Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 78 / Thursday, April 23, 2015 / Notices 22729 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

[Docket ID ED–2015–OESE–0047] 

Proposed Waiver and Extension of the 

Project Period; Territories and Freely 

Associated States Education Grant 

Program 

AGENCY: Office of Elementary and 

Secondary Education, Department of 

Education. 

ACTION: Proposed waiver and extension 

of the project period. 

[CFDA Number: 84.256A] 

SUMMARY: For 36-month projects funded 

in fiscal year (FY) 2012 under the 

Territories and Freely Associated States 

Education Grant (T&FASEG) program, 

the Secretary proposes to waive the 

requirement that prohibits the extension 

of project periods involving the 

obligation of additional Federal funds. 

The Secretary also proposes to extend 

the project period of these grants for up 

to an additional 24 months. The 

proposed waiver and extension would 

enable the five current T&FASEG 

grantees to continue to receive Federal 

funding annually for project periods 

through FY 2016 and possibly through 

FY 2017. In addition, during this period, 

the Pacific Regional Educational 

Laboratory (Pacific REL) would 

continue to receive funds set aside for 

technical assistance under the 

T&FASEG program. 

DATES: We must receive your comments 

on or before May 26, 2015. 

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 

your comments about this proposed 

waiver and extension of the project 

period, address them to Collette Fisher, 

U.S. Department of Education, 400 

Maryland Avenue SW., Room 3E231, 

Washington, DC 20202–6400. 

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: 

Collette Fisher. Telephone: (202) 401– 

0039 or by email at: collette.fisher@

ed.gov. 

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. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Invitation to Comment: We invite you 

to submit comments regarding this 

proposed waiver and extension. We are 

particularly interested in receiving 

comments on the potential impact that 

this proposed waiver and extension 

might have on the five current 

T&FASEG program grantees: American 

Samoa, the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the 

U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Republic of 

Palau. We note that these grantees also 

constitute the eligible applicants under 

the T&FASEG program. 

During and after the comment period, 

you may inspect all public comments 

about this proposed waiver and 

extension by accessing Regulations.gov. 

You may also inspect all public 

comments in Room 3E231, 400 

Maryland Ave. SW., 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 proposed waiver and 

extension. If you want to schedule an 

appointment for this type of aid, please 

contact the person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. 

Background 

The T&FASEG program is authorized 

under section 1121(b) of the Elementary 

and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 

as amended (ESEA). Under this 

program, the Secretary is authorized to 

award grants, on a competitive basis, to 

local educational agencies (LEAs) in the 

U.S. Territories—American Samoa, the 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin 

Islands—and one eligible Freely 

Associated State, the Republic of Palau. 

Through these grants, the T&FASEG 

program supports projects to raise 

student achievement through direct 

educational services. 

T&FASEG program grant funds may 

be used for activities authorized under 

the ESEA, including teacher training, 

curriculum development, development 

or acquisition of instructional materials, 

and general school improvement and 

reform. More specifically, under the 

T&FASEG program, grant funds may be 

used to— 

(a) Conduct activities consistent with 

the programs described in the ESEA, 

including the types of activities 

authorized under— 

(1) Title I—Improving the Academic 

Achievement of the Disadvantaged; 

(2) Title II—Preparing, Training, and 

Recruiting Highly-Quality Teachers and 

Principals; 

(3) Title III—Language Instruction for 

Limited English Proficient and 

Immigrant Students; 

(4) Title IV—21st Century Schools; 

and 

(5) Title V—Promoting Informed 

Parental Choice and Innovative 

Programs; and 

(b) Provide direct educational services 

that assist all students with meeting 

challenging State academic content 

standards. 

In addition, section 1121(b)(3)(d) of 

the ESEA authorizes the Secretary to 

provide up to five percent of the amount 

reserved for T&FASEG program grants 

to pay the administrative costs of the 

Pacific REL, which provides technical 

assistance to grant recipients regarding 

the administration and implementation 

of their projects. 

On April 30, 2012, we published in 

the Federal Register (77 FR 25452) a 

notice inviting applications for new 

awards under the FY 2012 T&FASEG 

program competition (2012 Notice 

Inviting Applications). 

In FY 2012, the Department made 

three-year awards to five T&FASEG 

projects. The project period for these 

T&FASEG program grants is currently 

scheduled to end on September 30, 

2015. The Secretary proposes to waive 

the requirement in 34 CFR 75.261(c)(2), 

which prohibits the extension of project 

periods involving the obligation of 

additional Federal funds, and proposes 

to extend the project period for current 

T&FASEG grant recipients for up to 24 

months. This would allow the grantees 

to continue to receive Federal funding 

annually for project periods through FY 

2016 and possibly FY 2017. 

