2014-05863

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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 18, 2014 / Proposed Rules
is available at www.reginfo.gov. Click on
Information Collection Review. This
proposed collection is identified as
proposed collection 1840–0807 ED–
2014–OPE–0038.
We consider your comments on this
proposed collection of information in—
• Deciding whether the proposed
collection is necessary for the proper
performance of our functions, including
whether the information will have
practical use;
• Evaluating the accuracy of our
estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection, including the validity of our
methodology and assumptions;
• Enhancing the quality, usefulness,
and clarity of the Information we
collect; and
• Minimizing the burden on those
who must respond. This includes
exploring the use of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or
other technological collection
techniques.
OMB is required to make a decision
concerning the collection of information
contained in these proposed regulations
between 30 and 60 days after
publication of this document in the
Federal Register. Therefore, to ensure
that OMB gives your comments full
consideration, it is important that OMB
receives your comments by April 17,
2014. This does not affect the deadline
for your comments to us on the
proposed regulations.
Intergovernmental Review: This
program is subject to Executive Order
12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR
part 79. One of the objectives of the
Executive order is to foster an
intergovernmental partnership and a
strengthened federalism. The Executive
order relies on processes developed by
State and local governments for
coordination and review of proposed
Federal financial assistance.
This document provides early
notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Accessible Format: Individuals with
disabilities can obtain this document in
an accessible format (e.g., braille, large
print, audiotape, or compact disc) on
request to the program contact person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT.
Electronic Access to This Document:
The official version of this document is
the document published in the Federal
Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register
and the Code of Federal Regulations is
available via the Federal Digital System
at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you
can view this document, as well as all
other documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

your comments about these proposed
regulations, address them to Patricia
Barrett, U.S. Department of Education,
400 Maryland Avenue SW., Room 5142,
Potomac Center Plaza (PCP),
Washington, DC 20202–2700.
Privacy Note: The Department’s
policy is to make all comments received
from members of the public available for
public viewing in their entirety on the
Federal eRulemaking Portal at
www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to
include in their comments only
information that they wish to make
publicly available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kate
Maloney. Telephone: (202) 502–7509 or
by email: [email protected].
If you use a telecommunications
device for the deaf (TDD) or a text
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay
Service (FRS), toll free, at 1–800–877–
8339.

34 CFR Chapter VI

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

text or Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF). To use PDF you must
have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the
Department published in the Federal
Register by using the article search
feature at: www.federalregister.gov.
Specifically, through the advanced
search feature at this site, you can limit
your search to documents published by
the Department.
Dated: March 13, 2014.
Lynn B. Mahaffie,
Senior Director, Policy Coordination,
Development, and Accreditation Service,
delegated the authority to perform the
functions and duties of the Assistant
Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2014–05927 Filed 3–17–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P

[Docket ID ED–2014–OPE–0035; CFDA
Number: 84.015B.]

Proposed Priority—Foreign Language
and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS)
Program
Office of Postsecondary
Education, Department of Education.
ACTION: Proposed priority.
AGENCY:

The Acting Assistant
Secretary for Postsecondary Education
proposes a priority for the FLAS
Program administered by the
International and Foreign Language
Education (IFLE) Office. The Acting
Assistant Secretary may use this priority
for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2014
and later years.
DATES: We must receive your comments
on or before April 17, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments
through the Federal eRulemaking Portal
or via postal mail, commercial delivery,
or hand delivery. We will not accept
comments submitted by fax or by email
or those submitted after the comment
period. To ensure that we do not receive
duplicate copies, please submit your
comments only once. In addition, please
include the Docket ID at the top of your
comments.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
www.regulations.gov to submit your
comments electronically. Information
on using Regulations.gov, including
instructions for accessing agency
documents, submitting comments, and
viewing the docket, is available on the
site under ‘‘Are you new to the site?’’
• Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery,
or Hand Delivery: If you mail or deliver
SUMMARY:

