System of Records Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 106 / Friday, June 2, 2006 / Notices

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entries for monthly payment. A Periodic
Monthly Statement will list Periodic
Daily Statements that have been
designated for monthly payment. The
Periodic Monthly Statement can be
created on a national basis by an ABI
filer. If an importer chooses to file the
Periodic Monthly Statement on a
national basis, it must use its filer code
and schedule and pay the monthly
statements. The Periodic Monthly
Statement will be routed under existing
CBP procedures. Brokers will only
view/receive information that they have
filed on an importer’s behalf. ACE will
not route a Periodic Monthly Statement
to a broker through ABI that lists
information filed by another broker. See
69 FR 5362.
Periodic Monthly Statement Process
Available for Filing Entries for Split
Shipments and Unassembled or
Disassembled Entities Imported on
Multiple Conveyances
Through this notice, and beginning on
the effective dates described earlier in
the document, CBP announces that
importers choosing to file a single entry
involving split shipments consistent
with the provisions of 19 CFR
141.57(d)(1) or unassembled or
disassembled entities consistent with
the provisions of 19 CFR 141.58(d)(1)
may pay estimated duties and fees
attributable to those entries through the
method set forth in the National
Customs Automation Program (NCAP)
test describing the periodic monthly
payment statement process. The date of
filing of that entry identifies the month
in which entry is filed and establishes
the obligation to pay estimated duties
and fees by the 15th working day of the
month following the month in which
entry is filed.
Importers choosing to file incremental
entries involving split shipments
consistent with the provisions of 19 CFR
141.57(d)(2) or unassembled or
disassembled entities consistent with
the provisions 19 CFR 141.58(d)(2) as a
special permit for immediate delivery
after the arrival of the first portion
(Incremental Release) also may pay
estimated duties and fees attributable to
that entry through the method set forth
in the National Customs Automation
Program (NCAP) test describing the
periodic monthly payment statement
process. The date that the importer
obtains release of the first portion of the
entity as provided in sections 141.57(e)
or 141.58(e) will identify the month that
the entry is filed and establishes the
obligation to pay estimated duties and
fees by the 15th working day of the
month following the month in which
entry is filed.

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Previous Notices and Suspension of
Regulations
All requirements and aspects of the
ACE test discussed in previous notices
are hereby incorporated by reference
into this notice and continue to be
applicable, unless changed by this
notice. Examples of such requirements
and aspects are the rules regarding
misconduct under the test and the
required evaluation of the test (both of
which are detailed in the notice
published at 67 FR 21800 and 69 FR
5362).
During the testing of the Periodic
Monthly Statement Process, CBP is
suspending provisions in Parts 24, 141,
142, and 143 of the CBP regulations
(Title 19 of the Code of Federal
Regulations) pertaining to financial,
accounting, entry procedures, and
deposit of estimated duties and fees.
Absent any specified alternate
procedure, the current regulations
apply.
Dated: May 26, 2006.
Jayson P. Ahern,
Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field
Operations.
[FR Doc. E6–8499 Filed 6–1–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9111–14–P

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
Federal Emergency Management
Agency
[FEMA–2006–0001]
RIN 1660–ZA13

Privacy Act of 1974; The National
Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)
Claims Appeals System of Records
AGENCY: Federal Emergency
Management Agency, Department of
Homeland Security.
ACTION: Notice of Privacy Act system of
records.
SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Privacy Act of
1974, the Department of Homeland
Security gives notice that the Federal
Emergency Management Agency is
establishing a new system of records
entitled ‘‘The National Flood Insurance
Program Claims Appeals Process.’’ This
appeals process is mandated by section
205 of the Bunning-BereuterBlumenauer Flood Insurance Reform
Act of 2004.
DATES: The new system of records will
be effective July 3, 2006, unless
comments are received that result in a
contrary determination.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by DHS DOCKET NUMBER:

