Impact Aid Programs, 49432-49435 [2010-20065]
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 156 / Friday, August 13, 2010 / Proposed Rules
Qualifications of Personnel
A mine operator is responsible for the
design, construction, operation, and
maintenance of dams. For an effective
dam safety program, an operator must
use personnel who are knowledgeable
about dam safety.
19. What qualifications do mine
operators currently require of persons
who design, inspect, operate, and
manage dams? In what capacities are
engineers used? Please be specific in
your response.
20. The Guidelines recommend that
dams be designed by competent
engineers. What specific qualifications
or credentials should persons who
design dams possess? Please include
your rationale.
21. The Guidelines recommend that a
dam be constructed under the general
supervision of a competent engineer
knowledgeable about dam construction.
What specific qualifications or
credentials should a person have who
verifies that a dam is being constructed
as designed? Please provide your
rationale.
22. What training should personnel
receive who perform frequent, routine
inspections and who monitor
instrumentation at dams? In your
response, please suggest course content
and the frequency of the training,
including the rationale for your
recommendations.
23. What qualifications or credentials
should be required of persons who
perform detailed inspections to evaluate
the safety of a dam? Please be specific
and include your rationale.
Abandonment of Dams
24. Some regulatory authorities
require that dam owners obtain
approval of a plan to cap, breach, or
otherwise safely abandon dams. What
actions should mine operators take to
safely abandon dams? Please include
specific suggestions and rationale.
25. How can MSHA verify that a mine
operator has safely abandoned a dam?
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Economic Impact
MSHA seeks information to assist the
Agency in deriving the costs and
benefits of any regulatory changes for
dams at metal and nonmetal mines. In
answering the following questions,
please indicate the dam’s storage
capacity, height, and hazard potential
and characterize the complexity of each
dam referenced. Also, please include
the state where each dam is located, and
the number of employees at the mine.
26. What are the costs of designing a
new dam? Please provide details such as
hours, rates of pay, job titles, and any
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contractual services necessary. How
often is the design of an existing dam
changed? What are the costs of a
redesign?
27. What are the costs of constructing
a dam? Please provide details based on:
Size of dam; labor costs, including
hours, rates of pay, job titles; costs of
equipment and materials; and any
contractual services necessary.
28. Please describe the oversight you
provide during dam construction to
assure it complies with the design plan.
How much does it cost per year per dam
for oversight and quality control? What
special knowledge, qualifications, or
credentials do you require of those who
provide oversight?
29. How often do you add height to
an existing dam or modify it in some
other way? Who supervises the design
and construction of these modifications,
for example, a professional engineer,
competent engineer, contractor, etc?
Please be specific and provide rationale
for your answer. How much does it
cost? Please provide details such as
labor costs, including hours, rates of
pay, job titles, and costs of equipment
and materials and any contractual
services necessary.
30. How much does it cost per year
per dam for routine inspections? If you
incur separate costs for monitoring
instrumentation, how much is that cost?
How often do you have a detailed
inspection conducted? How much does
it cost per year for these inspections?
31. Does the state or local jurisdiction
in which you operate require you to use
a professional engineer? If so, when is
a professional engineer specifically
required? (If you have dams in more
than one state please identify which
states require a professional engineer
and which do not).
32. What are the costs associated with
training personnel who conduct
frequent, routine inspections and
monitor instrumentation at dams?
33. What costs are involved in
capping, breaching, or otherwise
properly abandoning a dam? Please
provide details of your experience and
what was involved when you properly
abandoned a dam. Describe any impact
of a properly abandoned dam.
34. What are the costs to a mine
operator if a dam fails? Please
characterize other impacts such as loss
of life, environmental damage, etc.
35. Do you have insurance against a
dam failure? If so, please specify cost
and coverage. Does the insurance carrier
require the use of a professional
engineer for specific dam activities? If a
professional engineer is not required,
does the insurance carrier give a
discount if one is used? Does your
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insurance company have any other
requirements related to dam safety?
