Compliance Alert – March 2024
- March 26th, 2024
- in Uncategorized
Final Rules
Management of Federal Agency Disbursements
On January 10, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend Fiscal Service’s Management of Federal Agency Disbursements rule, which implements a statutory mandate requiring the Federal Government to deliver non-tax payments by electronic funds transfer (EFT) unless Treasury determines that a waiver of the requirement is appropriate. Fiscal Service is now issuing this final rule (Final Rule) to adopt the amendments as proposed, with one minor change. Among other things, the Final Rule strengthens the EFT requirement by narrowing the scope of existing waivers from the EFT mandate or requiring agencies to obtain Fiscal Service’s approval to invoke certain existing part 208 waivers. The use of electronic payments has expanded significantly since the waivers from the EFT mandate were first published in 1998, and the Final Rule appropriately updates part 208’s waiver provisions, given the broad availability of safe and secure electronic payment options currently available. In doing so, the Final Rule leverages Treasury’s growing profile of electronic payment options, which are faster, less expensive, and safer than paper checks. The strengthening of the EFT requirement with these changes is also consistent with Treasury’s commitment to reducing check payments.
Federal Agency: Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Treasury
Affected Area: Finance and Accounting
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Effectiveness in Serving Employers Performance Indicator
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) establishes six primary indicators of performance and defines five of those performance indicators. With this final rule, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education (Departments) define the sixth performance indicator—effectiveness in serving employers—as Retention with the Same Employer and require it be reported by one WIOA core program on behalf of all six WIOA core programs within each State. This final rule incorporates two changes from the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM): the final rule does not limit the type of wage information that must be used, thereby permitting the use of supplemental wage information in the definition of the effectiveness in serving employers performance indicator, and it specifies that the definition is measuring retention in unsubsidized employment.
Federal Agency: Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), Department of Education; Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Department of Labor
Affected Area: HR
This final rule makes regulatory changes to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). These changes lower childcare costs for families participating in CCDF, improve the program’s child care provider payment rates and practices, and simplify enrollment in the child care subsidy program. The final rule also includes technical and other changes to improve clarity and program implementation.
Federal Agency: Office of Child Care (OCC), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Affected Area: RISE, CDRC
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is amending its Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations as a result of Agency review. The revisions include several changes and amplifications to the accident prevention program requirements, enhancements to the emergency preparedness requirements, improvements to the public availability of chemical hazard information, and several other changes to certain regulatory definitions or points of clarification. As major and other serious and concerning RMP accidents continue to occur, the record shows and EPA believes that this final rule will help further protect human health and the environment from chemical hazards through advancement of process safety based on lessons learned. These amendments seek to improve chemical process safety; assist in planning, preparedness, and response to Risk Management Program-reportable accidents; and improve public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated sources. While many of the provisions of this final rule reinforce each other, it is EPA’s intent that each one is merited on its own, and thus severable.
Federal Agency: Environmental Protection Agency
Affected Area: EHS, Emergency Management
Management of Federal Agency Disbursements; Correction
The Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”), Bureau of the Fiscal Service (“Fiscal Service”) is correcting a final rule that was published in the Federal Register on February 21, 2024, to amend Fiscal Service’s Management of Federal Agency Disbursements regulation. The regulation implements a statutory mandate requiring the Federal Government to deliver non-tax payments by electronic funds transfer (EFT) unless Treasury determines that a waiver of the requirement is appropriate. The final rule strengthens the EFT requirement by narrowing the scope of existing waivers from the EFT mandate or requiring agencies to obtain Fiscal Service’s approval to invoke certain existing waivers.
Federal Agency: Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Treasury
Affected Area: Tax Office, Finance
Proposed Rules
Expanding Opportunities To Appear Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
As part of its initiatives to expand access to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office), the USPTO proposes to amend the rules regarding admission to practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) in proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA proceedings) to give parties the option to designate non-registered practitioners who are recognized pro hac vice ( i.e., granted recognition in a specific PTAB proceeding) as lead counsel; excuse parties from the requirement to designate back-up counsel upon a showing of good cause such as a lack of resources to hire two counsel; establish a streamlined alternative procedure for recognizing counsel pro hac vice that is available when counsel has previously been recognized pro hac vice in a different PTAB proceeding; and clarify that those recognized pro hac vice have a duty to inform the Board of subsequent events that render inaccurate or incomplete representations they made to obtain pro hac vice recognition.
