Biden-Harris Administration Sends Proposed Final Rules On Student Loan Debt Relief & Program Integrity and Institutional Quality To White House for Final Approval
Overview
Since November 1st, when it became clear that the U.S. Department of Education has failed to publish Final Rules on significant portions of the 2023-2024 Federal Negotiated Rulemaking, the major question was when would the Biden-Harris Administration seek to publish them as a proposed final rule and when would the remaining three sets of issues also negotiated by sent out for public comment as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).
Well, the answer to part one of that question was answered yesterday when all three packages of proposed rules were sent to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final approval.
As detailed on the OMB/OIRA website (www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoReviewSearch), the final rules for Student Debt Relief (RIN: 1840-AD93), Student Debt Relief 2: Hardships (RIN: 1840-AD96) and Program Integrity and Institutional Quality – Distance Education (1840-AD92), Return of Title IV HEA Funds (1840-AD92) and Federal TRIO Programs (1840-AD68) were submitted.
What’s Next
With proposed final rules now under review at the White House, interested and concerned parties have one final opportunity to share their views with representatives from the Department and White House by requesting a meeting under the requirements of Executive Order 12866. Members of our community will recall that this process is the same as the process used to request meetings for each of these proposals when they were sent over to OMB/OIRA as NPRMs.
Institutions with interests surrounding the proposed final rules are encouraged to request meetings at your discretion. To assist the community in reviewing what is included in the three packages, CSPEN will provide an overview on tomorrow’s Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update of what is included in the various packages.