36. What quantifiable and nonquantifiable costs and benefits for the
downstream community are involved
when a dam is properly designed and
constructed? In addition, MSHA
welcomes comments on other relevant
indirect costs and benefits.
Dated: August 9, 2010.
Joseph A. Main,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety
and Health.
[FR Doc. 2010–19960 Filed 8–12–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510–43–P
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Part 222
[Docket ID ED–2010–OESE–0013]
RIN 1810–AB11
Impact Aid Programs
Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
AGENCY:
The Secretary proposes to
amend the regulations governing the
Impact Aid Discretionary Construction
Program, which is authorized under
section 8007(b) of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as
amended (ESEA). Through this program,
the Department provides competitive
grants for emergency repairs and
modernization of school facilities to
certain eligible local educational
agencies (LEAs) that receive Impact Aid
formula funds. The proposed
regulations amend a provision regarding
the submission of applications for these
Federal funds, which the Department
believes will improve the
administration and distribution of funds
under this program. The proposed
regulations would apply to the grant
competitions after the competition for
fiscal year (FY) 2009 funds.
DATES: We must receive your comments
on or before September 13, 2010.
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 or by e-mail. Please
submit your comments only one time, in
order to ensure that we do not receive
duplicate copies. In addition, please
include the Docket ID at the top of your
comments.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
https://www.regulations.gov to submit
your comments electronically.
SUMMARY:
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 156 / Friday, August 13, 2010 / Proposed Rules
Information on using Regulations.gov,
including instructions for accessing
agency documents, submitting
comments, and viewing the docket, is
available on the site under ‘‘How To Use
This Site.’’
• Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery,
or Hand Delivery. If you mail or deliver
your comments about these proposed
regulations, address them to Catherine
Schagh, Director, Impact Aid Program,
U.S. Department of Education, 400
Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 3E105,
LBJ, Washington, DC 20202.
Privacy Note: The Department’s policy for
comments received from members of the
public (including those comments submitted
by mail, commercial delivery, or hand
delivery) is to make these submissions
available for public viewing in their entirety
on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
https://www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to include in
their comments only information that they
wish to make publicly available on the
Internet.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
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Kristen Walls-Rivas, Impact Aid
Program, U.S. Department of Education,
400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20202. Telephone:
(202) 260–1357 or by e-mail:
Kristen.Walls-Rivas@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications
device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at
1–800–877–8339.
Individuals with disabilities can
obtain this document in an accessible
format (e.g., braille, large print,
audiotape, or computer diskette) on
request to the contact person listed in
this section.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation To Comment
We invite you to submit comments
regarding these proposed regulations.
We invite you to assist us in
complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866
and its overall requirement of reducing
regulatory burden that might result from
these proposed regulations. Please let us
know of any further opportunities we
should take to reduce potential costs or
increase potential benefits while
preserving the effective and efficient
administration of the program.
During and after the comment period,
you may inspect all public comments
about these proposed regulations by
accessing Regulations.gov. You may also
inspect the comments, in person, in
Room 3C101, 400 Maryland Avenue,
SW., Washington, DC, between the
hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.,
Eastern time, Monday through Friday of
each week except Federal holidays.
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Assistance to Individuals With
Disabilities in Reviewing the
Rulemaking Record
On request, we will supply an
appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a
disability who needs assistance to
review the comments or other
documents in the public rulemaking
record for these proposed regulations. If
you want to schedule an appointment
for this type of aid, please contact the
person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
Background
The Impact Aid Discretionary
Construction Program is authorized
under section 8007(b) of the ESEA.
The purpose of this program is to
assist certain eligible Impact Aid LEAs
in meeting the emergency or
modernization needs of their school
facilities. The current regulations
governing the Impact Aid Discretionary
Construction Program are in 34 CFR
222.170 through 222.196 and were most
recently amended on March 15, 2004, to
govern the FY 2003 and subsequent
grant competitions (69 FR 12234).
