NIH Delays Effective Date for Privacy Act Rule

Content

ACTION:

Final rule; delay of effective date.

SUMMARY:

On January 16, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule to make effective the exemptions that
were previously proposed for a new Privacy Act system of records, “NIH Police Records,” maintained by the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), from certain requirements of the Act. That final rule was originally scheduled to take effect on February
18, 2025. This document announces that the effective date is delayed until March 21, 2025, in response to the memorandum titled
“Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,” issued by the President on January 20, 2025.

DATES:

As of February 18, 2025, the effective date of the final rule published on January 16, 2025 (90 FR 4673), is delayed to a
new effective date of March 21, 2025.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Dustin Close, Office of Management Assessment, National Institutes of Health, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Suite 601, Bethesda, Maryland
20892, telephone 301-402-6469, email privacy@mail.nih.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

On January 16, 2025, HHS issued a final rule (90 FR 4673) to make effective the exemptions that were proposed (89 FR 48536)
for a new Privacy Act system of records maintained by NIH from certain requirements of the Act. The new system of records
covers criminal and non-criminal law enforcement investigatory material maintained by the NIH Division of Police, a component
of NIH which performs criminal law enforcement as its principal function. The exemptions are necessary and appropriate to
protect the integrity of law enforcement proceedings and records compiled during the course of NIH Division of Police activities,
prevent disclosure of investigative techniques, and protect the identity of confidential sources involved in those activities.

On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued a memorandum

  titled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” (90 FR 8249) that instructs Federal agencies to consider delaying the effective
  date of rules published in the 
  Federal Register
  , but which have not yet taken effect, for a period of 60 days from the date of the memorandum. In accordance with that memorandum,
  HHS is delaying for 60 days from the date of the President's memorandum the effective date of the final rule titled “Privacy
  Act; Implementation” that published on January 16, 2025.

The effective date of that final rule, which would have been February 18, 2025, is now March 21, 2025.

Dorothy A. Fink, Acting Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services. [FR Doc. 2025-02810 Filed 2-14-25; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4150-01-P

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