Student Tuition and Transparency System and Earnings Accountability Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Published In Today’s Federal Register

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Overview
As forecast last Friday, today’s Federal Register included the official publication of the Accountability in Higher Education and Access Through Demand-Driven Workforce Pell: Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) and Earnings Accountability (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=2be8328868&e=05bce952ad) proposed rule (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=ff73d5af8e&e=05bce952ad) . (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=bd8055f6dc&e=05bce952ad)

CSPEN spent the weekend completing our initial review of the 500+ page unofficial pdf and is currently in the process of developing a section-by-section summary of the proposed regulations which seek to “overhaul the accountability framework for the title IV, HEA programs by replacing the former debt-to-earnings (‘‘D/E’’) metric with a revised earnings premium measure, expanding transparency, and strengthening institutional compliance standards.”

In conjunction with the development of the document, we will also share commentary and details of the highly anticipated proposals on this week’s CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar. During the webinar we will discuss considerable portions of the Preamble in which the Department/Administration offer their rationale and authorization for arriving at several key policy positions and justification for the exclusion of other key policy positions that were explored throughout the negotiations.

The Department/Administration does make it clear that they are still willing to accept proposals as part of the public comment period, not only requesting responses to a series of “directed questions,” but also “alternative suggestions” supported by facts, research, and evidence. Deadline for the submission of comments is May 20, 2026.

What’s Next
Tomorrow the House Committee on Education & Workforce has announced its intention to hold a full committee markup of H.R. 8210 – A Stronger Workforce for America Act – legislation seeking to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

As noted in previous CSPEN emails and webinars, the legislation introduced in April is an attempt to complete the development of a bipartisan proposal similar to the legislation which made it through both House and Senate Committees and conference between the two chambers back in 2024, but was ultimately not enacted as part of the final reconciliation bill passed before the conclusion of the 118th Congress.

CSPEN will be monitoring tomorrow’s markup and provide a summary on the webinar as well. IF you are interested in watching the markup it will be livestreamed on the Committee’s YouTube website (centralstatesedu.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75e01bde202d593ed21c1c91c&id=0286f97cd9&e=05bce952ad) .