Publication Date: September 19, 2013
Posted Date: September 19, 2013
Subject: Negotiated Rulemaking - Violence Against Women Act
FR Type: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 182 (Thursday, September 19, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 57571-57573]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-22868]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Chapter VI
[Docket ID ED-2013-OPE-0124]
Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, Negotiator Nominations and
Schedule of Committee Meetings--Title IV Federal Student Aid Programs,
Violence Against Women Act
AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.
ACTION: Intention to establish negotiated rulemaking committee.
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SUMMARY: We announce our intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking
committee to prepare proposed regulations to address the changes to the
campus safety and security reporting requirements in the Jeanne Clery
Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act
(Clery Act), made by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of
2013 (VAWA). The committee will include representatives of
organizations or groups with interests that are significantly affected
by the subject matter of the proposed regulations. We request
nominations for individual negotiators who represent key stakeholder
constituencies for the issues to be negotiated to serve on the
committee, and we set a schedule for committee meetings.
DATES: We must receive your nominations for negotiators to serve on the
committee on or before October 21, 2013. The dates, times, and
locations of the committee meetings are set out in the Schedule for
Negotiations section in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
ADDRESSES: Please send your nominations for negotiators to Wendy
Macias, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street NW., Room 8017,
Washington, DC 20006. Telephone: (202) 502-7526 or by email:
wendy.macias@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about the content of
this notice, including information about the negotiated rulemaking
process or the nomination submission process, contact: Wendy Macias,
U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street NW., room 8017, Washington,
DC 20006. Telephone: (202) 502-7526 or by email: wendy.macias@ed.gov.
For general information about the negotiated rulemaking process,
see The Negotiated Rulemaking Process for Title IV Regulations,
Frequently Asked Questions at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html.
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: On May 1, 2012, we published a notice in the
Federal Register (77 FR 25658) announcing our intent to establish a
negotiated rulemaking committee under section 492 of the Higher
Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).
On April 16, 2013, we published a notice in the Federal Register
(78 FR 2247), which we corrected on April 30, 2013 (78 FR 25235),
announcing additional topics for consideration for action by the
negotiated rulemaking committee. The additional topics for
consideration were cash management of funds provided under the title IV
Federal Student Aid programs, State authorization for programs offered
through distance education or correspondence education, State
authorization for foreign locations of institutions located in a State,
clock to credit hour conversion, gainful employment, changes to the
campus safety and security reporting requirements in the Clery Act made
by the VAWA (Pub. L. 113-4), and the definition of "adverse credit"
for borrowers in the Federal Direct PLUS Loan Program.
We announced three public hearings at which interested parties
could comment on the new topics suggested by the Department and suggest
additional topics for consideration for action by the negotiating
committee. On May 13, 2013, we announced in the Federal Register (78 FR
27880) the addition of a fourth hearing. The hearings were held on May
21, 2013, in Washington, DC; May 23, 2013, in Minneapolis, Minnesota;
May 30, 2013, in San Francisco, California; and June 4, 2013, in
Atlanta, Georgia. We also invited parties unable to attend a public
hearing to submit written comments on the additional topics and to
submit other topics for consideration. Transcripts from all six public
hearings are available at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2012/index.html. Written comments submitted in response to the May 1, 2012, and April 16, 2013, notices may be viewed through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Instructions for finding comments are available on the site under "How to Use Regulations.gov" in the Help section. Individuals can enter docket ID ED-2012-OPE-0008 in the search box to locate the appropriate docket.
On June 12, 2013, while we continued to review the testimony
offered at the public hearings and the comments submitted through the
public comment process regarding other proposed rulemaking topics, we
announced our intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee
to prepare proposed regulations to establish standards for programs
that prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation
(78 FR 35179).
