[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 12648]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-5450]




[[Page 12647]]

_______________________________________________________________________

Part V





Department of Education





_______________________________________________________________________



34 CFR Part 75



Direct Grant Programs; Final Rule

Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 44 / Tuesday, March 7, 1995 / Rules 
and Regulations 
[[Page 12648]] 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

34 CFR Part 75


Direct Grant Programs

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Optional procedure for conducting fiscal year 1995 grant 
competitions under the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Secretary establishes an optional procedure for conducting 
fiscal year (FY) 1995 grant competitions under the Improving America's 
Schools Act of 1994. The Secretary takes this action to reduce the need 
for Federal regulations, to ensure timely award of grants in FY 1995, 
and to provide an additional mechanism for awarding grants that 
addresses Congress' intent in enacting the affected program 
authorities.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This procedure takes effect April 6, 1995.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven N. Schatken, Office of the 
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue 
SW., Room 5100, FB10-B, Washington, D.C. 20202-2241. Telephone: (202) 
401-8300. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf 
(TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-
877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through 
Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 
(IASA) was enacted on October 20, 1994 (Pub. L. 103-382). The IASA 
authorizes numerous discretionary grant programs under which the 
Secretary will be conducting competitions in FY 1995. The Secretary 
wishes to conduct these grant competitions as quickly as possible so 
that grantees will have adequate time for planning and preparation 
before the next school year begins. The Secretary also intends to keep 
Federal regulation to a minimum under the IASA in order to provide 
flexibility to State and local governments and other eligible 
applicants in designing effective programs to serve the intended 
beneficiaries of these programs.
    The Secretary will be using several techniques to meet the goals of 
fewer regulations and expedited grant awards, including, for some 
programs, using procedures currently in the Education Department 
General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) for programs that do not 
have regulations. For these programs, EDGAR provides selection criteria 
for choosing among competing grant applications (34 CFR 75.210). 
However, the EDGAR selection criteria are necessarily very general, and 
for some programs the EDGAR criteria may not adequately focus grant 
applications on specific provisions that are contained in the program 
statutes that govern the competitions. Therefore, the Secretary 
establishes the following procedure that may be used to create more 
targeted selection criteria in appropriate situations. The Secretary 
will soon publish a separate notice of proposed rulemaking in the 
Federal Register to amend EDGAR and make this a permanent option in 
future fiscal years for all of the Department's discretionary grant 
programs.

Procedure for Establishing Statutory Selection Criteria

    Under this procedure, the Secretary may establish selection 
criteria for evaluating applications by assigning points to particular 
statutory provisions, such as allowable activities, application content 
requirements, or other pre-award and post-award conditions. 
Applications would be evaluated based on how well the applicants 
address each of those statutory provisions. The Secretary may also 
include any of the selection criteria in EDGAR (34 CFR 75.210), but the 
EDGAR criteria would not otherwise apply.
    Each of the criteria, whether based on a statutory provision or 
taken from EDGAR, would be assigned a maximum number of points that an 
applicant could score under that criterion. The selection criteria 
would be included in the application package that the Department 
provides to all applicants.
    This procedure applies only to fiscal year 1995 grant competitions 
under programs that were newly enacted in, or substantially revised by, 
the IASA. To the extent that any regulations in EDGAR are inconsistent 
with this procedure, those regulations would not apply if this 
procedure is used.
    Example: A hypothetical program statute creates a discretionary 
grant program for support of innovative secondary school programs. 
Among other requirements, the statute provides that each application 
must describe how the applicant for a grant will address the needs of 
limited English proficient children.
    Under this procedure, the Secretary would create a full set of 
selection criteria for the fiscal year 1995 grant competition from the 
statute and EDGAR, with a total maximum score for all of the criteria 
determined by the Secretary. (Usually, the Department's grant 
competitions are based on selection criteria that have a total maximum 
score of 100.) As one of the criteria, the Secretary could evaluate 
applications based on how well the applicant proposes to meet the needs 
of limited English proficient children. The Secretary might decide to 
award up to 10 points for this criterion. Applicants who best addressed 
the needs of limited English proficient children would score the 
highest number of points under this criterion.

Waiver of Public Comment

    It is the practice of the Secretary to ask for public comment. 
However, in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of the General Education 
Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1)), the Secretary has determined 
that, in order to make timely grant awards in fiscal year 1995 under 
the IASA, it is necessary to waive public comment on this procedure. 
The Secretary will request public comment on this procedure for future 
fiscal years in a separate notice of proposed rulemaking.

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980

    This procedure has been examined under the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1980 and has been found to contain no information collection 
requirements.

    Authority: Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-
382).

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number does not apply)

    Dated: February 28, 1995.
Richard W. Riley,
Secretary of Education.
[FR Doc. 95-5450 Filed 3-6-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P