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Invitation to Comment: We invite you
to submit comments regarding this
notice. To ensure that your comments
have maximum effect in developing the
final priority, we urge you to identify
clearly the part of the priority your
comment addresses.
We invite you to assist us in
complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866
and 13563 and their overall requirement
of reducing regulatory burden that
might result from this proposed priority.
Please let us know of any further ways
we could reduce potential costs or
increase potential benefits while
preserving the effective and efficient
administration of the program.
During and after the comment period,
you may inspect all comments about
this notice in Room 6083, 1990 K St.
NW., Washington, DC, between the
hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.,
Washington, DC, time, Monday through
Friday of each week except Federal
holidays.
Assistance to Individuals with
Disabilities in Reviewing the
Rulemaking Record: On request we will
provide an appropriate accommodation
or auxiliary aid to an individual with a
disability who needs assistance to
review the comments or other
documents in the public rulemaking
record for this notice. If you want to
schedule an appointment for this type of
accommodation or auxiliary aid, please
contact the person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Purpose of Program: The purpose of
the FLAS Fellowships Program is to
provide allocations of academic year
and summer fellowships to institutions

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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 18, 2014 / Proposed Rules

of higher education or consortia of
institutions of higher education to assist
meritorious undergraduate students and
graduate students undergoing training
in modern foreign languages and related
area or international studies.

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Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1122.

Applicable Program Regulations: 34
CFR parts 655 and 657.
Proposed Priorities: This notice
contains one proposed priority.
Background: The Department
proposes a priority for FLAS
institutional applications that would,
when awarding fellowships, give
competitive preference to students who
demonstrate financial need determined
in accordance with Part F of title IV of
the Higher Education Act of 1965, as
amended (HEA). This proposed priority
would give FLAS institutions an
incentive to award fellowships to those
meritorious students who would most
benefit from financial relief. By
providing FLAS fellowships to qualified
scholars who lack the financial means to
pursue this rigorous training without
incurring significant debt, the FLAS
Program will contribute to lowering
postsecondary education costs for
worthy students seeking to become
language and area studies experts in the
United States.
Applicant institutions addressing the
priority would describe a two-tier
selection process. From all of the
student fellowship applications
submitted, the institution would first
select a pool of qualified applicants
based strictly on merit, as defined in
§ 657.3 of the FLAS Program
regulations. From this pool of qualified
applicants, the institution could then
give competitive preference to students
who demonstrate financial need as
defined in Part F of title IV of the HEA.
Proposed Priority: Applications that
give preference to students who
demonstrate financial need as defined
in Part F of title IV of the Higher
Education Act of 1965, as amended
(HEA), when awarding fellowships. The
applicant must describe how it will
ensure that all FLAS fellows who
receive such preference show potential
for high academic achievement based on
such indices as grade point average,
class ranking, or similar measures that
the institution may determine.
Types of Priorities: When inviting
applications for a competition using one
or more priorities, we designate the type
of each priority as absolute, competitive
preference, or invitational through a
notice in the Federal Register. The
effect of each type of priority follows:
Absolute priority: Under an absolute
priority, we consider only applications

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that meet the priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(3)).
Competitive preference priority:
Under a competitive preference priority,
we give competitive preference to an
application by (1) awarding additional
points, depending on the extent to
which the application meets the priority
(34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting
an application that meets the priority
over an application of comparable merit
that does not meet the priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(2)(ii)).
Invitational priority: Under an
invitational priority, we are particularly
interested in applications that meet the
priority. However, we do not give an
application that meets the priority a
preference over other applications (34
CFR 75.105(c)(1)).
Final Priorities: We will announce the
final priorities in a notice in the Federal
Register. We will determine the final
priority after considering responses to
this notice and other information
available to the Department. This notice
does not preclude us from proposing
additional priorities, requirements,
definitions, or selection criteria, subject
to meeting applicable rulemaking
requirements.
Note: This notice does not solicit
applications. In any year in which we choose
to use this priority, we invite applications
through a notice in the Federal Register.