Federal Agency: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce
Affected Area: Patent and Trademark Office
Comments Due: 5/21/2024
Highway Safety Improvement Program
The purpose of this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) is to update the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) regulations to address provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (also known as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” (BIL)) and reflect current priorities and state-of-practice. Specifically, FHWA proposes to amend the regulatory language to incorporate the Safe System Approach, clarify the scope of the HSIP to focus on the safety of all road users on the entire public road network, improve evaluation practices, streamline reporting efforts, and ensure States are collecting Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE) fundamental data elements. The proposed changes would clarify provisions regarding the planning, implementation, evaluation, and reporting of HSIPs that are administered in each State. These changes would further strengthen and advance the safety and equity priorities of the DOT National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) and assist States with making safety gains designed to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on the Nation’s roads.
Federal Agency: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
Affected Area: Campus
Comments Due: 4/22/2024
The Department of Education (Department) proposes a priority and requirements for a National Technical Assistance Center to Improve State Capacity to Collect, Report, Analyze, and Use Accurate IDEA Part B Data (Center) under the Technical Assistance on State Data Collection program, Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.373Y. The Department may use this priority and these requirements for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2024 and later years. We take this action to focus attention on an identified national need to provide technical assistance (TA) to improve the capacity of States to meet the data collection requirements under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This Center would support States in collecting, reporting, and determining how to best analyze and use their data and would customize its TA to meet each State’s specific needs.
Federal Agency: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Department of Education
Affected Area: College of Education
Comments Due: 5/20/2024
The Office for Human Research Protections, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OHRP), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are announcing the availability of a draft guidance entitled “Key Information and Facilitating Understanding in Informed Consent.” This draft guidance provides recommendations related to two provisions of the revised Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (the revised Common Rule) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and identical provisions in FDA’s proposed rule “Protection of Human Subjects and Institutional Review Boards.” FDA’s proposed rule, if finalized, would harmonize certain sections of FDA’s regulations on human subject protections and institutional review boards (IRBs), to the extent practicable and consistent with other statutory provisions, with the revised Common Rule, in accordance with the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act). The guidance addresses the provisions of the revised Common Rule that require informed consent to begin with key information about the research and to present information in a way that facilitates understanding and identical provisions in FDA’s proposed rule.
Federal Agency: The Office for Human Research Protections, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of the Secretary, and the Food and Drug Administration, HHS
Affected Area: ORED
Comments Due: 4/30/2024
Notices
The Department of Education (the Department) is requesting a new information collection, 1845–NEW, Foreign Institution Reporting Requirements under the CARES Act, be made available for full clearance with public comment. Section 3510(a) of the CARES Act, Public Law 116–136 (March 27, 2020), authorized the Secretary of Education (Secretary) to permit a foreign institution, in the case of a public health emergency, major disaster or emergency, or national emergency declared by the applicable government authorities in the country in which the foreign institution is located, to provide any part of an otherwise eligible program to be offered via distance education for the duration of such emergency or disaster and the following payment period for purposes of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.). Additionally, under section 3510(d) of the CARES Act, the Secretary may allow a foreign institution to enter into a written arrangement with an institution of higher education located in the United States that participates in the Federal Direct Loan Program under part D of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087a et seq.) for the purpose of allowing a student of the foreign institution who is a borrower of a loan made under such part to take courses from the institution of higher education located in the United States. The CARES Act requires foreign institutions that use either type of authority described above to report such use to the Secretary. Institutions are required to report use of either distance education or written arrangements to the Department no later than 30 days after it begins offering coursework online to Direct Loan recipients. The Department must also collect specific information from a school that requests a waiver in order to determine if the school is eligible to receive the waiver. On May 12, 2020, Federal Student Aid, an Office of the Department, notified foreign institutions of the new authority and requested that any foreign institution who wished to utilize this new authority to respond with information specified in the email. This information collection was discontinued following the discontinuation of the national COVID–19 emergency status. However, due to other global situations we are now requesting a new collection to allow for the on-going use of the CARES Act waiver.
Federal Agency: Department of Education
Affected Area: Student Financial Aid
Comments Due: 3/21/2024
This clearance request is for approval of the HPSL Program, LDS Program, PCL Program, and NSL Program Administrative Requirements. The HPSL Program, authorized by Public Health Service (PHS) Act sections 721–722 and 725–735, is a grant program where recipients provide long-term, low-interest loans to students attending schools of medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, optometry, podiatric medicine, and pharmacy. The LDS Program, authorized by PHS Act sections 721–722 and 724–735, is a grant program where recipients provide long-term, low interest loans to certain students attending schools of allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. The PCL Program, authorized by PHS Act sections 721–723 and 725–735, is a grant program where recipients provide long-term, low interest loans to students attending schools of allopathic medicine and osteopathic medicine to practice primary health care. The NSL Program, authorized by PHS Act sections 835–842, is a grant program where recipients provide long-term, low-interest loans to students who attend eligible schools of nursing in programs leading to a diploma degree, an associate degree, a baccalaureate degree, or a graduate degree in nursing. These programs have a number of recordkeeping and reporting requirements for academic institutions and loan applicants. The applicable program regulations are found in 42 CFR 57.201–218 and 57.301–318. HRSA proposes revisions to the Annual Operating Report (AOR)-HRSA Form 501 completed by institutions participating in the HPSL, LDS, PCL, and NSL Programs to obtain additional information about those institutions and their student borrowers.