Through this notice, we are proposing to
amend § 222.183 governing the
submission of multiple grant
applications. The proposed amendment
is based on our experience in
implementing this program since the
most recent regulations were published
in 2004.
Significant Proposed Regulations
Section 222.183 How does an LEA
apply for a grant?
Statute: Section 8007(b)(6) of the
ESEA provides that an LEA that desires
to receive a grant shall submit an
application to the Secretary at such
time, in such manner, and accompanied
by such information as the Secretary
may require.
Current Regulations: Current
§ 222.183 specifies several application
requirements, and provides that a local
educational agency (LEA) may submit
multiple applications for multiple
educational facilities in a fiscal year.
Proposed Regulations: The proposed
regulations would limit an LEA to
submitting one application for one
facility per competition.
Reasons: In 2004, when the most
recent Impact Aid Discretionary
Construction Program regulations were
issued, the Department did not know
how many LEAs would qualify for
funding nor what the magnitude of their
need would be under this program.
Accordingly, we originally provided in
the regulations that an applicant could
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submit multiple applications per
competition so that the applicant would
be able to separate into different
applications different types of projects
with different levels of urgency.
Our intent was to make the
competition flexible and to ensure that
we received enough high-quality
applications to enable the Department to
use the full appropriated amount.
The competitions under this program
are based primarily on statutorily
mandated objective and subjective
scoring. Objective scores measure: the
percentage of students in the LEA who
are eligible under section 8003 of the
Impact Aid Program; the percentage of
those students enrolled in the building
for which funding is sought; the area of
tax-exempt Federal property in the LEA;
and the LEA’s assessed value of real
property and its tax rate. If an LEA
receives high scores on these objective
criteria, its proposed projects may rank
higher on the funding list than the
condition of its building(s) (i.e., the
subjective measure) would warrant, and
LEAs with more urgent facility needs
would not be funded. This has resulted
in the unintended consequence of a few
LEAs receiving high percentages of the
available funding. For example, from
the FY 2006 competition, one LEA
received 13 out of 25 grants and 73
percent of the funds.
In addition, since this program was
first funded and operated under the
March 15, 2004, final regulations, the
appropriation levels have decreased
significantly, from $27 million (in FY
2003) to approximately $17 million (in
FY 2009). With this reduction and given
the scoring structure, if a single
applicant receives multiple awards, an
even smaller portion of the remaining
funds is available for distribution to
other LEAs, which generally has meant
that the funds could not reach a larger
pool of the eligible applicants.
These proposed regulations would
give more applicants an opportunity to
receive grants to remediate urgent
emergency and modernization needs in
their school facilities. We seek
comments on alternative approaches
that would permit the Department to
distribute grant funding to a larger
number of LEAs.
Executive Order 12866: Under
Executive Order 12866, the Secretary
must determine whether the regulatory
action is ‘‘significant’’ and therefore
subject to the requirements of the
Executive order and subject to review by
the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB). Section 3(f) of Executive Order
12866 defines a ‘‘significant regulatory
action’’ as an action likely to result in a
rule that may (1) Have an annual effect
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 156 / Friday, August 13, 2010 / Proposed Rules
on the economy of $100 million or
more, or adversely affect a sector of the
economy, productivity, competition,
jobs, the environment, public health or
safety, or State, local or tribal
governments or communities in a
material way (also referred to as an
‘‘economically significant’’ rule); (2)
create serious inconsistency or
otherwise interfere with an action taken
or planned by another agency; (3)
materially alter the budgetary impacts of
entitlement grants, user fees, or loan
programs or the rights and obligations of
recipients thereof; or (4) raise novel
legal or policy issues arising out of legal
mandates, the President’s priorities, or
the principles set forth in the Executive
order. Pursuant to the terms of the
Executive order, it has been determined
that this regulatory action is not a
significant regulatory action subject to
OMB review under section 3(f) of
Executive Order 12866.
We have also determined that this
regulatory action does not unduly
interfere with State, local, and tribal
governments in the exercise of their
governmental functions.
