TG Public Policy
For more information, contact:
George Torres,
TG Senior Advisor to the President for Congressional and Legislative Relations
george.torres@tgslc.org
Kelly Kaelin,
TG Senior Policy and Legislative Liaison
kelly.kaelin@tgslc.org
Useful links:
Integrated version of the federal regulations
Regulatory Resources
This page contains resources that you can access to help you keep up with changes in the federal regulations.
Generally, but not always, changes to federal regulations that pertain to the federal student aid programs are made through a process called negotiated rulemaking. During negotiated rulemaking (also known as Neg Reg), the Department of Education (ED) and other interested parties (stakeholders such as student, school, lender, and guarantor associations) meet to discuss and negotiate how to formulate or amend federal regulations, usually based on recent changes in the Higher Education Act (HEA). After the negotiations are concluded, ED publishes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) containing proposed regulations, that goes out for public comment; after the public comment period has ended, ED publishes final rules (regulations) with effective dates for implementation.
Notices regarding the various steps in the Neg Reg process are announced in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is a daily federal publication that contains proposed rules, final rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. The Federal Register is available on the Government Printing Office (GPO) Web site.
Interestingly, this year ED will conduct the Neg Reg process twice, having conducted one series of negotiations in the spring and planning another series of negotiations in the summer/fall. ED has established a Web site that provides details about both the spring 2009 and summer/fall 2009 Neg Reg processes; information about both is below.
Spring 2009 Neg Reg
The spring 2009 Neg Reg negotiations were held from February through May of this year, and ED's Web site contains information concerning:
- The issues that were negotiated, divided into categories that were assigned to negotiating committees (also known as teams)
- The list of negotiators on each team
- The schedule of each team's meetings (also known as sessions); and
- Each session's agenda.
TG provides updates in its weekly electronic newsletter Shoptalk Online on the Neg Reg process as it progresses. For the spring 2009 Neg Reg, TG published articles regarding the announcement of Neg Reg, the establishment of the Neg Reg schedule, and summaries of what happened at the first Neg Reg session, the second Neg Reg session, and the third and final Neg Reg session.
ED has published the final rules for Team I (Loans — Lender General Loan Issues) in the October 29, 2009, Federal Register and Team II (Loans — School-Based Loan Issues) in the October 28, 2009, Federal Register.
Fall 2009 Neg Reg and Forums
On May 26, ED announced that it would conduct a second Neg Reg process this fall on a specific array of subjects. ED then held a series of hearings in Denver, CO, Little Rock, AR, and Philadelphia, PA, to gather input from the public on these and other subjects. In conjunction with each of these hearings, ED also held two forums, inviting interested parties to discuss:
- How changes to the Department's financial aid communications and processes (including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid [FAFSA]) could improve college planning, preparation and access; and
- How best to leverage federal postsecondary programs to foster student educational persistence and degree attainment.
TG published an article regarding the announcement of this second Neg Reg in 2009 in Shoptalk Online. In addition, ED has released transcripts from the hearings and established a Web page containing written comments to the May 26 Federal Register notice.
On September 9, ED announced in the Federal Register the fall 2009 Neg Reg schedule, which will include two teams: Team I — Program Integrity, and Team II — Foreign Schools. In addition, ED has announced on its Web site the list of negotiators for each team (note that the Team I negotiators include TG's Carol Lindsey, TG vice president for policy and compliance) and issue summaries for each of the teams. Team I's first session runs from November 2-6, and Team II's first session runs from November 16-20.