Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-535_i3kn.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

regulations  relating  to  student 
financial  assistance. 
§1098bb(d).  Negotiated rulemaking is a lengthy delibera-
tive process involving many stakeholders.  Pursuant to this 
process, the Secretary must first obtain “advice of and rec-
ommendations” from a long list of sources, including “indi-
viduals  and  representatives”  of  groups  “such  as  students,
legal assistance organizations that represent students, in-
stitutions  of  higher  education,  State  student  grant  agen-
cies,  guaranty  agencies,  lenders,  secondary  markets,  loan
servicers,  guaranty  agency  servicers,  and  collection  agen-
cies.”  §1098a(a)(1).  Then,  informed  by  this  consultation,
the Secretary must submit draft regulations for considera-
tion in a negotiation process involving participants who are 
“chosen  by  the  Secretary  from  individuals  nominated  by”
such groups.  §1098a(b)(1).  Only after taking these steps
may  the  Secretary  “publis[h]  proposed  regulations  in  the 
Federal Register,” ibid., accompanied by a summary of the 
information the Secretary received throughout the process, 
§1098a(a)(2).  The HEROES Act, however, permits the Sec-
retary to bypass this onerous process.  §1098bb(d). 

The HEROES Act also authorizes the Secretary to bypass
notice-and-comment  procedures  that  the  Administrative 
Procedure  Act  (APA)  would  otherwise  demand.    The  APA 
typically requires agencies to give the public “[g]eneral no-
tice of [a] proposed rule making” by publication in the Fed-
eral  Register,  and  then  to  provide  “interested  persons  an 
opportunity to participate in the rule making through sub-
mission of written data, views, or arguments” regarding the
proposed  rule.    5  U. S. C.  §§553(b),  (c).    The  agency  may 
promulgate a final rule only after providing notice and op-
portunity for comment.  §553(c).  But the HEROES Act in-
stead permits the Secretary to implement the waivers and
modifications he “deems necessary to achieve the purposes 
of ” the Act merely by “publish[ing]” “notice in the Federal
Register.”  20 U. S. C. §1098bb(b)(1).