[Federal Register: June 2, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 106)]
[Notices]
[Page 32115-32117]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr02jn06-106]
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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.
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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-Bereuter-Blumenauer 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:
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
[[Page 32116]]
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-Bereuter-Blumenauer 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 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 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-Bereuter-Blumenauer 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.
[[Page 32117]]
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:
Privacy Act information may be reported to consumer reporting
agencies pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(12).
Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining,
and disposing of records in the system:
Storage:
The hard copy files and the electronically scanned document files
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 need-to-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.
Retention and disposal:
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.
Notification procedure:
A request for access to records in this system may be made in
writing to the 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]
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