Gainful Employment and Other Regulations Delayed Until Next Year

The Department of Education released an updated regulatory agenda this week indicating that the agency plans to delay the publication of several significant regulations until 2023.

Previously, the Biden Administration embarked on two negotiated rulemaking sessions and formed two committees to oversee the various topics under consideration: (1) the Affordability and Student Loan Committee, which concluded its work last December; and (2) the Institutional and Programmatic Eligibility Committee, which concluded its work in March. Of the issues discussed in both committees, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will not be released until Spring 2023 for the following topics:

• Ability to benefit;
• Gainful employment;
• Financial responsibility;
• Administrative capability; and 
• Certification procedures.

Despite the anticipated delay in the release of the aforementioned regulations, the Department intends to maintain an ambitious rulemaking agenda in the second half of 2022. That agenda began in earnest yesterday with the release of the Department’s proposed new Title IX regulations.  Also in June, the Department plans to solicit comments on regulatory amendments to the rules governing the TRIO programs and publish proposed rules on the following topics:

• Borrower defenses to repayment;
• Improving discharges for total and permanent disabilities, closed schools, and false certification;
• Interest capitalization;
• Free inquiry; and 
• Public service loan forgiveness.

In July, the Department anticipates publishing proposed rules addressing the following issues:

• Change in ownership and change in control;
• Improving income-contingent repayment plans; and 
• Pell Grants for prison education programs.

Other regulatory actions on the Department’s agenda include proposed amendments to the rules governing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, expected in August, changes to the regulations governing discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnicity, planned for December, and amendments to the rules addressing discrimination on the basis of disability, expected next spring.

Authors:
Emmanual Guillory
Jody Feder