We are proposing this waiver and 

extension because we have concluded 

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22730 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 78 / Thursday, April 23, 2015 / Notices 

that it would not be in the public 

interest to incur a disruption in the 

services associated with holding a new 

T&FASEG competition in FY 2015. 

Rather, it would be more effective to 

maintain the continuity of current 

projects by allowing grantees the 

opportunity to continue to provide highquality direct educational services in 

support of the Secretary’s priorities to 

students and teachers in the U.S. 

Territories and the Republic of Palau 

without interruption. Consistent with 

the scope, goals, and objectives of the 

current projects, grantees would 

continue to support initiatives on 

standards and assessments, effective 

teachers and leaders, and projects that 

are designed to improve student 

achievement or teacher effectiveness 

through the use of high-quality digital 

tools or materials, which include 

preparing teachers to use technology to 

improve instruction, as well as 

developing, implementing, or evaluating 

digital tools or materials. Moreover, we 

believe that a longer project period will 

better enable grantees to carry out 

project objectives and anticipate 

providing for longer project periods in 

future competitions. Additionally, given 

that all eligible applicants currently 

receive grant awards under the 

T&FASEG program, the proposed 

waiver and extension would have 

limited impact on those entities. 

We intend to fund the extended 

project period by using funds Congress 

appropriates under the current statutory 

authority, including FY 2014 funds 

available for awards made in FY 2015 

and, if the grants are extended for two 

years, FY 2015 funds available for 

awards made in FY 2016. 

Under this proposed waiver and 

extension of the project period— 

(1) Current grantees would be 

authorized to receive T&FASEG 

continuation awards annually for up to 

two years through FY 2017; 

(2) We would not announce a new 

T&FASEG competition or make new 

T&FASEG grant awards in FY 2015; 

(3) During the extension period, any 

activities carried out would be 

consistent with, or a logical extension 

of, the scope, goals, and objectives of 

each grantee’s approved application 

from the 2012 T&FASEG program 

competition; 

(4) The requirements established in 

the program regulations and the 2012 

Notice Inviting Applications would 

continue to apply to each grantee that 

receives a continuation award; and 

(5) All requirements applicable to 

continuation awards for current 

T&FASEG grantees and the 

requirements in 34 CFR 75.253 would 

apply to any continuation awards 

received by current T&FASEG grantees. 

If we announce this proposed waiver 

and extension as final, we will make 

decisions regarding annual continuation 

awards based on grantee performance as 

demonstrated through program 

narratives, budgets and budget 

narratives, and performance reports, and 

based on the regulations in 34 CFR 

75.253. We intend to award 

continuation grants based on 

information provided to us annually by 

each grantee, indicating that it is making 

substantial progress performing its 

T&FASEG program activities based on 

substantial performance and progress. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification 

The Secretary certifies that the 

proposed waiver and extension and the 

activities required to support additional 

years of funding would not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

The entities that would be affected by 

this proposed waiver and extension are 

the five current T&FASEG program 

grantees receiving Federal funds. There 

are no other potential applicants. 

The Secretary certifies that the 

proposed waiver and extension would 

not have a significant economic impact 

on these entities because the extension 

of an existing project imposes minimal 

compliance costs, and the activities 

required to support the additional years 

of funding would not impose additional 

regulatory burdens or require 

unnecessary Federal supervision. 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

This proposed waiver and extension 

does not contain any information 

collection requirements. 

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 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. 

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6331. 

Dated: April 20, 2015. 

Deborah S. Delisle, 

Assistant Secretary for Elementary and 

Secondary Education. 

[FR Doc. 2015–09510 Filed 4–22–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board Meeting, 

Northern New Mexico 

AGENCY: Department of Energy. 

ACTION: Notice of Open Meeting. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces a 

meeting of the Environmental 

Management Site-Specific Advisory 

Board (EM SSAB), Northern New 

Mexico. The Federal Advisory 

Committee Act (Pub. L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 

770) requires that public notice of this 

meeting be announced in the Federal 

Register. 

DATES: Wednesday, May 20, 2015, 1:00 

p.m.–5:15 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: Sandia Hotel, Hummingbird 

Room, 30 Rainbow Road, Albuquerque, 

New Mexico 87113. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Menice Santistevan, Northern New 

Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board 

(NNMCAB), 94 Cities of Gold Road, 

Santa Fe, NM 87506. Phone (505) 995– 

0393; Fax (505) 989–1752 or Email: 

Menice.Santistevan@em.doe.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 

the Board is to make recommendations 

to DOE–EM and site management in the 

areas of environmental restoration, 

waste management, and related 

activities. 

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