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Biden Administration Announces New Round of Rulemaking
Last month, the Biden administration released its latest regulatory agenda, outlining plans to write new rules for a wide range of higher education and student loan policies. The announcement indicates that the U.S. Education Department will hold a series of negotiated rulemaking sessions starting this spring to overhaul rules governing accreditation, distance education, state authorization, and other topics.
The items on the agenda include:
Federal TRIO programs — The department intends to make technical improvements to programmatic eligibility and operations to the TRIO programs, which help disadvantaged students prepare for and enroll in higher education.
Accreditation — The agency plans to make changes to the standards relating to the federal recognition of accrediting agencies and the accreditation procedures for institutional eligibility for federal student aid.
State authorization — The administration intends to change how institutions must be approved by state regulators in order to receive federal student aid.
Return to Title IV — The department intends to amend rules governing the requirements for institutions to calculate and return unearned title IV, Higher Education Act program funds, to consider opportunities to protect students and taxpayers while easing administrative burden for institutions of higher education.
Cash management — The agency plans to amend the cash management regulations to ensure that students have and maintain timely access to student aid disbursed by their institutions of higher education.
Third-party servicers — The department plans to update rules related to existing guidance on third-party servicers hired by institutions that receive federal student aid; reporting requirements; financial or other compliance requirements; and past performance requirements.
Deferments and forbearances — The administration intends to make changes to the standards and requirements for issuing forbearances and deferments to student loan borrowers, particularly in relation to income-driven repayment.
Distance education — The department also plans to amend the definition of distance education.
Call for Volunteers
In the coming months, the department will begin to solicit nominations for negotiators to serve on the forthcoming negotiated rulemaking committee(s) to draft new rules governing these topics. As the regulatory issues on the agenda stand to impact AACRAO members, the association is looking for volunteers with interest and expertise in the areas of: distance education and state authorization, in particular. Additional areas of expertise may include: federal TRIO program, accreditation, R2T4, cash management, third-party servicers, and deferments and forbearances.
If selected, negotiated rulemaking committee members usually meet for three sessions at roughly monthly intervals. Each session usually lasts three days. The number of sessions, meetings in a session, length of the session meetings, and the time between sessions may vary depending on the issues being negotiated. AACRAO Government Relations staff will provide volunteers background support throughout the entire process.
Unsure about the negotiated rulemaking process? Learn more.
Application Deadline: Friday, February 24, 2023
We strongly encourage AACRAO members with interest and expertise in the topics listed above to complete this brief online form to volunteer as a nominee to serve on the Education Department’s negotiated rulemaking committee(s).