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Clarity of the Regulations
Executive Order 12866 and the
Presidential memorandum on ‘‘Plain
Language in Government Writing’’
require each agency to write regulations
that are easy to understand.
The Secretary invites comments on
how to make these proposed regulations
easier to understand, including answers
to questions such as the following:
• Are the requirements in the
proposed regulations clearly stated?
• Do the proposed regulations contain
technical terms or other wording that
interferes with their clarity?
• Does the format of the proposed
regulations (grouping and order of
sections, use of headings, paragraphing,
etc.) aid or reduce their clarity?
• Would the proposed regulations be
easier to understand if we divided them
into more (but shorter) sections?
• Could the description of the
proposed regulations in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this preamble be more helpful in
making the proposed regulations easier
to understand? If so, how?
• What else could we do to make the
proposed regulations easier to
understand?
To send any comments that concern
how the Department could make these
proposed regulations easier to
understand, see the instructions in the
ADDRESSES section of this preamble.
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Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification
The Secretary certifies that these
proposed regulations would not have a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities.
The small entities that would be
affected by these regulations are small
LEAs receiving Federal funds under this
program. In the FY 2008 grant
competition, fewer than 50 applications
that were eligible to be evaluated by
field readers were from small entities. In
addition, we do not believe that the
regulations would have a significant
economic impact on the limited number
of small LEAs affected, because the
regulations would not impose excessive
regulatory burdens or require
unnecessary Federal supervision.
The proposed regulations would
benefit both small and large entities in
that they would provide more equitable
opportunities for funding of school
construction needs.
The proposed regulations would
impose minimal paperwork burden
requirements for all applicants and
minimal requirements with which the
grant recipients must comply. However,
the Secretary specifically invites
comments on the effects of the proposed
regulations on small entities, and on
whether there may be further
opportunities to reduce any potential
adverse impact or increase potential
benefits resulting from these proposed
regulations without impeding the
effective and efficient administration of
the Impact Aid Discretionary
Construction Program. Commenters are
requested to describe the nature of any
effect and provide empirical data and
other factual support for their views to
the extent possible.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
The proposed amendment to
§ 222.183 would modify the information
collection requirements in that section;
the Department does not believe the
proposed changes add any new burden
or decrease any burden to local
educational agencies. The burden
associated with § 222.183 was approved
by OMB under OMB Control Number
1810–0687, which expires 9/30/2011.
The proposed amendment would limit
the number of applications to one per
LEA. The Department expects that LEAs
that have in the past scored lower on the
objective scoring criteria will be
encouraged to apply and the total
number of applications will remain the
same.
CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the
Executive order is to foster an
intergovernmental partnership and a
strengthened federalism. The Executive
order relies on processes developed by
State and local governments for
coordination and review of proposed
Federal financial assistance.
This document provides early
notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Assessment of Educational Impact
In accordance with section 411 of the
General Education Provisions Act, 20
U.S.C. 1221e–4, the Secretary
particularly requests comments on
whether these proposed regulations
would require transmission of
information that any other agency or
authority of the United States gathers or
makes available.
Electronic Access to This Document:
You can view this document, as well as
all other documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in
text or Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF) on the Internet at the
following site: https://www.ed.gov/news/
fedregister. To use PDF you must have
Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at this site.
Note: The official version of this document
is the document published in the Federal
Register. Free Internet access to the official
edition of the Federal Register and the Code
of Federal Regulations is available on GPO
Access at: https://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/
index.html.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
Number 84.041 Impact Aid Discretionary
Construction Program)
List of Subjects in 34 CFR Part 222
Education, Education of children with
disabilities, Educational facilities,
Elementary and secondary education,
Federally affected areas, Grant
programs-education, Indians—
education, Public housing, Reporting
and recordkeeping requirements, School
construction, Schools.
´
Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and
Secondary Education.
For the reasons discussed in the
preamble, the Secretary proposes to
amend part 222 of title 34 of the Code
of Federal Regulations.
