Negotiated Rulemaking Sessions – Student Loan Issues

Steve Bomeisl

The U.S. Department of Education is holding negotiated rulemaking sessions - often referred to as “neg-reg” – with selected representatives of affected segments of the higher education community. Established by the Higher Education Act (HEA), these sessions are used to reach agreement on proposed language implementing new legislation or emending or clarifying existing regulations. If consensus is reached at the table, the Department is bound to propose the language.

Three teams are included in the current sessions. Of particular interest to HESC are the activities of the team addressing loan provisions in Title IV of the HEA. Participants, in addition to the Department, include lenders, schools, students, guaranty agencies and servicers.

Items on this team’s agenda include:

Cash management issues, including electronic disbursements, timeframes for recovery of funds not claimed by students or parents, late disbursements, and other cash management issues
Entrance counseling for Graduate and Professional PLUS borrowers
Maximum length of a loan period
Frequency of capitalization
Simplification of the deferment granting process
Eligible lender trustees
Institutional preferred lenders
Prohibited inducements
True and exact copy of death certificates
Retroactive total and permanent disability
NSLDS reporting time frames
Retention of MPNs
Perkins loan program

The first session was held in Washington, D.C. in December. Draft language was circulated by the Department and discussed in early February. The next negotiating session will be in mid-March, with a concluding meeting expected in April. To comply with the federal regulatory calendar, the proposed rules will be published for comment in May and the final will be implemented in November.

Full information on these issues or the negotiation teams can be found on the Department of Education’s website. If you have a question regarding any of these issues, please contact sbomeisl@hesc.org.

Return to HESC.org and future issues of this newsletter for updates.