24 CFR Chapter I - OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

In a final rule published on January 19, 2017, federal departments and agencies made revisions to the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (hereafter the “2018 Requirements”). The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) adopted the same regulatory changes in a separate final rule published on September 18, 2017. The 2018 Requirements were scheduled to become effective on January 19, 2018, with a general compliance date of January 19, 2018 (with the exception of the revisions to the cooperative research provision). The departments and agencies listed in this document have also published an interim final rule delaying the effective date and general compliance date for the 2018 Requirements for six months, to cover the time period of January 19, 2018 until July 19, 2018. As per the interim final rule, the effective date of the 2018 Requirements is now July 19, 2018. The departments and agencies listed in this document propose delaying the general compliance date for the 2018 Requirements for an additional six months, for the time period of July 19, 2018 until January 21, 2019. This proposed rule is intended to provide additional time to regulated entities for the preparations necessary to implement the 2018 Requirements. This proposed rule, if finalized, would require regulated entities to continue to comply with the requirements of the current Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (hereafter the “pre-2018 Requirements”) until January 21, 2019. This proposal also takes comment on whether to permit institutions to implement, for certain research studies, the following provisions in the 2018 Requirements during the period from July 19, 2018, until January 21, 2019, that the general compliance date is delayed. Those three provisions, intended to reduce burdens on regulated entities, are the 2018 Requirements' definition of “research,” which deems certain activities not to be research, the allowance for no annual continuing review of certain categories of research, and the elimination of the requirement that institutional review boards (IRBs) review grant applications related to the research. The way that this option is proposed, regulated entities would be required to comply with all pre-2018 Requirements during the period that the general compliance date is delayed, except for provisions substituted by the three burden-reducing provisions of the 2018 Requirements. As described in section III, below, this flexibility is proposed only for studies for which an institution makes a choice to transition to comply with the 2018 Requirements, beginning on July 19, 2018. In order to clearly describe this proposed flexibility, including how it would impact institutions choosing to transition research to comply with the 2018 Requirements, this document proposes a redrafted transition provision.

This final rule amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulations for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to align with HUD's FOIA regulations, to implement the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, and to explain current OIG policies and practices with respect to FOIA.

As part of the efforts of HUD's Regulatory Reform Task Force, this document informs the public that HUD has determined not to pursue five proposed rules published in the Federal Register and, as a result, is withdrawing the rules from HUD's Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. HUD is taking this action consistent with Executive Order 13771 entitled “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs”, and Executive Order 13777, entitled, Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda” which, among other things, require that the cost of planned regulations be prudently managed and controlled.

HUD published a final rule on March 8, 2016, containing changes to streamline regulatory requirements pertaining to certain elements of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), Public Housing (PH), and various multifamily housing (MFH) rental assistance programs. The goal of the final rule was to reduce the administrative burden on public housing agencies (PHAs) and MFH owners, including changes pertaining to annual income reviews in the HCV, PH, and Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) programs for families with sources of fixed income. On December 4, 2015, the President signed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) into law. The law contained language that allowed PHAs and owners to conduct full income recertification for families with 90 percent or more of their income from fixed-income every 3 years instead of annually. This interim final rule amends the regulatory language to implement the FAST Act and to align the current regulatory flexibilities with those provided in the FAST Act. In addition, this interim final rule seeks to extend to certain MFH programs some of the streamlining changes that were proposed for and made only to the HCV and PH programs.

This document announces the fee that HUD will collect from borrowers of loans guaranteed under HUD's Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program (Section 108 Program) to offset the credit subsidy costs of the guaranteed loans pursuant to commitments awarded in FY 2018.

Consistent with the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, as amended, this document invites interested persons to submit proposed changes to update and revise HUD's Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, its Manufactured Home Procedural and Enforcement Regulations, its Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards, and its Manufactured Home Installation Program regulations. Proposed changes will be submitted to the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) for review and consideration as part of its responsibility to provide periodic recommendations to HUD to adopt, revise, and interpret the HUD standards and regulations.