[[Page 57572]]
Regulatory Issues: After considering the information received at
the regional hearings and the written comments, we have decided to
establish an additional negotiating committee to prepare proposed
regulations to address the changes made by the VAWA to the campus
safety and security reporting requirements in the Clery Act. In
addition, we may propose additional changes to clarify and update the
existing campus safety and security reporting requirements. We intend
to select negotiators for the committee who represent the interests
significantly affected by the topics proposed for negotiations. In so
doing, we will follow the requirement in section 492(b)(1) of the HEA
that the individuals selected must have demonstrated expertise or
experience in the relevant subjects under negotiation. We will also
select individual negotiators who reflect the diversity among program
participants, in accordance with section 492(b)(1) of the HEA. Our goal
is to establish a committee that will allow significantly affected
parties to be represented while keeping the committee size manageable.
The committee may create subgroups on particular topics that may
involve additional individuals who are not members of the committee.
Such individuals who are not selected as members of the committee will
be able to attend the meetings, have access to the individuals
representing their constituencies, and participate in informal working
groups on various issues between the meetings. The committee meetings
will be open to the public.
While this committee will focus on changes made by the VAWA to the
campus safety and security reporting requirements in the Clery Act, the
Department continues to review the valuable testimony offered at the
public hearings and the comments submitted through the public comment
process regarding other proposed rulemaking topics. These include cash
management of funds provided under title IV Federal Student Aid
programs, regulations designed to prevent fraud, State authorization
for programs offered through distance education or correspondence
education, State authorization for foreign locations of institutions
located in a State, clock to credit hour conversion, the definition of
"adverse credit" for borrowers in the Federal Direct PLUS Loan
Program; and campus-based Federal Student Aid program reforms. We
anticipate announcing our intention to establish a negotiated
rulemaking committee to consider some or all of these other proposed
rulemaking topics in the coming months.
Constituencies: We have identified the following constituencies as
having interests that are significantly affected by the topics proposed
for negotiations. The Department plans to seat as negotiators
individuals from organizations or groups representing these
constituencies:
[cir] We are particularly interested in organizations or groups
representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students; male
students; female students; minority students; and students with
disabilities.
[cir] We are particularly interested in victims' and human rights
organizations, Title IX advocacy groups, and anti-defamation groups.
officials.
Federal assistance under title III, Parts A, B, and F and title V of
the HEA, which include Historically Black Colleges and Universities,
Hispanic-Serving Institutions, American Indian Tribally Controlled
Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving
Institutions, Predominantly Black Institutions, and other institutions
with a substantial enrollment of needy students as defined in title III
of the HEA.
and transgendered individuals.
The goal of the committee is to develop proposed regulations that
reflect a final consensus of the committee. Consensus means that there
is no dissent by any member of the negotiating committee, including the
committee member representing the Department. An individual selected as
a negotiator will be expected to represent the interests of his or her
organization or group and participate in the negotiations in a manner
consistent with the goal of developing proposed regulations on which
the committee will reach consensus. If consensus is reached, all
members of the organization or group represented by a negotiator are
bound by the consensus and are prohibited from commenting negatively on
the resulting proposed regulations. The Department will not consider
any such negative comments on the proposed regulations that are
submitted by members of such an organization or group.
Nominations: Nominations should include:
nominee represents, and a description of the interests that the nominee
represents.
subjects to be negotiated.
constituency that the nominee will represent.
participate in good faith in the development of the proposed
regulations.
phone number, fax number, and email address.
For a better understanding of the negotiated rulemaking process,
nominees should review The Negotiated Rulemaking Process for Title IV
Regulations, Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/hea08/neg-reg-faq.html prior to committing
to serve as a negotiator.
Nominees will be notified whether or not they have been selected as
negotiators as soon as the Department's review process is completed.
Schedule for Negotiations: The VAWA Committee will meet for three
sessions on the following dates:
Session 1: January 13-14, 2014
Session 2: February 24-25, 2014
Session 3: March 31-April 1, 2014
Sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The meetings for the committee will be held at the U.S. Department
of Education at: 1990 K Street NW. Eighth Floor Conference Center,
Washington, DC 20006
The meetings are open to the public.
Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this
document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print,
audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the program contact person
[[Page 57573]]
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 the Department published in the Federal
Register, in text or Adobe 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.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1098a.
Dated: September 13, 2013.
Lynn B. Mahaffie,
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning, and Innovation,
delegated the authority to perform the functions and duties of the
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2013-22868 Filed 9-18-13; 8:45 am]
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