amendments to section 431 of the general education provisions act relating to rules, regulations, and other requirements of general applicability

amendments to section 431 of the general education provisions act relating to rules, regulations, and other requirements of general applicability Sec. 509. (a) (1) Section 431 (b) of the General Education Provisions Act is amended by inserting “(1)” after “(b)” and by adding at the end thereof the following: 88 Stat. 567 “(2) (A) During the thirty-day period prior to the date upon which such standard, rule, regulation, or general requirement is to be effective, the Commissioner shall, in accordance with the provisions of section 553 of title 5, United States Code, offer any interested party an opportunity to make comment upon, and take exception to, such standard, rule, regulation, or general requirement and shall reconsider any such standard, rule, regulation, or general requirement upon which comment is made or to which exception is taken. “(B) If the Commissioner determines that the thirty-day requirement in paragraph (1) will cause undue delay in the implementation of a regulation, thereby causing extreme hardship for the intended beneficiaries of an applicable program, he shall notify the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare of the Senate. If neither committee disagrees with the determination of the Commissioner within 10 days after such notice, the Commissioner may waive such requirement with respect to such regulation.”. (2) Section 431 of such Act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsections: “(d) (1) Concurrently with the publication in the Federal Register of any standard, rule, regulation, or requirement of general applicability as required in subsection (b) of this section, such standard, rule, regulation, or requirement shall be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. Such standard, rule, regulation, or requirement shall become effective not less than forty-five days after such transmission unless the Congress shall, by concurrent resolution, find that the standard, rule, regulation, or requirement is inconsistent with the Act from which it derives its authority, and disapprove such standard, rule, regulation, or requirement. “(2) The forty-five-day period specified in paragraph (1) shall be deemed to run without interruption except during periods when either House is in adjournment sine die, in adjournment subject to the call of the Chair, or in adjournment to a day certain for a period of more than four consecutive days. In any such period of adjournment, the forty-five days shall continue to run, but if such period of adjournment is thirty calendar days, or less, the forty-five-day period shall not be deemed to have elapsed earlier than ten days after the end of such adjournment. In any period of adjournment which lasts more than thirty days, the forty-five-day period shall be deemed to have elapsed after thirty calendar days has elapsed, unless, during those thirty calendar days, either the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives, or the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare of the Senate, or both, shall have directed its chairman, in accordance with said committee’s rules, and the rules of that House, to transmit to the appropriate department or agency head a formal statement of objection to the proposed standard, rule, regulation, or requirement. Such letter shall suspend the effective date of the standard, rule, regulation, or requirement until not less than twenty days after the end of such adjournment, during which the Congress may enact the concurrent resolution provided for in this subsection. In no event shall the standard, ride, regulation, or requirement go into effect until the forty-five-day period shall have elapsed, as provided for in this subsection, for both Houses of the Congress. “(e) Whenever a concurrent resolution of disapproval is enacted by the Congress under the provisions of this section, the agency which issued such standard, rule, regulation, or requirement may thereafter issue a modified standard, rule, regulation, or requirement to 88 Stat. 568govern the same or substantially identical circumstances, but shall, in publishing such modification in the Federal Register and submitting it to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate, indicate how the modification differs from the proposed standard, rule, regulation, or requirement of general applicability earlier disapproved, and how the agency believes the modification disposes of the findings by the Congress in the concurrent resolution of disapproval. “(f) For the purposes of subsections (d) and (e) of this section, activities under sections 104, 405, and 406 of this title, and under title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 shall be deemed to be applicable programs. “(g) Not later than sixty days after the enactment of any part of any Act affecting the administration of any applicable program, the Commissioner shall submit to the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare of the Senate a schedule in accordance with which the Commissioner has planned to promulgate rules, regulations, and guidelines implementing such Act or part of such Act. Such schedule shall provide that all such rules, regulations, and guidelines shall be promulgated within one hundred and eighty days after the submission of such schedule. Except as is provided in the following sentence, all such rules, regulations, and guidelines shall be promulgated in accordance with such schedule. If the Commissioner finds that, due to circumstances unforseen at the time of the submission of any such schedule, he cannot comply with a schedule submitted pursuant to this subsection, he shall notify such committees of such finding and submit a new schedule. If both such committees notify the Commissioner of their approval of such new schedule, such rules, regulations, and guidelines shall be promulgated in accordance with such new schedule.”. (b) The amendment made by paragraph (2) of subsection (a) shall be effective on the date of enactment of this Act and shall be effective with respect to the provisions of this Act.