PART 222—IMPACT AID PROGRAMS
1. The authority citation for part 222
continues to read as follows:
Intergovernmental Review
Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7701–7714, unless
otherwise noted.
This program is subject to Executive
Order 12372 and the regulations in 34
2. Section 222.183 is amended by
revising paragraph (a) to read as follows:
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 156 / Friday, August 13, 2010 / Proposed Rules
§ 222.183
grant?
How does an LEA apply for a
(a) To apply for funds under this
program, an LEA may submit only one
application for one educational facility
for each competition.
*
*
*
*
*
[FR Doc. 2010–20065 Filed 8–12–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 93
[EPA–HQ–OAR–2009–0128; FRL–9188–5]
RIN 2060–AP57
Transportation Conformity Rule
Restructuring Amendments
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
AGENCY:
In this action, EPA is
proposing to restructure several sections
of the transportation conformity rule so
that they would apply to any new or
revised National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS) that are established
in the future for transportation-related
criteria pollutants. This proposal should
reduce the need to amend the rule in the
future for the sole purpose of
referencing specific new or revised
NAAQS. EPA is also proposing in this
action that a near-term year would have
to be analyzed when using the budget
test when an area’s attainment date has
passed, or when an area’s attainment
date has not yet been established. The
budget test demonstrates that the total
on-road emissions projected for a
metropolitan transportation plan or TIP
are within the emissions limits
(‘‘budgets’’) established by the state air
quality implementation plan (‘‘SIP’’).
This action also includes several
administrative proposals and
clarifications to improve
implementation of the rule.
The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires
federally supported transportation
plans, transportation improvement
programs, and projects to be consistent
with (‘‘conform to’’) the purpose of the
state air quality implementation plan.
The U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT) is EPA’s Federal partner in
implementing the transportation
conformity regulation. EPA has
consulted with DOT, and they concur
with this proposed rule.
DATES: Written comments on this
proposal must be received on or before
September 13, 2010.
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SUMMARY:
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Submit your comments,
identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–
OAR–2009–0128, by one of the
following methods:
• https://www.regulations.gov: Follow
the online instructions for submitting
comments.
• E-mail: a-and-r-docket@epa.gov.
• Fax: (202) 566–9744.
• Mail: Air Docket, Environmental
Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC 20460, Attention
Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2009–
0128. Please include a total of two
copies.
• Hand Delivery: Air Docket,
Environmental Protection Agency: EPA
West Building, EPA Docket Center
(Room 3334), 1301 Constitution Ave.,
NW., Washington, DC, Attention Docket
ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2009–0128.
Please include two copies. Such
deliveries are only accepted during the
Docket’s normal hours of operation, and
special arrangements should be made
for deliveries of boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to
Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2009–
0128. EPA’s policy is that all comments
received will be included in the public
docket without change and may be
made available online at https://
www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided, unless
the comment includes information
claimed to be Confidential Business
Information (CBI) or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Do not submit information that you
consider to be CBI or otherwise
protected through https://
www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The
https://www.regulations.gov Web site is
an ‘‘anonymous access’’ system, which
means EPA will not know your identity
or contact information unless you
provide it in the body of your comment.
If you send an e-mail comment directly
to EPA without going through https://
www.regulations.gov your e-mail
address will be automatically captured
and included as part of the comment
that is placed in the public docket and
made available on the Internet. If you
submit an electronic comment, EPA
recommends that you include your
name and other contact information in
the body of your comment and with any
disk or CD–ROM you submit. If EPA
cannot read your comment due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact
you for clarification, EPA may not be
able to consider your comment.
Electronic files should avoid the use of
special characters, any form of
encryption, and be free of any defects or
viruses. For additional information
about EPA’s public docket visit the EPA
ADDRESSES:
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49435
Docket Center homepage at https://
www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
For additional instructions on
submitting comments, go to Section I. of
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section
of this document.
