Rescinding Regulations Related to Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs or Activities (General Provisions)

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Part 1040</CFR> <DEPDOC>[DOE-HQ-2025-0024]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1903-AA20</RIN> <SUBJECT>Rescinding Regulations Related to Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs or Activities (General Provisions)</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Minority Economic Impact, Department of Energy (DOE). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Direct final rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This direct final rule rescinds certain unnecessary regulatory provisions related to nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs or activities. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The direct final rule is effective July 15, 2025, unless significant adverse comments are received by June 16, 2025. Significant adverse comments are ones which oppose the rule and raise, alone or in combination, a serious enough issue related to each of the independent grounds for the rule that a substantive response is required. If significant adverse comments are received, notification will be published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> before the effective date either withdrawing the rule or issuing a new direct final rule which responds to significant adverse comments. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments using the Federal eRulemaking Portal at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> under docket number DOE-HQ-2025-0024. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. The docket for this direct final rule, which includes <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notices, comments, and other supporting documents and materials, is available for review at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov.</E> All documents in the docket are listed in the <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> index. However, not all documents listed in the index may be publicly available, such as information that is exempt from public disclosure. The docket web page can be found at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/docket/DOE-HQ-2025-0024.</E> The docket web page contains instructions on how to access all documents, including public comments, in the docket, as well as a summary of the rulemaking. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(4), a summary of this rule may be found at <E T="03">regulations.gov,</E> under the docket number. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mr. David Taggart, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel, GC-1, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (202) 586-5281. Email: <E T="03">DOEGeneralCounsel@hq.doe.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. General Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Procedural Issues and Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Review Under Executive Orders 12866</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Review Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Review Under the Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Review Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Review Under Executive Order 13132</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Review Under Executive Order 12988</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Review Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Review Under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 1999</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Review Under Executive Order 12630</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Review Under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2001</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Review Under Executive Order 13211</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">L. Review Under Additional Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">M. Congressional Notification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Approval of the Secretary</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. General Discussion</HD> DOE is rescinding certain provisions from its regulations codified at part 1040 of chapter X of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (“Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs or Activities”) under subpart A—“General Provisions”; subpart B—“Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964”  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> (“title VI”); section 16 of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, as Amended  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> (“section 16”); and section 401 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> (“section 401”)”; subpart D—“Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Handicap—Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended”  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> (“section 504”); subpart F—Nondiscrimination Under Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as Amended [Reserved]  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> (“title VIII”)”; and subpart G—Program Monitoring. DOE is rescinding twelve (12) provisions under these subparts as follows: <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Public Law 88-352. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  Public Law 93-275. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Public Law 93-438. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Public Law 93-112. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  Public Law 90-284. </FTNT> (1) a clause in subpart A at 10 CFR 1040.1 covering employment practices (2) a clause in 10 CFR 1040.12 at subpart A, covering employment practices (3) a clause in 10 CFR 1040.14 at subpart A, covering employment practices (4) paragraph (c) of 10 CFR 1040.5 at subpart A, covering information in appropriate languages (5) paragraph (c) of 10 CFR 1040.6 at subpart A, covering information in appropriate languages (6) the entirety of 10 CFR 1040.8 at subpart A, covering the effect of employment opportunity (7) paragraph (c) of 10 CFR 1040.13 at subpart B, covering the effect of criteria or methods (8) paragraph (d) of 10 CFR 1040.13 at subpart B, covering the effect of facilities location (9) paragraph (c) of 10 CFR 1040.72 at subpart D, covering a time period (now past) (10) paragraph (d) of 10 CFR 1040.72 at subpart D, covering a transition plan (now obsolete) (11) the entirety of subpart F, reserved for a statute (title VIII) that is not enforced by DOE; (12) paragraph (d) of 10 CFR 1040.102 at subpart G covering superfluous information For the reasons explained further below, DOE is rescinding these provisions after determining that they are either outdated, raise serious constitutional difficulties, or are based on anything other than the best reading of the underlying statutory authority or prohibition. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Covered Employment Practices at 10 CFR 1040.1, 1040.12, and 1040.14</HD> According to 10 CFR 10401.1 the purpose of part 1040 (Nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs or activities) is to implement a variety of civil rights and nondiscrimination laws. These laws ensure that no one may “be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, be subjected to discrimination under, or be denied employment, where a primary purpose of the Federal financial assistance is to provide employment or when the delivery of services is affected by the recipient's employment practices (under section 504, all grantee and subgrantee employment practices are covered regardless of the purpose of the program), in connection with any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance from [DOE].” 10 CFR 10401.1. This employment coverage also extends to subpart B of 10 CFR part 1040 implementing title VI, section 16, and section 401. Specifically, the subpart B definitions at 10 CFR 1040.12(a)(1) state that covered employment practices not only include those which exist in programs where a primary objective of the Federal financial assistance is to provide employment, but also to practices which “(ii) Cause discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin with respect to beneficiaries or potential beneficiaries of the assisted program.” Furthermore, under 10 CFR 1040.12(a)(2), “[a]ll employment practices of a recipient or subrecipient of Federal financial assistance subject to section 16 and section 401 are covered employment practices.” Additionally, 10 CFR 1040.14(a)(2) states that, “[i]n regard to Federal financial assistance which does not have the provision of employment as a primary objective, the provisions of paragraph (a)(1) of this section (enumerating prohibited employment discrimination) apply to the employment practices of the recipient if discrimination on the ground of race, color, national origin, or sex (when covered by section 16 or section 401) in such employment practices tends to exclude persons from participation in, deny them the benefits of, or subject them to discrimination under the program receiving Federal financial assistance.” DOE has determined that the expansive coverage of employment by these clauses as applied to title VI (and through incorporation by reference, section 16, and section 401  <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> ) find no support in the statute itself. Rather, section 2000d-3 of title VI expressly provides that: “Nothing contained in this subchapter shall be construed to authorize action under this subchapter by any Department or agency with respect to any employment practice of any employer, employment agency, or labor organization <E T="03">except</E> where a primary objective of the Federal financial assistance is to provide employment.”  <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> As the U.S. Supreme Court explains, “Statutory construction must begin with the language employed by Congress and the assumption that the ordinary meaning of that language accurately expresses the legislative purpose.”  <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> “Where . . . that examination yields a clear answer, [we] must stop.”  <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> In acknowledgement of this judicial precedent, and the express statutory language of title VI, DOE's direct final rule rescinds the following: <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  Both secti ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 49k characters. 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