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FEMA–2006–0001 by one of the
following methods:
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
E-mail: FEMA-RULES@dhs.gov.
Include Docket Number FEMA–2006–
0001 in the subject line of the message.
Fax: (202) 646–4536.
Mail: Rules Docket Clerk, Federal
Emergency Management Agency, Office
of General Counsel, Room 406, 500 C
Street SW., Washington, DC 20472;
Maureen Cooney, Acting Chief Privacy
Officer, 601 S. 12th Street, Arlington,
VA 22202.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Rena Y. Kim, Privacy Act Officer, Room
406, 500 C Street, SW., Washington, DC
20472; (telephone) (202) 646–3949;
Maureen Cooney, Acting Chief Privacy
Office, 601 S. 12th Street, Arlington, VA
22202.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant
to the Privacy Act of 1974, the
Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) is establishing a new system of
records to be maintained by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA). The new system of records is
entitled the ‘‘National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP) Claims Appeals
Process.’’
Congress created the NFIP (42 U.S.C.
4001) in 1968 to reduce future flood
losses through flood hazard
identification, floodplain management
(i.e., land use controls and building
codes), and insurance protection. NFIP
coverage is available to all owners and
occupants of insurable property in a
participating community upon payment
of a premium.
FEMA was designated by Congress to
be the administrator of the NFIP. In
1983, FEMA partnered with the private
insurance industry in its efforts to
expand the NFIP policy base. This
partnership between FEMA and the
private sector property insurance
companies is termed the Write Your
Own (WYO) program. Under the WYO
program, private insurers agree to issue
flood policies in their own name and
take responsibility for policy
administration, claims processing,
marketing, and sales. Private insurers
handle all claims issued in their name,
and adjust and settle flood loss claims
consistent with their general claims
practices. Over 95 percent of flood
polices in force are maintained by WYO
Companies.
Because the WYO Companies are
responsible for all administrative
activities associated with the flood
insurance policies they write, they also
maintain policyholder information for

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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 106 / Friday, June 2, 2006 / Notices

the policies they write. FEMA, however,
has access to these records as part of its
oversight role. Once FEMA obtains the
WYO Company’s records of an
individual policyholder, the records
become a part of FEMA’s system of
records.
The remaining policies in force are
written and maintained directly by
FEMA via a contractor known as the
NFIP Servicing Agent, and are
considered part of FEMA’s system of
records. The NFIP Servicing Agent
serves as a private insurance company
and writes NFIP flood insurance
policies on behalf of the Federal
government.
FEMA also utilizes a contractor to
support program management and
oversight activities. This contractor is
responsible for the administration of
FEMA’s system of records for the NFIP
insurance policy information.
Section 205 of the Bunning-BereuterBlumenauer Flood Insurance Reform
Act of 2004 (FIRA), 42 U.S.C. 4011,
requires that FEMA establish an appeal
process for flood insurance
policyholders who wish to dispute
decisions made by any insurance agent
or adjuster, insurance company, or by a
FEMA employer or contractor with
respect to:
• Claims (request for payment
associated with losses from floods);
• Proofs of Loss (statement of the
amount claimed, sworn, and signed by
the policyholder); and
• Loss estimates relating to the flood
insurance policy.
The NFIP Appeals Procedure provides
the policyholder a voluntary option for
resolving problems relating to flood
insurance without proceeding to a
lawsuit. Because this appeals process is
completely voluntary, a policyholder
still has the option of instituting a
lawsuit without utilizing this process. In
other words, the appeals process is not
an administrative prerequisite to the
policyholder’s option of proceeding
directly to litigation.
When a policyholder opts to appeal,
FEMA will request information relevant
to their appeal that includes the
following personally identifying
information:
• Individual Policyholder Name: The
name of the person requesting an
appeal.
• Policyholder Address: Policyholder
address/place where the loss occurred,
which may be a home address.
• Policyholder Telephone Number:
Policyholder telephone, where the
individual can be reached, which may
be a home phone number.
• Personal Property Claimed: A list of
personal property claimed as damaged