Federal Agency: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services
Affected Area: Student Financial Aid, College of Nursing
Comments Due: 3/21/2024
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) invites public comment on one currently approved Information Collection Request (ICR), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number 1652–0059, abstracted below that we will submit to OMB for a revision in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). This ICR is being revised to inform the public of the official launch of new TSA PreCheckTM enrollment providers, which has led to multiple price points for enrollments and renewals and additional enrollment locations; exploration of new enrollment capabilities to include remotely proctored enrollment; acceptance of Mobile Drivers Licenses and other Digital Identities upon TSA approval; and, revised customer experience surveys to better service the public. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected burden. The collection involves the voluntary submission of biographic and biometric information that TSA uses to verify identity and conduct a security threat assessment (STA) for the TSA PreCheckTM Application Program. The STA compares an applicant’s information against criminal history, immigration, intelligence, and regulatory violations databases to determine if the person poses a low risk to transportation or national security and should be eligible for expedited screening through TSA PreCheckTM lanes at airports.
Federal Agency: Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Affected Area: Campus
Comments Due: 4/22/2024
OSHA solicits public comments concerning the proposal to extend the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) approval of the information collection requirements specified in the Standard on Material Hoists, Personnel Hoists, and Elevators.
Federal Agency: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor
Affected Area: Campus
Comments Due: 4/26/2024
Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Campus Safety and Security Survey
The collection of information through the Campus Safety and Security Survey (CSS) is necessary under section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, with the goal of increasing transparency surrounding college safety and security information for students, prospective students, parents, employees and the general public. The survey is a collection tool to compile the annual data on campus crime and fire safety. The data collected from the individual institutions by the Department of Education (ED) is made available to the public through the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis and Cutting Tool as well as the College Navigator.
Federal Agency: Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), Department of Education (ED)
Affected Area: UAPD
Comments Due: 5/3/2024
The Pre-authorized Debit Account Brochure and Application (PDA Application) serves as the means by which an individual with a defaulted federal education debt (student loan or grant overpayment) that is held by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) requests and authorizes the automatic debiting of payments toward satisfaction of the debt from the borrower’s checking or savings account. The PDA Application explains the automatic debiting process and collects the individual’s authorization for the automatic debiting and the bank account information needed by ED to debit the individual’s account.
Federal Agency: Federal Student Aid (FSA), Department of Education (ED)
Affected Area: Student Financial Aid
Comments Due: 4/29/2024
HRSA provides advanced nursing education grants to educational institutions to increase the supply, distribution, quality of, and access to advanced education nurses through the ANE Programs. The ANE Programs are authorized by section 811 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 296j), as amended. This clearance request is for continued approval of the information collection OMB No. 0915–0375 with revisions. This revision request seeks to add the ANE-Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Program and the Maternity Care Nursing Workforce Expansion Program to the ANE Program Specific Form, and to remove programs that have closed, which include the ANE-Nurse Practitioner Residency Program and the ANE-Nurse Practitioner Residency Integration Program. The activities previously supported under the ANE Nurse Practitioner Residency Program and the ANE-Nurse Practitioner Residency Integration Program are now supported under the ANE-Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Program.
Federal Agency: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services
Affected Area: College of Nursing
Comments Due: 4/8/2024
Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Regulatory Secretariat Division has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a revision of a previously approved information collection requirement regarding certain Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 36 construction contract requirements.
Federal Agency: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Affected Area: Campus Development
Comments Due: 4/10/2024
Items of Interest
The continuing effort of certain countries of concern to access Americans’ sensitive personal data and United States Government-related data constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Access to Americans’ bulk sensitive personal data or United States Government-related data increases the ability of countries of concern to engage in a wide range of malicious activities.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invites nominations from a diverse range of qualified candidates with expertise in the areas of toxicology, bioethics, and statistics to be considered for appointment to its Human Studies Review Board (HSRB) Federal advisory committee. Submission of nominations will be made via the HSRB website at: https://www.epa.gov/osa/human-studies-review-board.
