Rule2025-13130
Rescinding Obsolete Financial Assistance Rules
Primary source
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Published
July 14, 2025
Effective
August 13, 2025
Issuing agencies
Energy Department
Abstract
The Department of Energy ("DOE") is publishing this document to respond to comments received on the direct final rule on the recission of the Department's outdated Financial Assistance Rules that published on May 16, 2025. As a result, DOE delays the effective date of the direct final rule, and is responding to the comment it received on the direct final rule.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 132 (Monday, July 14, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 132 (Monday, July 14, 2025)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 31133-31134]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-13130]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
10 CFR Part 600
[DOE-HQ-2025-0017]
RIN 1991-AC20
Rescinding Obsolete Financial Assistance Rules
AGENCY: Office of Management, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Direct final rule; delay of effective date; response to
comments.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (``DOE'') is publishing this document
to respond to comments received on the direct final rule on the
recission of the Department's outdated Financial Assistance Rules that
published on May 16, 2025. As a result, DOE delays the effective date
of the direct final rule, and is responding to the comment it received
on the direct final rule.
DATES: As of July 14, 2025, the effective date of the direct final rule
published May 16, 2025, at 90 FR 20761, is delayed until August 13,
2025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jeffrey Novak, U.S. Department of
Energy, Office of the General Counsel, GC-1, 1000 Independence Avenue
SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121; (202) 586-5281 or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#14505b5153717a71667578577b617a677178547c653a707b713a737b62"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="87c3c8c2c0e2e9e2f5e6ebc4e8f2e9f4e2ebc7eff6a9e3e8e2a9e0e8f1">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. May 2025 Direct Final Rule
On May 16, 2025, DOE published a direct final rule rescinding part
600 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (``CFR''). 90 FR 20761
(``May 2025 DFR''). Part 600 contains regulations that governed DOE
financial assistance awards prior to December 26, 2014. Effective
December 26, 2014, DOE adopted the Uniform Administrative Requirements,
Cost Principles, and
[[Page 31134]]
Audit Requirements for Federal Awards in 2 CFR parts 200 and 910. 79 FR
75871 (Dec. 19, 2014); see also 2 CFR 910.120. As a result, the
regulations at 10 CFR part 600 are now obsolete. While the regulations
may have had some value as a point of reference for ongoing financial
assistance awards made prior to December 26, 2014, any such value has
diminished over the decade since these regulations were superseded.
II. Response to Comments
DOE received one comment in response to the May 2025 DFR.
Table II.1--List of Commenters for the May 2025 DFR
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Comment No. in
Commenter Reference in this rule the docket Commenter type
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Professor Bridget C.E. Dooling......... Dooling................... 2 Individual.
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A. Response to Administrative Procedure Act Procedural Comment
Dooling stated that the May 2025 DFR did not satisfy the good cause
exemption from notice and comment rulemaking under the Administrative
Procedure Act (``APA''). (Dooling, No. 2 at p. 3).
In response, DOE notes that the APA requires that agencies provide
all interested persons with fair notice and an opportunity to comment
on the rulemaking. See 5 U.S.C. 553(b) & (c). The May 2025 DFR provided
the public with fair notice of DOE's changes to obsolete financial
assistance regulations. See 90 FR 20761, 20762 (discussing specific
administrative changes to outdated financial assistance regulations).
DOE also requested comments on the May 2025 DFR, and stated, if the
Department received significant adverse comments, the Department would
withdraw the rule or issue a new final rule which responds to such
comments. Id. at 90 FR 20761. Thus, DOE provided interested persons
with fair notice and an opportunity to comment as required by the APA.
As a result, there was no need for a good cause exemption from notice-
and-comment rulemaking under 5 U.S.C. 553(b).
Finally, contrary to the comment from Dooling (Dooling, No. 2 at p.
4), Dooling cannot argue commenters were denied fair notice and an
opportunity to comment solely based on how the notice was labeled. See
Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter & Paul Home v. Pennsylvania,
591 U.S. 657, 683 (2020) (holding that ``[f]ormal labels aside, the
[interim final rules] contained all of the elements of a notice of
proposed rulemaking as required by the APA''). Irrespective of its
title, the May 2025 DFR contained the required elements of a proposed
rulemaking under the APA.
III. Conclusion
For the reasons discussed in the preceding sections of this
document, DOE is not withdrawing the May 2025 DFR, which finalizes the
recission of part 600 in its entirety.
DOE also notes, to the extent that 5 U.S.C. 553 applies to the
delay of effective date, it is exempt from notice and comment because
it constitutes a rule of procedure under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A) and for
which no notice or hearing is required by statute. Additionally, this
action is not a ``substantive rule'' for which a 30-day delay in
effective date is required under 5 U.S.C. 553(d).
Signing Authority
This document of the Department of Energy was signed on July 9,
2025, by Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy. That document with the
original signature and date is maintained by DOE. For administrative
purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of the Office of the
Federal Register, the undersigned DOE Federal Register Liaison Officer
has been authorized to sign and submit the document in electronic
format for publication, as an official document of the Department of
Energy. This administrative process in no way alters the legal effect
of this document upon publication in the Federal Register.
Signed in Washington, DC, on July 10, 2025.
Treena V. Garrett
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2025-13130 Filed 7-11-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
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