The purpose of this proposed Interpretative Bulletin (IB) is to provide guidance for designing and installing manufactured home foundations in areas subject to freezing temperatures with seasonal ground freezing, in accordance with the Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards, wherever soil conditions are susceptible to frost heave. Specifically, this guidance is being provided for designing and installing manufactured home foundation systems in areas where frost susceptible seasonally frozen ground conditions are encountered and when footings do not extend below the frost depth at the site. These types of foundation systems include monolithic slab systems, “frost-protected shallow foundations” (FPSF)—insulated foundations, and alternative foundation systems that include foundation variations termed by industry as frost free footing systems or frost free foundations (FFF). Guidance is also being provided in this interpretative bulletin for installing manufactured home foundations, when non-frost susceptible soil conditions are available at the site to protect foundations against the effects of frost heave.

This rule makes final the interim final rule, published on June 15, 2016, to amend HUD's civil monetary penalty (CMP) regulations. The interim final rule applied a new methodology to calculate civil money penalties as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, starting with a “catch up” adjustment to correct previous inaccuracies; removed three obsolete civil monetary penalty provisions; and made a technical change to the existing codified regulation implementing the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act. The changes from the interim final rule made final by this final rule continue to be effective as of August 16, 2016. In addition, this rule provides for 2017 inflation adjustments of civil monetary penalty amounts required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, and makes three technical amendments and a conforming statutory change.

On January 12, 2017, HUD issued a final rule amending HUD's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regulation to implement the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, which enacted a range of procedural changes, including a change to the procedures for withholding information and an amendment to one of the nine FOIA exemptions that authorizes an agency to withhold various records from disclosure. After publication, HUD discovered that a portion of the regulation was not published as intended. Specifically, the published rule deleted several of the nine statutory FOIA disclosure exemptions and duplicated another. HUD also noticed minor technical changes required elsewhere in its regulations. This document corrects HUD's January 12, 2017, final rule and makes the minor technical changes.

On December 14, 2016, HUD published a final rule implementing changes to HUD's housing counseling statute to improve the effectiveness of housing counseling in HUD programs by, among other things: Establishing the Office of Housing Counseling and giving this office the authority over the establishment, coordination, and administration of all regulations, requirements, standards, and performance measures under programs and laws administered by HUD that relate to housing counseling; requiring that organizations providing housing counseling required under or in connection with HUD programs be approved to participate in the Housing Counseling Program (Housing Counseling Agencies, or HCAs) and have all individuals providing such housing counseling certified by HUD as competent to provide such services; prohibiting the distribution of housing counseling grant funds awarded to agencies participating in HUD's Housing Counseling Program that are found in violation of Federal election laws or that have employees found in violation of Federal election laws; and requiring the reimbursement to HUD of housing counseling grant funds that HUD finds were misused. After publication, HUD discovered an incorrect amendatory instruction. This document makes the necessary correction. The effective date for HUD's final rule of January 13, 2017 is unchanged.

On July 29, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA). Several of the statutory amendments made by HOTMA affect the Project-Based Voucher (PBV) program or the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. HOTMA also gave HUD the authority to implement many of those changes by notice, and those statutory changes are not effective until HUD issues that notice. This document serves as the implementation notice for several of the provisions of HOTMA that impact the HCV and PBV programs, and seeks additional public input on both the implementing requirements in this document and future changes to these programs.

This final rule amends HUD's lead-based paint regulations to reduce blood lead levels in children under age six (6) who reside in federally-owned or -assisted pre-1978 housing, formally adopting a revised definition of “elevated blood lead level” (EBLL) in children under the age of six (6), in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance. It also establishes more comprehensive testing and evaluation procedures for the housing where such children reside. This final rule also addresses certain additional elements of the CDC guidance pertaining to assisted housing and makes technical corrections and clarifications. This final rule, which follows HUD's September 1, 2016, proposed rule, takes into consideration public comments submitted in response to the proposed rule.