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563
Regulatory Impact Analysis
Under Executive Order 12866, the
Secretary must determine whether this
regulatory action is ‘‘significant’’ and,
therefore, subject to the requirements of
the Executive order and subject to
review by the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB). Section 3(f) of Executive
Order 12866 defines a ‘‘significant
regulatory action’’ as an action likely to
result in a rule that may—
(1) Have an annual effect on the
economy of $100 million or more, or
adversely affect a sector of the economy,
productivity, competition, jobs, the
environment, public health or safety, or
State, local, or tribal governments or
communities in a material way (also
referred to as an ‘‘economically
significant’’ rule);
(2) Create serious inconsistency or
otherwise interfere with an action taken
or planned by another agency;
(3) Materially alter the budgetary
impacts of entitlement grants, user fees,
or loan programs or the rights and
obligations of recipients thereof; or
(4) Raise novel legal or policy issues
arising out of legal mandates, the
President’s priorities, or the principles
stated in the Executive order.

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This proposed regulatory action is not
a significant regulatory action subject to
review by OMB under section 3(f) of
Executive Order 12866.
We have also reviewed this regulatory
action under Executive Order 13563,
which supplements and explicitly
reaffirms the principles, structures, and
definitions governing regulatory review
established in Executive Order 12866.
To the extent permitted by law,
Executive Order 13563 requires that an
agency—
(1) Propose or adopt regulations only
upon a reasoned determination that
their benefits justify their costs
(recognizing that some benefits and
costs are difficult to quantify);
(2) Tailor its regulations to impose the
least burden on society, consistent with
obtaining regulatory objectives and
taking into account—among other things
and to the extent practicable—the costs
of cumulative regulations;
(3) In choosing among alternative
regulatory approaches, select those
approaches that maximize net benefits
(including potential economic,
environmental, public health and safety,
and other advantages; distributive
impacts; and equity);
(4) To the extent feasible, specify
performance objectives, rather than the
behavior or manner of compliance a
regulated entity must adopt; and
(5) Identify and assess available
alternatives to direct regulation,
including economic incentives—such as
user fees or marketable permits—to
encourage the desired behavior, or
provide information that enables the
public to make choices.
Executive Order 13563 also requires
an agency ‘‘to use the best available
techniques to quantify anticipated
present and future benefits and costs as
accurately as possible.’’ The Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs of
OMB has emphasized that these
techniques may include ‘‘identifying
changing future compliance costs that
might result from technological
innovation or anticipated behavioral
changes.’’
We are issuing this proposed priority
only upon a reasoned determination
that its benefits would justify its costs.
In choosing among alternative
regulatory approaches, we selected
those approaches that would maximize
net benefits. Based on the analysis that
follows, the Department believes that
this regulatory action is consistent with
the principles in Executive Order 13563.
We also have determined that this
regulatory action would not unduly
interfere with State, local, and tribal
governments in the exercise of their
governmental functions.

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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 52 / Tuesday, March 18, 2014 / Proposed Rules
In accordance with both Executive
orders, the Department has assessed the
potential costs and benefits, both
quantitative and qualitative, of this
regulatory action. The potential costs
are those resulting from statutory
requirements and those we have
determined as necessary for
administering the Department’s
programs and activities.

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Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
As part of its continuing effort to
reduce paperwork and respondent
burden, the Department provides the
general public and Federal agencies
with an opportunity to comment on
proposed and continuing collections of
information in accordance with the PRA
(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).
The information collection for the
FLAS Program will be revised to
include an evaluation guide that
provides applicants with more
substantive guidance on how to
respond, in a more compelling manner,
to the Impact and Evaluation selection
criterion found in section 657.21 of the
FLAS Program regulations. The guide
also includes instructions for
completing the new performance
measure forms (PMFs) that applicants
are required to include in their
submitted proposals. For each project
element that applicants propose to
evaluate during the project period, they
must include a performance measure
form indicating the project-specific
measure for that element.
The IFLE Office developed the PMF
so that applicants can include
measurable outcomes for their FLAS
projects, based on the goals and
objectives they intend to accomplish.
The PMF is designed to help applicants
to develop a more cohesive evaluation
plan focusing the applicant’s attention
on specific benchmarks and indicators
that will better demonstrate their
progress toward achieving their goals
and objectives. The PMF should assist
applicants in proposing high-quality
implementation plans at the outset for
reporting progress and performance
results. Additionally, the information
and data collected via the forms will
enable the Department to provide
Congress and other stakeholders with
more concrete evidence to demonstrate
the impact of FLAS projects. And
finally, the PMF is designed to provide
a universal format that applicants can
use to present the performance
information in their applications. The
PMF requests the following: (a) Project
goal statement; (b) Performance
measure; (c) Project activity; (d) Data/
Indices; (e) Frequency of collection; (f)