Docket: All documents in the docket
are listed in the https://
www.regulations.gov index. Although
listed in the index, some information is
not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other
information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Certain other
material, such as copyrighted material,
will be publicly available only in hard
copy. Publicly available docket
materials are available either
electronically in https://
www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at
the Air and Radiation Docket, EPA/DC,
EPA West, Room 3334, 1301
Constitution Ave., NW., Washington,
DC. The Public Reading Room is open
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday
through Friday, excluding legal
holidays. The telephone number for the
Public Reading Room is (202) 566–1744
and the telephone number for the Air
and Radiation Docket is (202) 566–1742.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Patty Klavon, State Measures and
Conformity Group, Transportation and
Regional Programs Division,
Environmental Protection Agency, 2000
Traverwood Drive, Ann Arbor, MI
48105, e-mail address:
klavon.patty@epa.gov, telephone
number: (734) 214–4476, fax number:
(734) 214–4052; or Laura Berry, State
Measures and Conformity Group,
Transportation and Regional Programs
Division, Environmental Protection
Agency, 2000 Traverwood Drive, Ann
Arbor, MI 48105, e-mail address:
berry.laura@epa.gov, telephone number:
(734) 214–4858, fax number: (734) 214–
4052.
The
contents of this preamble are listed in
the following outline:
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. General Information
II. Background on the Transportation
Conformity Rule
III. Restructure of 40 CFR 93.109
IV. Additional Option for Areas That Qualify
for EPA’s Clean Data Regulations or
Policies
V. Baseline Year for Certain Nonattainment
Areas
VI. Transportation Conformity Requirements
for Secondary NAAQS
VII. Analysis of a Near-Term Year in the
Budget Test
VIII. How does this proposal affect
conformity SIPs?
IX. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 156 (Friday, August 13, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 49432-49435]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-20065]
=======================================================================
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Part 222
[Docket ID ED-2010-OESE-0013]
RIN 1810-AB11
Impact Aid Programs
AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes to amend the regulations governing the
Impact Aid Discretionary Construction Program, which is authorized
under section 8007(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965, as amended (ESEA). Through this program, the Department provides
competitive grants for emergency repairs and modernization of school
facilities to certain eligible local educational agencies (LEAs) that
receive Impact Aid formula funds. The proposed regulations amend a
provision regarding the submission of applications for these Federal
funds, which the Department believes will improve the administration
and distribution of funds under this program. The proposed regulations
would apply to the grant competitions after the competition for fiscal
year (FY) 2009 funds.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before September 13, 2010.
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 or by e-mail. Please submit your comments only
one time, in order to ensure that we do not receive duplicate copies.
In addition, please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to https://www.regulations.gov to submit your comments electronically.
[[Page 49433]]
Information on using Regulations.gov, including instructions for
accessing agency documents, submitting comments, and viewing the
docket, is available on the site under ``How To Use This Site.''
Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery. If you
mail or deliver your comments about these proposed regulations, address
them to Catherine Schagh, Director, Impact Aid Program, U.S. Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 3E105, LBJ, Washington, DC
20202.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy for comments received from
members of the public (including those comments submitted by mail,
commercial delivery, or hand delivery) is to make these submissions
available for public viewing in their entirety on the Federal
eRulemaking Portal at https://www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to include in their comments only
information that they wish to make publicly available on the
Internet.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kristen Walls-Rivas, Impact Aid
Program, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 260-1357 or by e-mail:
Kristen.Walls-Rivas@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in an
accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in this section.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation To Comment
We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed
regulations.
We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of
reducing regulatory burden that might result from these proposed
regulations. Please let us know of any further opportunities we should
take to reduce potential costs or increase potential benefits while
preserving the effective and efficient administration of the program.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about these proposed regulations by accessing Regulations.gov.
You may also inspect the comments, in person, in Room 3C101, 400
Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30 a.m.
and 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week except
Federal holidays.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking
Record
On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public
rulemaking record for these proposed regulations. If you want to
schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Background
The Impact Aid Discretionary Construction Program is authorized
under section 8007(b) of the ESEA.
