[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 209 (Friday, October 28, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 66880-66882]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-27982]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Chapter VI
Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, Negotiator Nominations and
Schedule of Committee Meetings--Student Loan Programs
AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of establishment of negotiated rulemaking committee.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We announce our intention to establish a negotiated rulemaking
committee to prepare proposed regulations governing the student loan
programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965,
as amended (HEA). The committee will include representatives of
organizations or groups with interests that are significantly affected
by the topics proposed for negotiation. 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 November 28, 2011. The dates, times, and
locations of the committee meetings are set out in the Schedule for
Negotiations section under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION, below.
ADDRESSES: Please send your nominations for negotiators to Wendy
Macias, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 8017,
Washington, DC 20006, or by fax at (202) 502-7874. You may also email
your nominations to 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. You may also email
your questions about the nomination submission process to:
Wendy.Macias@ed.gov.
Note: For general information about the negotiated rulemaking
process, see 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.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free at 1-800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On May 5, 2011, we published a notice in the
Federal Register (76 FR 25650) announcing our intent to establish one
or more negotiated rulemaking committees to develop proposed
regulations under the HEA. In addition, we announced our intent to
develop these proposed regulations by following the negotiated
rulemaking procedures in Section 492 of the HEA. The notice also
announced a series of three regional hearings at which interested
parties could comment on the topics suggested by the Department and
suggest additional topics for consideration for action by the
negotiating committees. We also held four public roundtable discussions
to complement the regional hearings. The hearings and roundtables were
held in: Nashville, Tennessee (roundtable only); Tacoma, Washington;
Chicago, Illinois; and Charleston, South Carolina. We invited parties
to comment and submit topics for consideration in writing as well.
Transcripts from the regional hearings can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2011/hearings.html.
Written comments may be viewed through the Federal eRulemaking Portal
at http://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-2011-OPE-0003 in the
``Enter Keyword or ID'' search box to locate the appropriate docket.
Regulatory Issues: After consideration of the information received
at the regional hearings, the roundtable discussions, and in writing,
we have decided at this time to establish a negotiating committee to
address student loan program issues. The three programs to be addressed
are: The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program, the
Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, and the Federal Perkins
(Perkins) Loan Program.
We list the topics the committee is likely to address under
Committee Topics.
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
[[Page 66881]]
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.
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.
The Department has 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:
Students.
Legal assistance organizations that represent students.
Consumer advocacy organizations.
Financial aid administrators at postsecondary
institutions.
Business officers and bursars at postsecondary
institutions.
Admissions officers at postsecondary institutions.
Institutional third-party servicers who perform functions
related to the title IV programs (including collection agencies).
State higher education executive officers.
State attorneys general and other appropriate State
officials.
Business and industry.
Institutions of higher education eligible to receive
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, 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.
Regional accrediting agencies.
National accrediting agencies.
Specialized accrediting agencies.
State approval agencies.
State student grant agencies.
State agencies addressing secondary education.
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 their
organization or group. 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 that are submitted by members of such an
organization or group.
Nominations:
Nominations should include:
The name of the nominee, the organization or group the
nominee represents, and a description of the interests that the nominee
represents.
Evidence of the nominee's expertise or experience in the
subject, or subjects, to be negotiated.
Evidence of support from individuals or groups of the
constituency that the nominee will represent.
The nominee's commitment that he or she will actively
participate in good faith in the development of the proposed
regulations.
The nominee's contact information, including address,
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.
Committee Topics
The topics the committee is likely to address, for each of the
three loan programs unless otherwise indicated, are as follows:
Loan discharges based on total and permanent disability.
Single application process.
Borrower notification of denial.
Post-discharge monitoring of employment earnings.
Repeal of unnecessary regulations in the FFEL Program due
to statutory changes and incorporation and modification of
corresponding requirements in the Direct Loan Program regulations.
Modifications to the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan and
the Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) Plan in the Direct Loan and FFEL
Programs.
New borrower notification for annual IBR evaluation.
Annual income verification.
Borrower repayment after leaving IBR.
Closed school loan discharge 90-day eligibility period for
borrowers.
Loan rehabilitation in the Direct Loan and FFEL Programs.
Reasonable and affordable payment standard.
Treatment of borrowers subject to administrative wage
garnishment.
Deadline for FFEL lender 60-day delinquent borrower
repayment disclosure.
Satisfactory repayment arrangements for defaulted
borrowers.
Forbearance.
Borrowers under Department of Defense repayment plans.
Process for defaulted borrowers.
Participation rate index appeal for one-year cohort
default rates.
Perkins Loan only issues, including
Economic hardship deferment debt-to-income provision.
Graduate fellowship deferment eligibility.
Social security number requirement for loan assignment.
Cancellation rate progression across cancellation
categories.
School enrollment status reporting requirements.
Minimum loan period for transfer students in non-term
programs and certain non-standard term programs.
These topics are tentative. Topics may be added or removed as the
process continues.
Schedule for Negotiations
The committee will meet for three sessions on the following dates:
Session 1: January 9-13, 2012.
Session 2: February 13-17, 2012.
Session 3: March 26-30, 2012.
All sessions will begin at 12 p.m. on Monday and end at 12 p.m. on
Friday.
The meetings will be held at the U.S. Department of Education at:
1990 K Street, NW., Eighth Floor Conference Center, Washington, DC
20006.
Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this
document in
[[Page 66882]]
an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or compact
disc) by contacting the contact person 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: http://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 Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). To
use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at
this site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at http://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: October 25, 2011.
Eduardo M. Ochoa,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2011-27982 Filed 10-27-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P