Soundbites

IPEDS ACTS TRO Extended to Additional Plaintiffs. The judge in the IPEDS ACTS lawsuit provisionally granted approval of motions to intervene filed by two associations, the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM). He also granted a temporary restraining order extending the data submission deadline for AAU and AICUM members through April 14.

ED Resumes BDR Processing. The Department of Education has resumed processing borrower defense to repayment (BDR) applications that are not related to the Sweet v. McMahon settlement. Institutions with BDR claims falling under either the 1994 or the 2016 BDR regulations will be notified of these claims prior to the Department initiating any fact-finding process. Institutions with BDR claims under the 2019 regulations will be notified at a later date, which will be preceded by another announcement from the Department.

Raising Prevailing Wage Minimums for H-1B Visas Proposed. The Department of Labor (DOL) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to raise prevailing wage minimums for H-1B visas and other labor certification programs. Under the proposal, the minimums would increase in all four tiers of the current DOL wage structure. The Department argues that this proposal will align wages paid to foreign workers more closely with wages paid to U.S. workers and is necessary because foreign wage minimums have not been increased in over 20 years. The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources will be drafting community comments following an institutional impact survey. The NPRM was published on March 27 and has a 60-day comment period.