The purpose of this program is to assist certain eligible Impact
Aid LEAs in meeting the emergency or modernization needs of their
school facilities. The current regulations governing the Impact Aid
Discretionary Construction Program are in 34 CFR 222.170 through
222.196 and were most recently amended on March 15, 2004, to govern the
FY 2003 and subsequent grant competitions (69 FR 12234). Through this
notice, we are proposing to amend Sec. 222.183 governing the
submission of multiple grant applications. The proposed amendment is
based on our experience in implementing this program since the most
recent regulations were published in 2004.
Significant Proposed Regulations
Section 222.183 How does an LEA apply for a grant?
Statute: Section 8007(b)(6) of the ESEA provides that an LEA that
desires to receive a grant shall submit an application to the Secretary
at such time, in such manner, and accompanied by such information as
the Secretary may require.
Current Regulations: Current Sec. 222.183 specifies several
application requirements, and provides that a local educational agency
(LEA) may submit multiple applications for multiple educational
facilities in a fiscal year.
Proposed Regulations: The proposed regulations would limit an LEA
to submitting one application for one facility per competition.
Reasons: In 2004, when the most recent Impact Aid Discretionary
Construction Program regulations were issued, the Department did not
know how many LEAs would qualify for funding nor what the magnitude of
their need would be under this program. Accordingly, we originally
provided in the regulations that an applicant could submit multiple
applications per competition so that the applicant would be able to
separate into different applications different types of projects with
different levels of urgency.
Our intent was to make the competition flexible and to ensure that
we received enough high-quality applications to enable the Department
to use the full appropriated amount.
The competitions under this program are based primarily on
statutorily mandated objective and subjective scoring. Objective scores
measure: the percentage of students in the LEA who are eligible under
section 8003 of the Impact Aid Program; the percentage of those
students enrolled in the building for which funding is sought; the area
of tax-exempt Federal property in the LEA; and the LEA's assessed value
of real property and its tax rate. If an LEA receives high scores on
these objective criteria, its proposed projects may rank higher on the
funding list than the condition of its building(s) (i.e., the
subjective measure) would warrant, and LEAs with more urgent facility
needs would not be funded. This has resulted in the unintended
consequence of a few LEAs receiving high percentages of the available
funding. For example, from the FY 2006 competition, one LEA received 13
out of 25 grants and 73 percent of the funds.
In addition, since this program was first funded and operated under
the March 15, 2004, final regulations, the appropriation levels have
decreased significantly, from $27 million (in FY 2003) to approximately
$17 million (in FY 2009). With this reduction and given the scoring
structure, if a single applicant receives multiple awards, an even
smaller portion of the remaining funds is available for distribution to
other LEAs, which generally has meant that the funds could not reach a
larger pool of the eligible applicants.
These proposed regulations would give more applicants an
opportunity to receive grants to remediate urgent emergency and
modernization needs in their school facilities. We seek comments on
alternative approaches that would permit the Department to distribute
grant funding to a larger number of LEAs.
Executive Order 12866: Under Executive Order 12866, the Secretary
must determine whether the regulatory action is ``significant'' and
therefore subject to the requirements of the Executive order and
subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Section
3(f) of Executive Order 12866 defines a ``significant regulatory
action'' as an action likely to result in a rule that may (1) Have an
annual effect
[[Page 49434]]
on the economy of $100 million or more, or adversely affect a sector of
the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public
health or safety, or State, local or tribal governments or communities
in a material way (also referred to as an ``economically significant''
rule); (2) create serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an
action taken or planned by another agency; (3) materially alter the
budgetary impacts of entitlement grants, user fees, or loan programs or
the rights and obligations of recipients thereof; or (4) raise novel
legal or policy issues arising out of legal mandates, the President's
priorities, or the principles set forth in the Executive order.
Pursuant to the terms of the Executive order, it has been determined
that this regulatory action is not a significant regulatory action
subject to OMB review under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866.