Comments Due: 3/29/2024
Request for Nominations to the EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC)
The CASAC is a chartered Federal Advisory Committee, established pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1977, codified at 42 U.S.C. 7409(d)(2), to review air quality criteria and National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and recommend to the EPA Administrator any new NAAQS and revisions of existing criteria and standards as may be appropriate. The CASAC shall also: advise the EPA Administrator of areas in which additional knowledge is required to appraise the adequacy and basis of existing, new, or revised NAAQS; describe the research efforts necessary to provide the required information; advise the EPA Administrator on the relative contribution to air pollution concentrations of natural as well as anthropogenic activity; and advise the EPA Administrator of any adverse public health, welfare, social, economic, or energy effects which may result from various strategies for attainment and maintenance of such NAAQS. Members of the CASAC constitute a distinguished body of non-EPA scientists and engineers who are nationally and internationally recognized experts in their respective fields. Members are appointed by the EPA Administrator and serve for a two to three-year term as Special Government Employees who provide independent expert advice to the agency. Additional information is available at https://casac.epa.gov.
Comments Due: 4/3/2024
Colleges, Education Department at Odds Over Inclusive Access Changes
The department is sticking by its plan to prohibit colleges from automatically billing students for course materials despite strong opposition from publishers and university leaders.
Liberty University Fined $14 Million for Clery Violations
The historic fine was part of a settlement agreement with the Department of Education for numerous violations of campus crime-reporting requirements.
Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Players Vote to Unionize
Vote could contribute to undermining of amateur model in college athletics.
The SAT Enters the 21st Century
The College Board’s ubiquitous standardized test is now exclusively digital and significantly shorter. It’s a big change at a decisive moment for the testing industry.
Millions of Scholarly Articles Are Not Being Archived: Report
A study published in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication in January reviewed more than seven million documents with digital object identifiers (DOIs). The DOIs are unique identifiers given to most—but not all—scholarly articles, acting as a digital fingerprint. Of the 7,438,037 articles, roughly 28 percent, or more than two million works, did not appear in the reviewed archives despite having a DOI. A little more than half the works (4.3 million articles) were in more than one archive, according to the study. Fewer than 1 percent of institutions preserve 75 percent of their works in three or more archives, which Martin Paul Eve, the head researcher on the study, called “alarming.”
Congress Passes FAFSA Formula Fix
Congress moved Thursday to fix an error in the legislation overhauling the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, days after the Education Department announced it was updating the formula for aid eligibility to comply with the law.
Teaching Tip: Navigating AI in the Classroom
Generative artificial intelligence tools continue to grow in popularity. Here are four ways faculty members in higher education are teaching about or with AI.
Facial Recognition Heads to Class. Will Students Benefit?
Innovators plow forward with this technology in a largely unregulated ecosystem. Ethicists and a new National Academies report urge caution.
The Future of Testing Is Anything but Standardized
Colleges are beginning to solidify their post-pandemic testing policies. Conclusions on the best path forward have been disparate and, at times, contradictory.
Civil Rights Groups Push Back Against Wave of Anti-DEI Bills
So far this year, at least five state legislatures have passed bills seeking to curtail diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. This year’s batch may seep more into the classroom.
The Politics of College Choice
Research shows that students care a great deal about the policies of the state in which they attend college, especially on issues like gun control and abortion.
How OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora could change science – and society
The release of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video AI tool last month was met with a mix of trepidation and excitement from researchers who are concerned about misuse of the technology. The California-based company showcased Sora’s ability to create photorealistic videos from a few short text prompts, with examples including clips of a woman walking down a neon-lit street in Tokyo and a dog jumping between two windowsills.
House Republicans Warn Against College Athlete Unions
In a hearing Tuesday, GOP representatives argued that labor unions would disrupt college sports and lead to program cuts. Democrats said student-athletes deserve a seat at the bargaining table.
Low Grade? Arizona Bill Would Let Students Allege ‘Political Bias’
Legislation that’s near passage in Arizona would create a “grade challenge department” for public universities. It could force professors to change students’ marks.
Policies
| Posting Date | Department | Contact | Name | Effective Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/5/2024 | Student Life | Stacy Jones | Medical Emergency Assistance Policy | 5/31/2017 | Revised Policy: Minor edit to reflect the name change from MPACT to CRIS. |
| 3/5/2024 | Public Safety | Ralph Clayton | Public Safety and Emergency Policy | 9/15/2020 | Revised Policy: The purpose of this policy update is to incorporate the role of the Director of Communications for the Department of Public Safety. |