasonably necessary to assist the recipient agency or
entity in (1) responding to a suspected or confirmed breach, or (2)
preventing, minimizing, or remedying the risk of harm to individuals,
the recipient agency or entity (including its information systems,
programs and operations), the Federal Government, or
[[Page 1405]]
national security, resulting from a suspected or confirmed breach.
DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
None.
POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORAGE OF RECORDS:
Records in this system of records are stored electronically.
Electronic records are stored on CSOSA's secure network or cloud-based
software using the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program
(FedRAMP) approved platform.
POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR RETRIEVAL OF RECORDS:
Information covered by this system of records notice may be
retrieved by the name of the individual.
POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF RECORDS:
PSA will work as may be necessary with the National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA) to draft and secure approval of a records
disposition schedule to cover the records described in this SORN, to
the extent records pertaining to religious accommodation have not
already been scheduled. Until any such records disposition schedule is
approved by NARA, PSA will maintain, and not destroy, these records.
ADMINISTRATIVE, TECHNICAL AND PHYSICAL SAFEGUARDS:
Records are protected from unauthorized access and improper use
through administrative, technical, and physical security measures.
Administrative safeguards within PSA include annual information
security, privacy and record management training that are in place to
ensure the records are not accessed, used or disclosed in an
unauthorized manner. Technical security safeguards within PSA include
restrictions on computer access to authorized individuals who have a
legitimate need to know the information; required use of strong
passwords that are frequently changed; multi-factor authentication for
remote access and access to many CSOSA network components; use of
encryption for certain data types and transfers; firewalls and
intrusion detection applications; and regular review of security
procedures and best practices to enhance security. Physical safeguards
include restrictions on building access to authorized individuals,
security guard service, maintenance of records in lockable offices and
filing cabinets.
RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
Individuals requesting access to their individual records should
send a signed, written inquiry to the System Manager identified above.
CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:
Individuals contesting the content of records about themselves
contained in this system of records should follow the Notification
Procedure below.
NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES:
Individuals requesting notification of the existence of records on
themselves or requesting access to their individual records must send a
signed, written inquiry to Sheila Stokes, Senior Agency Official for
Privacy, 800 North Capitol Street NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20002,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#d0a3b8b5b9bcb1fea3a4bfbbb5a390b3a3bfa3b1feb7bfa6"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="ef9c878a86838ec19c9b80848a9caf8c9c809c8ec1888099">[email protected]</span></a> or phone number (202) 220-5797. The request
envelope (or subject line) and letter should both be clearly marked
``PRIVACY ACT INQUIRY.'' A request for notification must meet the
requirements of 43 CFR 2.235.
EXEMPTIONS PROMULGATED FOR THE SYSTEM:
None.
HISTORY:
None.
Sheila Stokes,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2021-28135 Filed 1-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3129-04-P
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This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.