We have also determined that this regulatory action does not unduly
interfere with State, local, and tribal governments in the exercise of
their governmental functions.
Clarity of the Regulations
Executive Order 12866 and the Presidential memorandum on ``Plain
Language in Government Writing'' require each agency to write
regulations that are easy to understand.
The Secretary invites comments on how to make these proposed
regulations easier to understand, including answers to questions such
as the following:
Are the requirements in the proposed regulations clearly
stated?
Do the proposed regulations contain technical terms or
other wording that interferes with their clarity?
Does the format of the proposed regulations (grouping and
order of sections, use of headings, paragraphing, etc.) aid or reduce
their clarity?
Would the proposed regulations be easier to understand if
we divided them into more (but shorter) sections?
Could the description of the proposed regulations in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this preamble be more helpful in
making the proposed regulations easier to understand? If so, how?
What else could we do to make the proposed regulations
easier to understand?
To send any comments that concern how the Department could make
these proposed regulations easier to understand, see the instructions
in the ADDRESSES section of this preamble.
Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification
The Secretary certifies that these proposed regulations would not
have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities. The small entities that would be affected by these
regulations are small LEAs receiving Federal funds under this program.
In the FY 2008 grant competition, fewer than 50 applications that were
eligible to be evaluated by field readers were from small entities. In
addition, we do not believe that the regulations would have a
significant economic impact on the limited number of small LEAs
affected, because the regulations would not impose excessive regulatory
burdens or require unnecessary Federal supervision.
The proposed regulations would benefit both small and large
entities in that they would provide more equitable opportunities for
funding of school construction needs.
The proposed regulations would impose minimal paperwork burden
requirements for all applicants and minimal requirements with which the
grant recipients must comply. However, the Secretary specifically
invites comments on the effects of the proposed regulations on small
entities, and on whether there may be further opportunities to reduce
any potential adverse impact or increase potential benefits resulting
from these proposed regulations without impeding the effective and
efficient administration of the Impact Aid Discretionary Construction
Program. Commenters are requested to describe the nature of any effect
and provide empirical data and other factual support for their views to
the extent possible.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
The proposed amendment to Sec. 222.183 would modify the
information collection requirements in that section; the Department
does not believe the proposed changes add any new burden or decrease
any burden to local educational agencies. The burden associated with
Sec. 222.183 was approved by OMB under OMB Control Number 1810-0687,
which expires 9/30/2011. The proposed amendment would limit the number
of applications to one per LEA. The Department expects that LEAs that
have in the past scored lower on the objective scoring criteria will be
encouraged to apply and the total number of applications will remain
the same.
Intergovernmental Review
This program is subject to Executive Order 12372 and the
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the Executive
order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened
federalism. The Executive order relies on processes developed by State
and local governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal
financial assistance.
This document provides early notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Assessment of Educational Impact
In accordance with section 411 of the General Education Provisions
Act, 20 U.S.C. 1221e-4, the Secretary particularly requests comments on
whether these proposed regulations would require transmission of
information that any other agency or authority of the United States
gathers or makes available.
Electronic Access to This Document: You can view this document, as
well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal
Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the
Internet at the following site: https://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister. To
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at
this site.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: https://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.041 Impact Aid
Discretionary Construction Program)
List of Subjects in 34 CFR Part 222
Education, Education of children with disabilities, Educational
facilities, Elementary and secondary education, Federally affected
areas, Grant programs-education, Indians--education, Public housing,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, School construction, Schools.
Thelma Mel[eacute]ndez de Santa Ana,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Secretary proposes
to amend part 222 of title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
PART 222--IMPACT AID PROGRAMS
1. The authority citation for part 222 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7701-7714, unless otherwise noted.
2. Section 222.183 is amended by revising paragraph (a) to read as
follows:
[[Page 49435]]
Sec. 222.183 How does an LEA apply for a grant?
(a) To apply for funds under this program, an LEA may submit only
one application for one educational facility for each competition.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2010-20065 Filed 8-12-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
