[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 64 (Friday, April 4, 2025)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 14741-14743]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-05825]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Chapter VI
[Docket ID ED-2025-OPE-0016]
Intent To Receive Public Feedback for the Development of Proposed
Regulations and Establish Negotiated Rulemaking Committee
AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.
ACTION: Intent to negotiate.
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SUMMARY: We announce our intention to host public hearings and
establish one or more negotiated rulemaking committees to prepare
proposed regulations on various programs authorized under title IV of
the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA) (title IV, HEA
programs). The Department invites public feedback, especially
addressing topics which may include Public Service Loan Forgiveness
(PSLF), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), or
other topics that would streamline current federal student financial
assistance programs.
DATES:
Comments due: We must receive written comments on the topics
suggested by the Department and additional topics that may be
considered on or before May 5, 2025.
Hearing dates: The dates, times, and locations for the public
hearings are listed under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this
document.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at regulations.gov. Information on using Regulations.gov,
including instructions for submitting comments, is available on the
site under ``FAQ.'' If you require an accommodation or cannot otherwise
submit your comments via Regulations.gov, please contact
[email protected] or by phone at 1-866-498-2945. If you are
deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and wish to access
telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.
The Department will not accept comments submitted by fax or by
email or comments submitted after the comment period closes. To ensure
that we do not receive duplicate copies, please submit your comments
only once. Additionally, please include the Docket ID at the top of
your comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about negotiated
rulemaking, see the Frequently Asked Questions Section of the
Negotiated Rulemaking Process for title IV regulations website at:
https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-process-title-iv-regulations-frequently-asked-questions.
For information about the public hearings, or for additional
information about negotiated rulemaking, contact: Tamy Abernathy, U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, 400
Maryland Avenue SW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202)
245-4595. Email: [email protected].
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 492 of the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1098a)
requires that, before publishing any proposed regulations to implement
programs authorized under title IV of the HEA, the Secretary must
obtain public involvement in the development of the proposed
regulations. After
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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 (20 U.S.C. 1098a). These topics will focus on how title IV
regulations have impacted institutions, States, and other partners and
if their implementation may be inhibiting innovation and contributing
to rising college costs. We believe any rulemaking effort should
provide the opportunity to streamline or eliminate unnecessary
regulatory processes that are not otherwise required by law. The
feedback can be received during two public hearings, including one in-
person hearing and one virtual hearing, at which interested parties may
comment on the topics suggested by the Department and may suggest
additional topics that should be considered for action. Additionally,
the Department will accept written comments on the topics suggested by
the Department and suggestions for additional topics that should be
considered for action. Finally, any negotiating committees will include
representatives of organizations or groups with interests that are
significantly affected by the subject matter of the proposed
regulations.
We intend to select negotiators from nominees of the organizations
and groups that represent the interests significantly affected by the
proposed regulations. To the extent possible, we will select individual
negotiators from the nominees who reflect a wide variety of experts
among program participants, in accordance with section 492(b)(1) of the
HEA (20 U.S.C. 1098a).
Regulatory Issues
We intend to convene one or more negotiated rulemaking committees
to develop proposed regulations pertaining to title IV regulations that
have impacted institutions, States, and other partners and if their
implementation may be inhibiting innovation and contributing to rising
college costs. Some proposed topics for negotiation would include:
1. Refining definitions of a qualifying employer for the purposes
of determining eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness
program.
2. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income Contingent Repayment (ICR)
repayment plans.
3. Potential topics that would streamline current federal student
financial assistance program regulations while maintaining or improving
program integrity and institutional quality.
We will publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing the
topics of PSLF, PAYE, ICR, or other topics related to current federal
student financial assistance programs. This notice will solicit
nominations for individual negotiators who represent the communities of
interest significantly affected by the proposed regulations. This
notice will also be posted on the Department's website at: https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/higher-education-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-for-higher-education-2025-2026.
Public Hearings
For interested parties who want to discuss the rulemaking agenda,
the Department will hold two public hearings, including one in-person
hearing at the U.S. Department of Education located at 400 Maryland
Ave. SW, Barnard Auditorium, Washington, DC 20202 and one virtual
hearing. The in-person public hearing will be held on April 29, 2025,
from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. with a lunch break from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00
p.m., and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The virtual public
hearing will be held from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Eastern
time, on May 1, 2025. Additional information on the public hearings is
available at https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/higher-education-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-for-higher-education-2025-2026.
Individuals who would like to present comments at the public
hearing must register by sending an email message to
[email protected] no later than noon, Eastern time, on the business
day prior to the public hearing. The message should include the name of
the presenter, the general topic(s) the individual would like to
address, 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, but, if we are unable to do so, we will select
speakers on a first-come, first-served basis, based on the date and
time we received the message. We will limit each participant to three
minutes. For those who need a reasonable modification in order to
provide a live comment during the hearing, please see the ``Reasonable
Modifications'' section below for information about how to make such a
request.
The Department will notify registrants of the date and time slot
reserved for them and, for the virtual hearing, will 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 are able to accommodate, the Department
reserves the right to reject the registration of an entity or
individual that is affiliated with an entity or individual that is
already scheduled to present comments, and to select among registrants
to ensure that a broad range of entities and individuals is allowed to
present. We will accept registrations for any remaining time slots on a
first-come, first-served basis, beginning at 8 a.m. on the day of the
public hearing at the Department's on-site registration table (or at
[email protected] for the virtual hearing).
Reasonable Modifications: The hearings will be accessible to
individuals with disabilities. Information for contacting the
Department to request auxiliary aids or services to provide a live
comment will be included in the registration process for providing a
live comment at the hearing. If you will need an auxiliary aid or
service to provide your comment, please notify the person listed under
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT in this notice at least two weeks
before the scheduled meeting date.
Registration is not required to observe the in-person public
hearings; however, space may be limited. Registration is required to
view the virtual public hearing. American Sign Language translation
will be provided to all who attend the hearings, and closed captioning
will be provided for the virtual public hearing. We will post links for
attendees who wish to observe on our website at https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/higher-education-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-for-higher-education-2025-2026. The
Department will also post transcripts of all hearings on that site.
The Department will accept written comments via the Federal
eRulemaking portal through May 5, 2025. See the ADDRESSES section of
this document for submission information.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to generally make 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. Commenters should not include in their comments any
information that identifies other individuals or that permits readers
to
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identify other individuals. The Department reserves the right to redact
at any time any information in comments that identifies other
individuals, includes information that would allow readers to identify
other individuals, or includes threats of harm to another person. This
may include comments where the commenter refers to a third-party
individual without using their name if the Department determines that
the comment provides enough detail that could allow one or more readers
to link the information to the third-party individual. If your comment
refers to a third-party individual, please refer to the third-party
individual anonymously to reduce the chance that information in your
comment could be linked to the third party. For example, ``a former
student with a graduate level degree'' does not provide information
that identifies a third-party individual as opposed to ``my sister,
Jane Doe, had this experience while attending University X,'' which
does provide enough information to identify a specific third-party
individual. For privacy reasons, the Department reserves the right to
not make available on Regulations.gov any information in comments that
identifies other individuals, includes information that would allow
readers to identify other individuals, or includes threats of harm to
another person or to oneself.
Schedule for Negotiations
The dates and locations of negotiated rulemaking meetings will be
published in a subsequent Federal Register document and posted online
at: https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/higher-education-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-for-higher-education-2025-2026.
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.
James P. Bergeron,
Acting Under Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2025-05825 Filed 4-3-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P