| Publication
Date: August 18, 2006 FRPart: Page Numbers: 47756-47758 Summary: Notice of Negotiated Rulemaking Posted on 08-18-2006 [Federal Register:
August 18, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 160)] ======================================================================= DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 34 CFR Chapter VI Office of Postsecondary Education; Notice of Negotiated Rulemaking for Programs Authorized Under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as Amended AGENCY: Department of Education. ACTION: Notice of establishment of negotiated rulemaking committee. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: We announce our intention to establish up to four negotiated rulemaking committees to prepare proposed regulations under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). Each committee will include representatives of organizations or groups with interests that are significantly affected by the subject matter of the proposed regulations. We also announce a series of four regional hearings, as detailed in the DATES section of this notice, where interested parties can suggest issues that should be considered for action by the negotiating committees. In addition, we request nominations for individual negotiators who represent key stakeholder constituencies that are involved in the student financial assistance programs authorized under Title IV of the HEA to serve on these committees. DATES: We must receive your nominations for negotiators to serve on the committees on or before November 9, 2006. (See dates, times, and locations of regional hearings under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.) ADDRESSES:
Please send your nominations for negotiators to Patty Chase, [[Page 47757]] also e-mail your nominations to: Patty.Chase@ed.gov. Those nominated will be notified via letter as to whether or not they have been selected as a negotiator as soon as the Department's review process is completed. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT: For information about the hearings and the nomination submission
process: Patty Chase, US Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW.,
Room 8050, Washington, DC 20006. Telephone: (202) 502-7905. SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION: Section 492 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended
(HEA), requires that, before publishing any proposed regulations to implement
programs 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 must use a negotiated
rulemaking process to develop the proposed regulations. Regulatory Issues We
intend to conduct negotiated rulemaking to develop proposed regulations
for the new Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National Science
and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) programs,
which were added to Title IV of the HEA by the Higher Education reconciliation
Act of 2005 (HERA), Pub. L. 109-171. Interim final regulations for these
programs, with an invitation to comment, were published in the Federal
Register on July 3, 2006 (71 FR 37990). The interim final regulations
will be used to administer these programs for the 2006-2007 award year.
The Secretary may, for the 2007-2008 award year, amend the regulations,
as appropriate, in response to comments received. The regulations for
these programs that will be developed through negotiated rulemaking would
be in effect for the third and subsequent years of implementation of these
programs (that is, beginning July 1, 2008). Structure of the Committees We
anticipate having up to four negotiating committees based upon the nature
of the topics to be negotiated. Each of the following committees will
be organized as necessary depending upon the comments received as a result
of this notice. One negotiating committee will focus on issues related
to the ACG and National SMART Grant programs. A second committee would
address issues related to the Federal student loan programs authorized
by Title IV, Parts B, D, and E of the HEA. A third committee would address
other programmatic, institutional eligibility and general provisions issues.
This committee could address issues related to HEA Title IV Parts A (except
for ACG and National SMART Grants), C, G, and H (except Subpart 2), as
well as HEA Title II, Section 208(b)(2). A fourth committee would address
accreditation issues (Title IV, Part H, Subpart 2). Our goal is to establish
committees that will allow significantly affected parties to be represented
while keeping the committees' size manageable. [[Page 47758]] Alaska Native and
Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, and other institutions with a substantial
enrollment of needy students as defined in Title III of the HEA; Two-year
public institutions of higher education; Four-year public institutions
of higher education; Private, non-profit institutions of higher education;
Private, for-profit institutions of higher education; Guaranty agencies
and guaranty agency servicers (including collection agencies); Lenders,
secondary markets, and loan servicers; and Accrediting Agencies. Nominations should include:
Schedule for Negotiations We anticipate that the negotiating committees will meet in the Washington, DC, area three times beginning in December 2006 and concluding no later than March 2007. The dates and locations of these meetings will be published in a subsequent notice in the Federal Register, as well as being posted on the Department's Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2006/index2006.html. We will post the schedule for negotiations on our Web site. Each committee will use electronic mail to exchange documents and discuss proposals between meetings. The schedule will allow sufficient time for us to provide the public with a 60-day comment period for the proposed regulations resulting from the negotiated rulemaking process and sufficient time to address any issues raised in the comment period, while meeting the November 1 statutory deadline for publishing student financial assistance final regulations. Regional Hearings We will hold four
public regional hearings for interested parties to discuss the agenda
for the negotiated rulemaking sessions. These hearings will be held on:
The regional hearings
will be held from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. local time. Electronic Access to This Document You may view this document, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister. To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the US Government Printing Office toll free at 1-888-293-6498; or in the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530. 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: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html. Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1098a. Dated: August 15,
2006. BILLING CODE 4000-01-P |