This week, the U.S. Department of Education published two Notices in the Federal Register establishing a new timeline for implementation of the Borrower Defense to Repayment regulations and seeking public comment on the decisions to further delay the regulations.

The first Notice issued by Secretary DeVos establishes a new interim final rule, delaying, until July 1, 2018, select provisions contained in the final regulations published by the previous Administration on November 1, 2016 – including all aspects of the Borrower Defense to Repayment regulations – originally scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2017.

The second Notice issued by Secretary DeVos builds upon each of the preceding notices and places emphasis in this guidance on the time required to complete the new round of federal negotiated rulemaking scheduled to begin the week of November 13, 2017 and conclude the week of February 12, 2018.