Notice2024-18689
Proposed Designation of Databases to the Do Not Pay Working System
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 29, 2024
Issuing agencies
Management and Budget Office
Abstract
The Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA) authorizes the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to designate additional databases for inclusion in the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) Do Not Pay Working System under the Do Not Pay Initiative. PIIA requires OMB to provide public notice and an opportunity for comment prior to designating additional databases. In fulfillment of this requirement, OMB is publishing this Notice of Proposed Designation to provide the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed designation of: Treasury's Account Verification Services (AVS); and Treasury's Death Notification Entries (DNE). This notice has a 30-day comment period.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 168 (Thursday, August 29, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 168 (Thursday, August 29, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70208-70210]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-18689]
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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Proposed Designation of Databases to the Do Not Pay Working
System
AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget.
ACTION: Notice of proposed designation.
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SUMMARY: The Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA)
authorizes the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to designate
additional databases for inclusion in the Department of the Treasury
(Treasury) Do Not Pay Working System under the Do Not Pay Initiative.
PIIA requires OMB to provide public notice and an opportunity for
comment prior to designating additional databases. In fulfillment of
this requirement, OMB is publishing this Notice of Proposed Designation
to provide the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed
designation of: Treasury's Account Verification Services (AVS); and
Treasury's Death Notification Entries (DNE). This notice has a 30-day
comment period.
DATES: Comments must be in writing and must be received by on or before
September 30, 2024. At the conclusion of the 30-day comment period, if
OMB decides to finalize the designation, OMB will publish a notice in
the Federal Register to officially designate the databases.
ADDRESSES: Comments on this proposal must be submitted electronically
before the comment closing date to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. In submitting
comments, please search for recent submissions by OMB to find docket
OMB-2024-0006, and follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Public comments are valuable, and they will inform OMB Do Not Pay
Initiative data designation; however, OMB will not respond to
individual submissions.
Privacy Act Statement: OMB is issuing this notice pursuant to PIIA.
Submission of comments in response to this Notice of Proposed
Designation is voluntary. Comments may be used to inform sound decision
making on topics related to this Notice of Proposed Designation. Please
note that submissions received in response to this notice may be posted
on <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> or otherwise released in their entirety,
including any personal information, business confidential information,
or other sensitive information provided by the commenter. Do not
include in your submissions any copyrighted material; information of a
confidential nature, such as personal or proprietary information; or
any information you would not like to be made publicly available.
Comments are maintained under the OMB Public Input System of Records,
OMB/INPUT/01; the system of records notice accessible at 88 FR 20913
(<a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/07/2023-07452/privacy-act-of-1974-system-of-records">https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/07/2023-07452/privacy-act-of-1974-system-of-records</a>) includes a list of routine uses
associated with the collection of this information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rebecca Rowe, Policy Analyst, Office
of Federal Financial Management, OMB (telephone: 202-395-3993; email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7c2c1d0511191208351208191b0e1508053c13111e5219130c521b130a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0b5b6a72666e657f42657f6e6c79627f724b646669256e647b256c647d">[email protected]</span></a>).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: PIIA codified the Do Not Pay Initiative in
Title 31 of the U.S. Code. Prior to enactment of PIIA, the Do Not Pay
Initiative was already established by law and underway across the
Federal Government.\1\ The Do Not Pay Initiative includes multiple
resources designed to help Federal agencies in the Executive Branch
(hereafter ``Federal agencies''), the judicial and legislative branches
of the Federal Government, and Federally Funded State Administered
(FFSA) programs review payment and award eligibility for purposes of
identifying and preventing improper payments. As part of the Do Not Pay
Initiative, OMB designated Treasury to host the Do Not Pay Working
System, which is a centralized portal through which users can search
multiple databases at one time to obtain information about potential
payees and awardees. PIIA \2\ authorizes OMB to designate additional
databases for inclusion in the Do Not
[[Page 70209]]
Pay Initiative \3\ if the database substantially assists in preventing
improper payments.
