Negotiated Rulemaking Committee; Public Hearings, 54666-54667 [2021-21505]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[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 [www.gpo.gov]
[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.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to 
submit your comments electronically. Information on using 
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, 
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site 
under ``FAQ.''
     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 
www.regulations.gov. 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 www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html. 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: [email protected].
    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: 
https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/2021FSAHbkVol2Master.pdf.
    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 https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/.

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 https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/.
    Individuals who would like to comment at one of the public hearings 
must register by sending an email message to [email protected] 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 www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/. 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 https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/.
    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 www.govinfo.gov. 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 www.federalregister.gov. 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