Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 190 / Tuesday, October 3, 2023 / Rules and Regulations 67955 

administrative burden by conducting a 

single competition for 84.129B, 

84.129H, 84.129P and 84.129Q grants in 

FY 2025, with a five-year performance 

period that would run from October 1, 

2025, through September 30, 2030. 

For this reason, the Secretary 

proposes to waive the requirements in 

34 CFR 75.250, which prohibit project 

periods exceeding five years, as well as 

the requirements in 34 CFR 75.261(a) 

and (c)(2), which allow the extension of 

a project period only if the extension 

does not involve the obligation of 

additional Federal funds. This waiver 

would allow the Department to issue a 

one-year FY 2024 continuation award to 

each of the 51 currently funded FY 2019 

84.129B, 84.129H, 84.129P and 84.129Q 

projects up to the amount awarded to 

the projects in FY 2023 and subject to 

the ability of the projects to use the 

funds. 

Any activities carried out during the 

year of this continuation award must be 

consistent with, or a logical extension 

of, the scope, goals, and objectives of the 

grantees’ applications as approved in 

the FY 2019 competition. The 

requirements for continuation awards 

are set forth in 34 CFR 75.253. 

Intergovernmental Review 

These programs are 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. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification 

The Secretary certifies that the 

proposed waiver and extension of the 

project period would not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

The only entities that would be affected 

by the proposed waiver and extension of 

the project period are the 51 grants that 

were awarded in FY 2019 under ALN 

84.129B, 84.129H, 84,129P, and 

84.129Q. 

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 period imposes 

minimal compliance costs, and the 

activities required to support the 

additional year of funding would not 

impose additional regulatory burdens or 

require unnecessary Federal 

supervision. 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

This notice of proposed waiver and 

extension of the project period does not 

contain any information collection 

requirements. 

Accessible Format: On request to the 

program contact person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, 

individuals with disabilities can obtain 

this document in an accessible format. 

The Department will provide the 

requestor with an accessible format that 

may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or 

text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 

file, braille, large print, audiotape, or 

compact disc, or other accessible format. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

The official version of this document is 

the document published in the Federal 

Register. You may access the official 

edition of the Federal Register and the 

Code of Federal Regulations at 

www.govinfo.gov. 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 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. 

Glenna Wright-Gallo, 

Assistant Secretary for Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21853 Filed 9–29–23; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

34 CFR Chapter III 

[ED–2023–OSERS–0177] 

Proposed Waiver and Extension of the 

Project Period With Funding for 

Innovative Rehabilitation Training 

Grants 

AGENCY: Office of Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), 

Department of Education. 

ACTION: Proposed waiver and extension 

of project period with funding. 

SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes to 

waive the requirements in the Education 

Department General Administrative 

Regulations that generally prohibit 

project periods exceeding five years and 

project period extensions involving the 

obligation of additional Federal funds. 

The proposed waiver and extension 

would enable seven projects under 

Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 

84.263C to receive funding for an 

additional period, not to exceed 

September 30, 2025. 

DATES: We must receive your comments 

on or before November 2, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: Comments must be 

submitted via the Federal eRulemaking 

Portal at www.regulations.gov. However, 

if you require an accommodation or 

cannot otherwise submit your 

comments via www.regulations.gov, 

please contact the program contact 

person listed under FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT. The Department 

will not accept comments 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 ‘‘FAQ.’’ 

Privacy Note: OSERS’s policy is 

generally to make 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 include in their 

comments only information about 

themselves that they wish to make 

publicly available. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kristen Rhinehart-Fernandez, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Avenue SW, Room 4A111, Washington, 

DC 20202–5076. Telephone: (202) 245– 

6103. Email: Kristen.Rhinehart@ed.gov. 

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or 

have a speech disability and wish to 

access telecommunications relay 

services, please dial 7–1–1. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Invitation to Comment: We invite you 

to submit comments regarding this 

proposed waiver and extension. To 

ensure that your comments have 

maximum effect in developing the 

notice of final waiver and extension, we 

urge you to identify clearly the specific 

grantee or grantees (listed in the table 

under the Background section) that each 

comment addresses. 

We invite you to assist us in 

complying with the specific 

requirements of Executive Orders 

12866, 13563, and 14094 and their 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES1
67956 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 190 / Tuesday, October 3, 2023 / Rules and Regulations 

overall requirement of reducing 

regulatory burden that might result from 

the proposed waiver and extension. 

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 public comments about 

the proposed priority and definition by 

accessing Regulations.gov. 

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 the proposed waiver and 

extension. 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. 

