Proposed Rule2021-21505
Negotiated Rulemaking Committee; Public Hearings
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
October 4, 2021
Issuing agencies
Education Department
Abstract
We announce our intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee to prepare proposed regulations for programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). The Department of Education is committed to advancing equitable outcomes for all students and invites comments from individuals, organizations, or groups with interests that are significantly affected by the subject matter of the proposed regulations being considered by the committee. We also announce public hearings at which interested parties may comment on the topics for regulation.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 189 (Monday, October 4, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 189 (Monday, October 4, 2021)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 54666-54667]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-21505]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Chapter VI
[Docket ID ED-2021-OPE-0077]
Negotiated Rulemaking Committee; Public Hearings
AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.
ACTION: Intent to establish negotiated rulemaking committee.
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SUMMARY: We announce our intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking
committee to prepare proposed regulations for programs authorized under
title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). The
Department of Education is committed to advancing equitable outcomes
for all students and invites comments from individuals, organizations,
or groups with interests that are significantly affected by the subject
matter of the proposed regulations being considered by the committee.
We also announce public hearings at which interested parties may
comment on the topics for regulation.
DATES: The dates, times, and locations of the public hearings are
listed under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. We
must receive any written comments on or before November 3, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. We will not
accept comments by fax. To ensure that we do not receive duplicate
copies, please submit your comments only once. In addition, please
include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> to
submit your comments electronically. Information on using
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>, including instructions for accessing agency documents,
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site
under ``FAQ.''
<bullet> Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery: If you
mail or deliver your comments, address them to Brian Schelling, U.S.
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, Room 2C188, Washington,
DC 20202.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments
received from members of the public (including those comments submitted
by postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery) available for
public viewing in their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly
available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about negotiated
rulemaking in general, see The Negotiated Rulemaking Process for Title
IV Regulations, Frequently Asked Questions at <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html">www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html</a>. For information
about the public hearings or for additional information about
negotiated rulemaking, contact: Brian Schelling, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, Room 2C188, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453-5966. Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7c1e0e151d12520f1f1419101015121b3c1918521b130a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="7f1d0d161e11510c1c171a13131611183f1a1b51181009">[email protected]</span></a>.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or text
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-
800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 492 of the HEA requires that, before
publishing any proposed regulations to implement programs authorized
under title IV of the HEA, the Secretary obtain public involvement in
the development of the proposed regulations. After obtaining advice and
recommendations from the public, the Secretary conducts negotiated
rulemaking to develop the proposed regulations. We announce our intent
to develop proposed title IV regulations by following the negotiated
rulemaking procedures in section 492 of the HEA.
We intend to select participants for the negotiated rulemaking
committee from nominees that represent the interests significantly
affected by the proposed regulations. To the extent possible, we will
select individuals who reflect diversity among program participants.
[[Page 54667]]
We intend to convene a committee to develop proposed regulations
affecting institutional and programmatic eligibility, including the 90/
10 rule as described below. We will announce the topics and schedule of
committee meetings in a subsequent Federal Register notice.
Regulatory Issue
The Department intends to regulate on what is commonly referred to
as the 90/10 rule. Section 2013 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
(ARP) amended HEA section 487(a)(24) to require that a proprietary
institution derive at least 10 percent of its revenues from sources
that are not Federal education assistance funds. Federal education
assistance funds are ``Federal funds that are disbursed or delivered to
or on behalf of a student to be used to attend such institution.''
Section 2013(c)(2) of the ARP provides that regulations developed and
published on 90/10 by the Department will not be effective until on or
after January 1, 2023.
For more information on how the current 90/10 rule is implemented,
see 34 CFR 668.28 and pages 91-94 of the 2020-2021 FSA Handbook at:
<a href="https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/2021FSAHbkVol2Master.pdf">https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/2021FSAHbkVol2Master.pdf</a>.
After a complete review of the comments presented at the public
hearings and in the written submissions, we will publish a document in
the Federal Register announcing the specific topics for which we intend
to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee and a request for
nominations for individual negotiators for the committee who represent
the communities of interest that would be significantly affected by the
proposed regulations. We will also post this document on the
Department's website at <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html">https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html</a>.
Public Hearings
We will hold virtual public hearings for interested parties to
comment on the 90/10 rule only, on October 26, 2021, from 2:00 p.m. to
4:00 p.m., Eastern time, and on October 27, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to
12:00 p.m., Eastern time.
In a Federal Register notice published on May 26, 2021, we
announced public hearings held on June 21, 23, and 24, 2021. In that
notice, we invited the public to comment on other proposed topics and
also allowed the public to suggest other topics on which we might
regulate.
Further information on the public hearings is available at <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html">https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html</a>.
Individuals who would like to comment at one of the public hearings
must register by sending an email message to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bdd3d8dacfd8dad5d8dccfd4d3dafdd8d993dad2cb"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0d63686a7f686a65686c7f64636a4d6869236a627b">[email protected]</span></a> no
later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern time on the business day prior to the
public hearing at which they want to speak. Please include the name of
the speaker and one or more dates and times during which the individual
would be available to speak. We will attempt to accommodate each
speaker's preference for date and time; however, if we are unable to do
so, we will make the determination based upon the time and date we
received the message and allowing for a diversity of constituencies to
present. We will limit each participant's comments to three minutes.
We will notify speakers of the time slot reserved for them and
provide information on how to log in to the hearing as a speaker. An
individual may make only one presentation at the public hearings. If we
receive more registrations than we can accommodate, we reserve the
right to reject the registration of an entity or individual affiliated
with an entity or individual that is already scheduled to present
comments to ensure that a broad range of entities and individuals are
able to present.
Individuals who want to observe the public hearing, but who do not
want to present comments, must also register. Attendees who are not
presenting comments will be muted for the duration of each public
hearing. We will post attendee registration information on our website
at <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html">www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html</a>. We
will also post transcripts of the hearings on that site.
The Department will accept written comments via the Federal
eRulemaking portal and by postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand
delivery through November 3, 2021. (See the ADDRESSES section of this
document for submission information.)
Schedule for Negotiations
We anticipate that any committee(s) established after the public
hearings would begin virtual negotiations no earlier than January 2022.
We expect negotiations to occur during three sessions of five days each
with approximately four weeks between sessions. We may adjust the
number of days of each session and time between sessions to adapt to
the virtual environment. We will publish the dates and details about
these meetings in a subsequent notice in the Federal Register and post
information on our website at <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html">https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/index.html</a>.
Accessible Format: On request to the program contact person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file,
braille, large print, audiotape, or compact disc, or other accessible
format.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of
Federal Regulations at <a href="http://www.govinfo.gov">www.govinfo.gov</a>. At this site you can view this
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or portable document format (PDF). To
use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available for
free on the site. You may also access documents of the Department
published in the Federal Register by using the article search feature
at <a href="http://www.federalregister.gov">www.federalregister.gov</a>. Specifically, through the advanced search
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published
by the Department.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1098a.
Annmarie Weisman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning, and Innovation.
[FR Doc. 2021-21505 Filed 10-1-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
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