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and the subject of the appeal and
relevant information.
• Policyholder statement of facts: The
policyholder’s statement of why he is
contesting the claim’s disposition and
supporting proof or records to document
the policyholder’s position.
• Appeal letter from the policyholder.
May include any of the ‘‘individually
identifying’’ information already
described above.
• Appeal decision letter from
FEMA—This decision letter will include
FEMA’s appeal decision and inform the
policyholder of further recourse with
respect to the disposition of the claim.
The appeals process authorized by
FIRA is intended to resolve claim issues
and is not intended to grant coverage or
limits that are not provided by the
policy contract. Filing an appeal does
not waive any of the policyholder’s
requirements for perfecting a claim, nor
does it extend any of the time
limitations established in the policy
insurance contract. Participating in the
appeals process is completely voluntary
on the part of the individual
policyholder. The appeal process is not
an administrative prerequisite to
litigation, but is an additional remedy
available to policyholders. Therefore,
only the information required to resolve
the dispute will be requested.
This proposed new system of records
developed for the NFIP Claims Appeals
Process will be used for this appeals
process only.
The Privacy Act embodies fair
information principles in a statutory
framework governing the means by
which the United States Government
collects, maintains, uses, and
disseminates personally identifiable
information. The Privacy Act applies to
information that is 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
the individual or by some identifying
number such as property address, or
mailing address symbol, assigned to the
individual. The NFIP Claims Appeals
Process System is such a system of
records.
The Privacy Act requires each agency
to publish in the Federal Register a
description denoting the type and
character of each system of records that
the agency maintains, and the routine
uses that are contained in each system
in order to make agency record keeping
practices transparent, to notify
individuals regarding the uses to which
personally identifiable information is
put, and to assist individuals to more
easily find such files within the agency.
Below is the description of the NFIP

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Claims Appeals Process system of
records.
In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552a(r),
DHS has provided a report of this new
system of records to the Office of
Management and Budget and to
Congress.
DHS/FEMA/Mitigation/Mitigation–1
SYSTEM NAME:

NFIP Claims Appeals Process.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:

Unclassified.
SYSTEM LOCATION:

The database will be maintained at
FEMA Headquarters at 500 C Street,
SW., Washington, DC 20472.
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE
SYSTEM:

The system covers the individual
NFIP policyholders who are appealing
decisions on their flood insurance
claim.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:

Information is collected from
individual NFIP policyholders, who
have voluntarily opted to appeal the
disposition of their flood insurance
claim. In addition, FEMA collects
individual policyholder information
from the WYO Companies that service
the policies which are the subject of
appeals in order to make a
determination on these appeals. The
‘‘individually identifying information’’
collected includes the policyholders
name, address where the loss occurred,
telephone number, a list of personal
property that is claimed to be damaged
and is the subject of the appeal, the
policyholder’s statement of facts about
the claim, the policyholder’s statement
why the claim’s disposition is being
disputed and supporting proof or
records to document the policyholder’s
position, correspondence pertaining to
the appeal which may include the
foregoing individually identifying
information, and FEMA’s appeal
decision.
AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:

Section 205 of the Bunning-BereuterBlumenauer Flood Insurance Reform
Act (FIRA) of 2004, 42 U.S.C. 4011.
PURPOSE(S):

These records are collected for the
purpose of FEMA’s review and
determination on NFIP flood insurance
individual policyholder’s claim appeals,
so that FEMA may determine whether
additional payment to the individual
policyholder is warranted.

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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 106 / Friday, June 2, 2006 / Notices
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 DHS as a routine use
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) as
follows:
A. To the Government Accountability
Office (GAO), DHS Office of the
Inspector General (OIG), or other
organization for the purposes of
performing authorized audits or
oversight of the NFIP program.
B. To a Congressional office from the
record of an individual in response to
an inquiry from that Congressional
office made at the request of the
individual to whom the record pertains.
C. To FEMA contractors as necessary
to provide an appeal resolution.
D. To the Department of Justice (DOJ),
the United States Attorney’s Office, or a
consumer-reporting agency for further
collection action on any debt in relation
to the appeals process, when
circumstances warrant.
E. Where a record, either on its face
or in conjunction with other
information, indicates a violation or
potential violation of law—criminal,
civil or regulatory—the relevant records
may be referred to an appropriate
Federal, State, territorial, tribal, local,
international, or foreign agency law
enforcement authority or other
appropriate agency charged with
investigating or prosecuting such a
violation or enforcing or implementing
such law.
F. To DOJ or other Federal agency
conducting litigation or in proceedings
before any court, adjudicative or
administrative body, when: (1) FEMA,
or (2) any employee of FEMA in his/her
official capacity, or (3) any employee of
FEMA in his/her individual capacity
where DOJ or FEMA have agreed to
represent the employee, or (4) the
United States or any agency thereof, is
a party to the litigation or has an interest
in such litigation and when the records
are determined by FEMA to be arguably
relevant to the proceeding.
DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING
AGENCIES:

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Privacy Act information may be
reported to consumer reporting agencies
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(12).

will be maintained at FEMA
Headquarters at 500 C Street, SW.,
Washington, DC 20472.
RETRIEVABILITY:

Hard copy files and the electronically
scanned document files are retrieved by
the individual flood insurance
policyholder’s name or property
address.
SAFEGUARDS:

Information in this system is
safeguarded in accordance with
applicable laws, rules and policies,
including the DHS Information
Technology Security Program
Handbook. All records are protected
from unauthorized access through
appropriate administrative, physical,
and technical safeguards. These
safeguards include restricting access to
authorized personnel who have a needto-know, using locks, and password
protection identification features. DHS
file areas are locked after normal duty
hours and the facilities are protected
from the outside by security personnel.
Each authorized individual working
on the NFIP appeals procedure will
have access only to information
necessary to perform his or her official
duties. Activity logs (audit trails) are
maintained for all operating systems,
applications, and middleware. A
periodic review is conducted to monitor
all user access. Incident response
procedures are established to address
reported security incidents as quickly as
possible. Use of the access database will
be carefully monitored and reviewed on
a periodic basis by the system
administrator.
The paper copy of the appeal letter
and supporting documentation that are
sent to FEMA by the individual with the
appeal letter, and FEMA’s response
letter reflecting its appeal decision
constitute the official copy of the
records. Electronically scanned copies
will be kept as back up. FEMA will
retain both the paper and electronic
copies for six years and three months.
This retention schedule has been
approved by the National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA). The
NARA authority is N1–311–86–1 2A12
(a)(2) FIA File 12–2.
SYSTEM MANAGER AND ADDRESS:

Director of Claims, Mitigation
Division, Federal Emergency
Management Agency, 500 C Street, SW.,
Washington, DC 20472.

STORAGE:

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:

The hard copy files and the
electronically scanned document files

A request for access to records in this
system may be made in writing to the

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System Manager identified above, or to
the Privacy Act Officer, DHS/FEMA,
Office of General Counsel (GL), Room
406, 500 C Street, SW., Washington, DC
20472, in conformance with 6 CFR part
5, subpart B and 44 CFR part 6, which
provide the rules for requesting access
to Privacy Act records.
RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:

See Notification procedure above.
Request for access must comply with
DHS and FEMA regulations for Privacy
Act requests.
CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:

Policyholders typically contest their
records with their service provider
(WYO or NFIP Servicing Agent).
Virtually all of theses disputes are
successfully handled through that
mechanism. However, policyholders
may also contest their records using the
process outlined in the Notification
procedures section above. State clearly
and concisely the information being
contested, the reasons for contesting it
and the proposed amendment to the
information sought.
RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:

The ‘‘individually identifying’’
information may come from the
individual NFIP policyholder and/or the
entity servicing the policy.
EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:

None.
Dated: May 25, 2006.
Maureen Cooney,
Acting Chief Privacy Officer, Department of
Homeland Security.
[FR Doc. E6–8625 Filed 6–1–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410–10–P

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING,
RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING, AND
DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:

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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services
Agency Information Collection
Activities: New Information Collection;
Comment Request
ACTION: 30-day notice of information
collection under review; Application for
Immediate Family Member of U–1
Recipient; and U Nonimmigrant Status
Certification; Forms I–918; I–918
Supplement A; and I–918 Supplement
B.

The Department of Homeland
Security, U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) has
submitted the following information
collection request to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for

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