[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 53 (Tuesday, March 21, 2017)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 14419-14420]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-05723]



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 Rules and Regulations
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains regulatory documents 
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 to and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, which is published 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 53 / Tuesday, March 21, 2017 / Rules 
and Regulations  

[[Page 14419]]



DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

2 CFR Part 3474

RIN 1894-AA07
[Docket ID ED-2015-OS-0105]


Open Licensing Requirement for Competitive Grant Programs

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Education.

ACTION: Interim final rule; further delay of effective date; request 
for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with a directive from the memorandum entitled 
``Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,'' published in the Federal Register 
on January 24, 2017 (Memorandum), the Secretary further delays until 
May 22, 2017, the effective date of the final regulations entitled Open 
Licensing Requirement for Competitive Grant Programs (Open Licensing), 
published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2017 (82 FR 7376). The 
current effective date is March 21, 2017. The additional delay will 
allow the Department the opportunity for further review of the final 
regulations.

DATES: As of March 17, 2017, the effective date of the final 
regulations published January 19, 2017 (82 FR 7376) delayed until March 
21, 2017 on January 30, 2017 (82 FR 8669), are further delayed until 
May 22, 2017. We must receive your comments on or before April 20, 
2017.

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 email or those submitted after the comment 
period. 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 ``Help.''
     Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery: We 
strongly encourage commenters to submit their comments electronically. 
However, if you mail or deliver your comments about this interim final 
rule, address them to Sharon Leu, U.S. Department of Education, 400 
Maryland Avenue SW., Room 6W252, Washington, DC 20202-5900.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments 
received from members of the public 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: Sharon Leu, Department of Education, 
400 Maryland Avenue SW., Room 6W252, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: 
(202) 453-5646 or by email: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf or a text 
telephone, call the Federal Relay Service, toll free, at 1-800-877-
8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department published the final 
regulations in the Federal Register on January 19, 2017 (82 FR 7376). 
We published a document in the Federal Register on January 30, 2017 (82 
FR 8669), delaying the effective date of the final regulations from 
March 20, 2017, to March 21, 2017, in accordance with a directive from 
the Memorandum to temporarily postpone for 60 days from the date of the 
Memorandum the effective dates of all regulations that had been 
published in the Federal Register but had not yet taken effect. The 
Memorandum also directed agencies to consider further delaying the 
effective dates beyond that 60-day period. Upon review, the Department 
has determined that it is appropriate to further delay the effective 
date of the final regulations to May 22, 2017, for the purpose of 
additional consideration.
    Invitation to Comment: We invite you to submit comments regarding 
this interim final rule. We will consider comments on the delayed 
effective date only. We will not consider comments on the final 
regulations. See ADDRESSES for instructions on how to submit comments.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public 
comments about this interim final rule by accessing Regulations.gov. 
You may also inspect the comments in person in Room 6W100, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW., Washington, DC, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Washington, 
DC time, Monday through Friday of each week, except Federal holidays. 
If you want to schedule time to inspect comments, please contact the 
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Assistance to Individuals with Disabilities in Reviewing the 
Rulemaking Record: On request, we will provide an appropriate 
accommodation or auxiliary aid to an individual with a disability who 
needs assistance to review the comments or other documents in the 
public rulemaking record for this interim final rule. If you want to 
schedule an appointment for this type of accommodation or auxiliary 
aid, please contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT.
    Waiver of Rulemaking and Delayed Effective Date: Under the 
Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5 U.S.C. 553), the Department 
generally offers interested parties the opportunity to comment on 
proposed regulations and publishes rules not less than 30 days before 
their effective dates. However, the APA provides that an agency is not 
required to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking or delay effective 
dates when the agency, for good cause, finds that the requirement is 
impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest (5 
U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and (d)(3)). There is good cause to waive both of 
these requirements here as the President's appointees and designees 
need to delay the effective date of these regulations to have adequate 
time to review these regulations, as well as all of the Department's 
regulatory activity, and neither the notice and comment processes nor 
the delayed effective date could be implemented in time to allow for 
this review before the March 21 effective date.
    Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities may obtain this 
document in

[[Page 14420]]

an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or compact 
disc) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Electronic Access to this Document: 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 via the Federal Digital System 
at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. 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 free at 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.

List of Subjects in 2 CFR Part 3474

    Accounting, Administrative practice and procedure, Adult education, 
Aged, Agriculture, American Samoa, Bilingual education, Blind, Business 
and industry, Civil rights, Colleges and universities, Communications, 
Community development, Community facilities, Copyright, Credit, 
Cultural exchange programs, Educational facilities, Educational 
research, Education, Education of disadvantaged, Education of 
individuals with disabilities, Educational study programs, Electric 
power, Electric power rates, Electric utilities, Elementary and 
secondary education, Energy conservation, Equal educational 
opportunity, Federally affected areas, Government contracts, Grant 
programs, Grant programs-agriculture, Grant programs-business and 
industry, Grant programs-communications, Grant programs-education, 
Grant programs-energy, Grant programs-health, Grant programs-housing 
and community development, Grant programs-social programs, Grant 
administration, Guam, Home improvement, Homeless, Hospitals, Housing, 
Human research subjects, Indians, Indians-education, Infants and 
children, Insurance, Intergovernmental relations, International 
organizations, Inventions and patents, Loan programs, Loan programs-
social programs, Loan programs-agriculture, Loan programs-business and 
industry, Loan programs-communications, Loan programs-energy, Loan 
programs-health, Loan programs-housing and community development, 
Manpower training programs, Migrant labor, Mortgage insurance, 
Nonprofit organizations, Northern Mariana Islands, Pacific Islands 
Trust Territories, Privacy, Renewable Energy, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements, Rural areas, Scholarships and fellowships, 
School construction, Schools, Science and technology, Securities, Small 
businesses, State and local governments, Student aid, Teachers, 
Telecommunications, Telephone, Urban areas, Veterans, Virgin Islands, 
Vocational education, Vocational rehabilitation, Waste treatment and 
disposal, Water pollution control, Water resources, Water supply, 
Watersheds, Women.

    Dated: March 17, 2017.
Betsy DeVos,
Secretary of Education.
[FR Doc. 2017-05723 Filed 3-17-17; 4:15 pm]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P