Background 

On July 5, 2019, the Department of 

Education (Department) published in 

the Federal Register (84 FR 32135) a 

notice inviting applications for the 

Innovative Rehabilitation Training 

Program under ALN 84.263C to develop 

(a) new types of training programs for 

rehabilitation personnel and to 

demonstrate the effectiveness of these 

new types of training programs for 

rehabilitation personnel in providing 

rehabilitation services to individuals 

with disabilities; (b) new and improved 

methods of training rehabilitation 

personnel so that there may be a more 

effective delivery of rehabilitation 

services to individuals with disabilities 

by designated State rehabilitation 

agencies and designated State 

rehabilitation units or other public or 

non-profit rehabilitation service 

agencies or organizations; and (c) new 

innovative training programs for 

vocational rehabilitation (VR) 

professionals and paraprofessionals to 

have a 21st-century understanding of 

the evolving labor force and the needs 

of individuals with disabilities so they 

can more effectively provide VR 

services to individuals with disabilities. 

The Innovative Rehabilitation 

Training Program funded in 2019 

included six topic areas: (1) VR 

counseling, (2) VR services to 

individuals with Autism Spectrum 

Disorders, (3) VR services to individuals 

with intellectual disabilities, (4) career 

assessment for VR service recipients, (5) 

employer engagement in the VR process, 

and (6) a field-initiated project in an 

area related to VR. The project periods 

started on October 1, 2019, and will 

conclude on September 30, 2024. A 

table listing the FY 2019 projects and 

topic areas follows. 

FY 2019 awards under ALN 84.263C Grantee project name/topic area 

H263C190004 ..................................................... Emporia State University: Enhancing VR Professionals’ Services to Consumers on the Spectrum/VR Services to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. 

H263C190006 ..................................................... South Carolina State University: Innovative Career and Assessment Project (ICAP)/Career Assessment for VR Service Recipients. 

H263C190007 ..................................................... The George Washington University Center for Rehabilitation Counseling Research and Education: Center for Innovative Training in Vocational Rehabilitation (CIT–VR)/VR Counseling. 

H263C190011 ..................................................... Institute for Community Inclusion, University of Massachusetts Boston: It’s Employment/VR 

Services to Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. 

H263C190012 ..................................................... Institute for Community Inclusion, University of Massachusetts Boston: Program on Innovative 

Rehabilitation Training on Employer Engagement (PIRTEE)/Employer Engagement. 

H263C190013 ..................................................... West Virginia University Research Corporation: AIR4VR/Field-Initiated. 

H263C190015 ..................................................... University of Memphis Institute on Disability: Finding Innovative Rehabilitation Services Training (FIRST)/VR Services to Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. 

In FY 2020, the Department funded 

two projects under the Innovative 

Rehabilitation Training program (ALN 

84.263E and 84.263F) to develop a new 

or substantially improved and, to the 

extent possible, evidence-based training 

program, including stand-alone modules 

and instructional materials to be 

incorporated into an existing academic 

degree program for educating VR 

counselors or other VR professionals 

and VR paraprofessionals or into shortterm training for VR professionals, or 

both. Topics addressed by these projects 

are assisting and supporting individuals 

with disabilities pursuing selfemployment, business ownership, and 

telecommuting and forensic 

rehabilitation and vocational evaluation. 

The project periods started on October 

1, 2020, and will conclude on 

September 30, 2025. 

Waivers and Extensions 

The Department proposes to extend 

the project end dates of the seven 

currently 84.263C Innovative 

Rehabilitation Training projects by one 

year to align those dates with that of the 

awards funded under ALN 84.263E and 

84.263F, which will each receive their 

final year of funding in FY 2024, and 

end on September 30, 2025. Due to the 

overlapping goals of these three 

programs, the Department does not 

believe that it would be in the public 

interest to run a competition for ALN 

84.263C in FY 2024. Rather, aligning the 

projects’ periods of performance end 

dates for ALN 84.263C, 84.263E, and 

84.263F would reduce financial and 

administrative burden by allowing the 

Department to conduct a single 

competition for all 84.263C, 84.263E, 

and 84.263F grants in FY 2025, with a 

five-year performance period that would 

run from October 1, 2025, through 

September 30, 2030. 

As a result, for these projects, the 

Secretary proposes to waive the 

requirements in 34 CFR 75.250, which 

prohibit project periods exceeding five 

years, as well as the requirements in 34 

CFR 75.261(a) and (c)(2), which allow 

the extension of a project period only if 

the extension does not involve the 

obligation of additional Federal funds. 

The waiver would allow the Department 

to issue a one-time one-year FY 2024 

continuation award to the seven 

currently funded 84.263C projects up to 

the amount awarded to the projects in 

FY 2023 and subject to the ability of the 

projects to use the funds. 

Any activities carried out during the 

year of this continuation award must be 

consistent with, or a logical extension 

of, the scope, goals, and objectives of the 

grantees’ applications as approved in 

the FY 2019 competition. The 

requirements for continuation awards 

are set forth in 34 CFR 75.253. 

Intergovernmental Review 

These programs are 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 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES1
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 190 / Tuesday, October 3, 2023 / Rules and Regulations 67957 

1Henceforth, we refer to this proposal as ‘‘the 

April 2023 document’’ or ‘‘the April 2023 

proposal’’. This proposal is provided in the docket 

for this action. 