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\1\ The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement
Act of 2012, Public Law 112-248, first established the Do Not Pay
Initiative.
\2\ Codified at 31 U.S.C. 3351-58.
\3\ 31 U.S.C. 3354(b)(1)(B). OMB designated the Department of
the Treasury to host the Do Not Pay Working System. The Do Not Pay
Working System is part of the broader Do Not Pay Initiative.
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Do Not Pay Working System Privacy, Security, and Legal Implications
Treasury reports that all Do Not Pay Working System users and
administrators are required to sign rules of behavior stipulating their
responsibilities to minimize risks associated with the use of specific
data. Treasury also reports that it has dedicated resources to
establish a privacy program based on applicable requirements, the Fair
Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), and industry best practices.
Treasury reports that its privacy program supports various internal
controls in collaboration with Treasury leadership and legal counsel,
as well that projects are reviewed by Treasury through a data usage
governance process. Treasury has responsibility for compliance with
privacy restrictions and manages risks associated with the use of
specific data to reduce improper payments for Do Not Pay Working System
users.
Treasury risk mitigation measures for the Do Not Pay Working System
include maintaining a current and compliant Security Accreditation and
Authorization (SA&A) package, in accordance with Federal Information
Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements. Additionally, to reduce
the likelihood of unauthorized access, login to the Do Not Pay Working
System requires Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials,
<a href="http://Login.gov">Login.gov</a> account management, or ID.ME.
Overview of Designating AVS and DNE
OMB has reviewed the recommendation of Treasury to designate the
following two databases for inclusion in the Do Not Pay Working System:
1. AVS: Fiscal Service, under its statutory authorities, provides
AVS through a qualified financial institution serving as a designated
financial agent. AVS is used widely in both the private and public
sectors for bank account validation and identity validation. AVS is
most often used prior to initiating a payment to prevent payment fraud
and other administrative returns. Bank account verification is a
process that confirms the status and ownership of a bank account and is
commonly used for electronic payments to help avoid errors, reduce
fraud, and protect the accuracy of electronic transactions. Identity
verification is used to verify the identity of potential payee or
awardee individuals and businesses.
2. DNE: Fiscal Service's DNE data is a subset of its payment/post-
payment data provided by federally funded programs disbursing through
Fiscal Service. It contains information regarding payees who have been
identified as deceased by paying agencies. DNEs are sent to financial
institutions to flag a decedent's account to prevent the acceptance of
any further post-death Federal benefit payments.
OMB proposes to designate these databases for inclusion in the Do
Not Pay Working System because these databases will substantially
assist in preventing improper payments. In making this determination,
OMB considered the following: (1) statutory or other limitations on the
use and sharing of specific data; (2) privacy restrictions and risks
associated with specific data; (3) likelihood that the data will
strengthen program integrity across programs and agencies; (4) benefits
of streamlining access to the data through the central Do Not Pay
Initiative; (5) costs associated with expanding or centralizing access,
including modifications needed to system interfaces or other
capabilities in order to make data accessible; and (6) other policy and
stakeholder considerations, as appropriate.
Considerations for Designating AVS and DNE
Fiscal Service has prepared justifications for each of the six
factors, as summarized below. These justifications have been reviewed
by OMB.
1. Statutory or other limitations on the use and sharing of
specific data:
a. There are no statutory or other limitations that would prevent
the Do Not Pay Working System from using AVS or DNE data.
2. Privacy restrictions and risks associated with specific data:
a. In evaluating potential privacy risks and compliance measures
associated with the designation of these databases, Fiscal Service
conducted separate privacy risk assessments for both AVS and DNE. The
privacy risk assessments for AVS and DNE aimed to: ensure conformance
with applicable legal, regulatory, and policy requirements for privacy;
determine the risks and effects; and evaluate protections and
alternative processes to mitigate potential privacy risks.