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Data source; and, (g) Baseline and
targets.
In order to mitigate against increasing
respondent burden, applicants will be
required to complete only items (a), (b),
and (c) on the PMF when they submit
their FY14 grant applications. If the
application is recommended for
funding, we will require the submission
of fully completed forms. The
Department estimates that the
application, expanded evaluation
criterion guidance, and the PMF will
require an estimated 500 hours to
complete. This represents an additional
time burden of 100 hours over the 2010
application.
If you want to comment on the
proposed information collection
requirements, please send your
comments to the Office of Information
and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attention:
Desk Officer for U.S. Department of
Education. Send these comments by
email to OIRA [email protected]
or by fax to (202) 395–6974. You may
also send a copy of these comments to
the Department contact named in the
ADDRESSES section of this preamble or
submit electronically through the
Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://
www.regulations.gov by selecting
Docket ID ED–2014–OPE–0035.
Please be advised that the public
comment period for submitting
comments on the notice of proposed
priorities (NPP) is the same for
submitting comments on the
information collection (IC); therefore,
use the NPP Docket number as the
identifier for both sets of comments.
You may, however, submit the NPP
comments and the IC comments
separately in the regulations.gov site.
We have prepared an ICR for this
collection. In preparing your comments
you may want to review the ICR, which
is available at www.reginfo.gov. Click on
Information Collection Review. This
proposed collection is identified as
proposed collection 1840–0807 ED–
2014–OPE–0035.
We consider your comments on this
proposed collection of information in—
• Deciding whether the proposed
collection is necessary for the proper
performance of our functions, including
whether the information will have
practical use;
• Evaluating the accuracy of our
estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection, including the validity of our
methodology and assumptions;
• Enhancing the quality, usefulness,
and clarity of the information we
collect; and
• Minimizing the burden on those
who must respond.

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This includes exploring the use of
appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques.
OMB is required to make a decision
concerning the collection of information
contained in these proposed regulations
between 30 and 60 days after
publication of this document in the
Federal Register. Therefore, to ensure
that OMB gives your comments full
consideration, it is important that OMB
receives your comments by April 17,
2014. This does not affect the deadline
for your comments to us on the
proposed regulations.
Intergovernmental Review: This
program is subject to Executive Order
12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR
part 79. One of the objectives of the
Executive order is to foster an
intergovernmental partnership and a
strengthened federalism. The Executive
order relies on processes developed by
State and local governments for
coordination and review of proposed
Federal financial assistance.
This document provides early
notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Accessible Format: Individuals with
disabilities can obtain this document in
an accessible format (e.g., braille, large
print, audiotape, or compact disc) on
request to the program contact person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT.
Electronic Access to This Document:
The official version of this document is
the document published in the Federal
Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register
and the Code of Federal Regulations is
available via the Federal Digital System
at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you
can view this document, as well as all
other documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in
text or Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF). To use PDF you must
have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the
Department published in the Federal
Register by using the article search
feature at: www.federalregister.gov.
Specifically, through the advanced
search feature at this site, you can limit
your search to documents published by
the Department.
Dated: March 12, 2014.
Lynn B. Mahaffie,
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy,
Planning, and Innovation, delegated the
authority to perform the functions and duties
of the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary
Education.
[FR Doc. 2014–05863 Filed 3–17–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P

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