Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government—

(1) to condition or incentivize the receipt of any grant, contract, or cooperative agreement, or the receipt of any priority or preference under such grant, contract, or cooperative agreement, upon a State, local educational agency, eligible agency, eligible recipient, eligible entity, or school’s adoption or implementation of specific instructional content, academic standards and assessments, curricula, or program of instruction (including any condition, priority, or preference to adopt the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or any assessment, instructional content, or curriculum aligned to such standards);

(2) through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements, to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, eligible agency, eligible recipient, eligible entity, or school’s specific instructional content, academic standards and assessments, curricula, or program of instruction (including any requirement, direction, or mandate to adopt the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or any assessment, instructional content, or curriculum aligned to such standards); or

except as required under sections 2322(b), 2391(b), and 2413 of this title—

(A) to mandate, direct, or control the allocation of State or local resources; or

(B) to mandate that a State or a political subdivision of a State spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this chapter.

Any State that declines to submit an application to the Secretary for assistance under this chapter shall not be precluded from applying for assistance under any other program administered by the Secretary.

Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal law, no State shall be required to have academic and career and technical content standards or student academic and career and technical achievement standards approved or certified by the Federal Government, in order to receive assistance under this chapter.

Nothing in this section affects the applicability of subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5 (commonly known as the “Administrative Procedure Act”) or chapter 8 of title 5, commonly [1] known as the “Congressional Review Act”).

For the purposes of this chapter, coherent and rigorous content shall be determined by the State consistent with section 6311(b)(1) of this title.

Not less than 15 business days prior to issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking related to this chapter in the Federal Register, the Secretary shall provide to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives, and other relevant congressional committees, notice of the Secretary’s intent to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that shall include—

Not less than 15 business days prior to issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking related to this chapter in the Federal Register, the Secretary shall provide to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives, and other relevant congressional committees, notice of the Secretary’s intent to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that shall include—

(A) a copy of the proposed regulation;

(B) the need to issue the regulation;

(C) a description of how the regulation is consistent with the scope of this chapter;

(D) the anticipated burden (including the time, cost, and paperwork burden) the regulation will impose on an eligible agency, institution, or recipient that may be impacted by the regulation, including the potential impact on rural areas;

(E) the anticipated benefits to an eligible agency, institution, or recipient that may be impacted by the regulation, including in rural areas; and

(F) any regulations that will be repealed when the new regulation is issued.

The Secretary shall—

(A) before issuing any notice of proposed rulemaking under this subsection, provide Congress with a comment period of 15 business days to make comments on the proposed regulation, beginning on the date that the Secretary provides the notice of intent to the appropriate committees of Congress under paragraph (1); and

(B) include and seek to address all comments submitted by members of Congress in the public rulemaking record for the regulation published in the Federal Register.

The comment and review period for any proposed regulation shall be not less than 60 days unless an emergency requires a shorter period, in which case the Secretary shall—

(A) designate the proposed regulation as an emergency with an explanation of the emergency in the notice to Congress under paragraph (1);

(B) publish the length of the comment and review period in such notice and in the Federal Register; and

(C) conduct immediately thereafter regional meetings to review such proposed regulation before issuing any final regulation.

(Pub. L. 88–210, § 8, as added Pub. L. 109–270, § 1(b), Aug. 12, 2006, 120 Stat. 690; amended Pub. L. 114–95, title IX, § 9215(n)(2), Dec. 10, 2015, 129 Stat. 2169; Pub. L. 115–224, § 9, title II, § 201(b), July 31, 2018, 132 Stat. 1574, 1622.)