i. AVS: Fiscal Service provides AVS through a qualified financial
institution serving as a designated financial agent. The relationship
between Fiscal Service and the applicable financial agent is formalized
through a Financial Agency Agreement (FAA). Fiscal Service's AVS
utilizes a commercial database source of real-time bank data from a
network of member banks. The database will be validating identity and
bank account information and verifying that the bank account owner
matches the intended payee. This information can be used to assist in
detecting and preventing government payment fraud. Fiscal Service has
determined that AVS does not by itself meet the definition of a system
of records under the Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act),\4\ as amended,
which is codified at 5 U.S.C. 552a(a)(5).\5\ However, Do Not Pay
Working System users will compare information contained within their
respective systems of records (as applicable) against information in
the AVS commercial database source. Additionally, and as noted above,
before a customer receives access to the Do Not Pay Working System, it
is required that the customer sign the Do Not Pay Working System Rules
and Behaviors Agreement.
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\4\ Public Law 93-579.
\5\ The AVS is not under the control of the Fiscal Service, but
rather is provided by its designated financial agent.
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b. DNE: DNEs pertain to deceased persons. The beneficiary/recipient
in the DNE is identified as deceased by the originator of the DNE, and,
therefore, the DNE data maintained by Fiscal Service would not be
covered by the Privacy Act. However, Fiscal Service still employs
privacy protections for this information. To ensure that all
information (including DNEs) within the overarching Payments, Claims,
and Enhanced Reconciliation (PACER) information system security
boundary meets minimum security and privacy controls, both living and
deceased individuals are afforded the same robust privacy safeguards
inherited from the boundary level.
3. Likelihood that the data will strengthen program integrity
across programs and agencies:
a. AVS: Access to AVS will strengthen program integrity across
programs and agencies by identifying missing, incorrect, and fraudulent
account information. In addition to identifying improper payments,
implementation of AVS in the front-end of the payment cycle will help
agencies prevent improper payments from being sent to the wrong account
and individual. AVS will also assist the Federal government in
preventing certification of improper payments before disbursement,
rather
[[Page 70210]]
than pursuing a collection after the payment is made.
b. DNE: DNEs would strengthen program integrity across programs and
agencies as an additional high-quality source of death information.
DNEs are assertions by Federal agencies that a beneficiary or other
payee has died. Matches to records contained in the DNE database are
expected to be higher confidence than larger datasets as each
individual death entry has been verified by the initiating agency
according to their due diligence procedure(s).
4. Benefits of streamlining access to the data through the central
Do Not Pay Initiative:
a. AVS: It will be beneficial to streamline access to AVS through
the Do Not Pay Working System. AVS is provided to Treasury by a
financial agent whose services without a central offering would require
individual acquisition efforts from non-Treasury agencies. Also, as the
operator of the Do Not Pay Working System, Fiscal Service will have the
opportunity to offer AVS to FFSA programs. AVS data can be used in
coordination with other Do Not Pay and Fiscal Service data products to
verify a range of eligibility criteria.
b. DNE: It would be beneficial to streamline access to DNE through
the Do Not Pay Working System. DNE records are currently owned by
Fiscal Service but are not yet being used across agencies and payments.
By designating DNE and expanding its use through the Do Not Pay Working
System, more agencies will gain access to a high-quality database.
5. Costs associated with expanding or centralizing access,
including modifications needed to system interfaces or other
capabilities in order to make data accessible:
a. AVS: Fiscal Service has projected that the cost of AVS would be
roughly $11.8 million over the course of five fiscal years. Any costs
associated with modifications to system interfaces can be absorbed into
the scope of regular development schedules.
b. DNE: Do Not Pay Working System access to DNE data can be
expanded at no additional development cost.
6. Other policy and stakeholder considerations:
a. AVS: AVS has been leveraged by Fiscal Service's Office of
Payment Integrity (OPI) for analytics projects related to account
verification. OPI estimates a return on investment (ROI) between $48
and $431 per dollar spent on AVS searches.
b. DNE: There are no other policy and stakeholder considerations
for DNE.
Shalanda Young,
Director, Office of Management & Budget.
[FR Doc. 2024-18689 Filed 8-28-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3110-01-P
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