2See Bahr v. EPA, 836 F.3d 1218 (9th Cir. 2016) 

and Sierra Club v. EPA, 985 F.3d 1055 (D.C. Cir. 

2021) (applying the Bahr reasoning nationwide). 

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. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification 

The Secretary certifies that the 

proposed waiver and extension of the 

project period would not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

The only entities that would be affected 

by the proposed waiver and extension of 

the project period are the seven current 

ALN 84.263C grantees. 

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 period imposes 

minimal compliance costs, and the 

activities required to support the 

additional year of funding would not 

impose additional regulatory burdens or 

require unnecessary Federal 

supervision. 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

This notice of proposed waiver and 

extension of the project period does not 

contain any information collection 

requirements. 

Accessible Format: On request to the 

program contact person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, 

individuals with disabilities can obtain 

this document in an accessible format. 

The Department will provide the 

requestor with an accessible format that 

may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or 

text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 

file, braille, large print, audiotape, or 

compact disc, or other accessible format. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

The official version of this document is 

the document published in the Federal 

Register. You may access the official 

edition of the Federal Register and the 

Code of Federal Regulations at 

www.govinfo.gov. 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 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. 

Glenna Wright-Gallo, 

Assistant Secretary for Special Education and 

Rehabilitative Services. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21852 Filed 9–29–23; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R06–OAR–2022–0309; FRL–10903– 

02–R6] 

Air Plan Disapproval; Texas; 

Contingency Measures for the Dallas– 

Fort Worth and Houston–Galveston– 

Brazoria Ozone Nonattainment Areas 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Federal Clean 

Air Act (CAA or the Act), the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

is disapproving revisions to the Texas 

State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the 

Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) and Houston– 

Galveston–Brazoria (HGB) Serious 

ozone nonattainment areas for the 2008 

ozone National Ambient Air Quality 

Standard (NAAQS). Specifically, EPA is 

disapproving the portion of these SIP 

revisions that the state intended to 

address contingency measure 

requirements. Contingency measures are 

control requirements in a nonattainment 

area SIP that would take effect should 

the area fail to meet Reasonable Further 

Progress (RFP) emissions reductions 

requirements or fail to attain the 

NAAQS by the applicable attainment 

date. 

DATES: This rule is effective on 

November 2, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: The EPA has established a 

docket for this action under Docket ID 

No. EPA–R06–OAR–2022–0309. All 

documents in the docket are listed on 

the https://www.regulations.gov 

website. Although listed in the index, 

some information is not publicly 

available, e.g., Confidential Business 

Information or other information whose 

disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Certain other material, such as 

copyrighted material, is not placed on 

the internet. Publicly available docket 

materials are available electronically 

through https://www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff 

Riley, EPA Region 6 Office, 

Infrastructure & Ozone Section, 214– 

665–8542, riley.jeffrey@epa.gov. Please 

call or email the contact listed above if 

you need alternative access to material 

indexed but not provided in the docket. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Throughout this document, ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ 

and ‘‘our’’ means the EPA. 

I. Background 

The background for this action is 

discussed in detail in our April 21, 

2023, proposal (88 FR 24522).1 In the 

April 2023 document, we proposed to 

disapprove portions of the May 13, 

2020, Texas SIP revisions addressing 

requirements for the 2008 8-hour ozone 

NAAQS for the two Serious ozone 

nonattainment areas in Texas—the DFW 

and HGB areas. As Serious ozone 

nonattainment areas, the DFW Area 

(Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, 

Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, 

and Wise counties) and the HGB Area 

(Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, 

Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, 

and Waller counties) were both subject 

to CAA section 172(c)(9) for 

contingency measures as well as CAA 

182(c)(9) for the Serious ozone 

nonattainment area requirements. As 

such, the state must adopt and submit 

contingency measures for 

implementation should the area fail to 

meet RFP requirements or fail to attain 

the 2008 ozone NAAQS by the 

applicable attainment date. The May 13, 

2020, SIP submissions included 

provisions intended to satisfy the 

contingency measures requirement for 

both the DFW and HGB areas. For each 

area, the Texas Commission on 

Environmental Quality (TCEQ or State) 

identified the emission reductions from 

already-implemented mobile source 

measures resulting from the incremental 

turnover of the motor vehicle fleet each 

year to meet the contingency measures 

requirements. 

As explained in the April 2023 

proposal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for 

the District of Columbia Circuit (‘‘D.C. 

Circuit’’) issued a relevant decision in 

response to challenges to EPA’s rule 

implementing the 2015 ozone NAAQS 

(83 FR 62998 (December 6, 2018)). 

Sierra Club, et al. v. EPA, 985 F.3d 1055 

(D.C. Cir. 2021).2 Among the rulings in 

this decision, the D.C. Circuit vacated 

EPA’s interpretation of the CAA that 

had previously allowed states to rely on 

already-implemented control measures 

to meet the statutory requirements of 

CAA section 172(c)(9) or 182(c)(9) for 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES1