Request for Information Concerning a Report on Labor Market Information on the Native American Work Force, 13754-13756 [2021-04938]
Download as PDF
<![CDATA[
13754
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 45 / Wednesday, March 10, 2021 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Notice of Lodging of Proposed
Consent Decree Under the Clean Water
Act
On March 1, 2021, the Department of
Justice lodged a proposed Consent
Decree with the United States District
Court for the Western District of
Michigan in the lawsuit entitled United
States v. Walnutdale Family Farms, LLC
and Kevin Lettinga, Civil Action No.
1:20–cv–397.
On May 7, 2020, the United States
filed a complaint against Walnutdale
Family Farms, LLC and Kevin Lettinga
(collectively, the ‘‘Defendants’’) alleging
violation of the Clean Water Act
(‘‘CWA’’) and the Defendants’ National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(‘‘NPDES’’) permits at its concentrated
animal feeding operation (‘‘CAFO’’) in
Wayland, Michigan. The violations
include discharges of manure and
process wastewater, inadequate
operation and maintenance of waste
storage devices, and failure to land
apply manure in accordance with the
Facility’s NPDES permits. On May 11,
2020, Sierra Club moved to intervene in
this action, alleging similar violations.
The proposed Consent Decree
resolves the United States’ and Sierra
Club’s claims by requiring the
Defendants to assess and correct any
problems with their waste storage
structures, imposing heightened
standards for land application of CAFO
waste, and enhancing reporting
requirements. The Consent Decree also
requires Defendant to pay a civil penalty
of $33,750 to the United States based on
their limited ability to pay a civil
penalty. In addition to the civil penalty,
Defendants will pay $11,250 to the
Sierra Club for a portion of its attorneys’
fees. Finally, the proposed Consent
Decree resolves violations of a prior
Consent Decree and supersedes the
prior Consent Decree.
The publication of this notice opens
a period for public comment on the
Consent Decree. Comments should be
addressed to the Assistant Attorney
General, Environment and Natural
Resources Division, and should refer to
the United States District Court for the
Western District of Michigan in the
lawsuit entitled United States v.
Walnutdale Family Farms, LLC and
Kevin Lettinga, D.J. Ref. No. 90–5–1–1–
07515/1. All comments must be
submitted no later than thirty (30) days
after the publication date of this notice.
Comments may be submitted either by
email or by mail:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:22 Mar 09, 2021
Jkt 253001
To submit
comments:
Send them to:
By email .......
pubcomment-ees.enrd@
usdoj.gov.
Assistant Attorney General,
U.S. DOJ—ENRD, P.O.
Box 7611, Washington, DC
20044–7611.
By mail .........
During the public comment period,
the Consent Decree may be examined
and downloaded at this Justice
Department website: https://
www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.
We will provide a paper copy of the
Consent Decree upon written request
and payment of reproduction costs.
Please mail your request and payment
to: Consent Decree Library, U.S. DOJ—
ENRD, P.O. Box 7611, Washington, DC
20044–7611.
Please enclose a check or money order
for $19.75 (25 cents per page
reproduction cost) payable to the United
States Treasury.
Patricia McKenna,
Assistant Section Chief, Environmental
Enforcement Section, Environment and
Natural Resources Division.
[FR Doc. 2021–04897 Filed 3–9–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410–15–P
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training
Administration
Request for Information Concerning a
Report on Labor Market Information on
the Native American Work Force
Employment and Training
Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor.
ACTION: Request for information.
AGENCY:
The Department of Labor (the
‘‘Department’’) requests information on
issues related to the development of a
report concerning ‘‘Labor Market
Information on the Indian Workforce,’’
pursuant to the requirement in the
Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Consolidation Act of
2017. The law tasks the Secretary of
Labor to ‘‘in a consistent and reliable
manner, develop, maintain and publish,
not less than biennially’’ information
related to 574 federally recognized
tribes who are eligible for services under
the Bureau of Indian Affairs (in the
Department of the Interior). The
Department invites tribal leaders,
representatives, data specialists, and
tribal members, as well as researchers
and other interested parties to submit
information related to the discussion
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00069
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
and questions identified in the
Supplementary Information section
below. Responses to this Request for
Information (RFI) will help the
Department to identify approaches for
generating accurate, timely and useful
labor market information, and will
complement the Department’s
consultations, as required under the
law, with the Department of the Interior,
tribes, and the Census Bureau.
DATES: Submit written responses on or
before April 9, 2021. Responses are
requested by 11:59 p.m. on the date
above.
Information provided in
response to this request can be
submitted electronically to: ILFR@
dol.gov or in hard copy, by mail or
delivery service, to: Wayne Gordon,
Director, Division of Research and
Evaluation, Employment and Training
Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor, Room N–5641, 200 Constitution
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210.
ADDRESSES:
Additional Information and
Instructions
(1) All submissions should reference
the agency name (Employment and
Training Administration (ETA) and
concern ‘‘Information Concerning a
Report on Labor Market Information on
the Native American Work Force.’’
(2) Submissions should include a
name, phone number, and email address
for a single point of contact, in addition
to the organizations, tribes, or other
governmental agencies with which
respondents are associated.
(3) Responses will not be posted
publicly but will be summarized in a
report prepared by the Department of
Labor. It should be noted that any
information submitted to the
Department may be releasable pursuant
to the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act or other applicable law.
For that reason, the Department requests
that no business proprietary
information, copyrighted information,
or personally identifiable information be
submitted in response to this RFI.
(4) Please refer to the section on
Supplementary Information below for
background information and questions
that respondents may want to address in
their submissions. Should they choose
to reply to some or all of those
questions, respondents are requested to
identify the section number(s) relevant
to the appropriate sections of their
submission.
(5) Please note that research and
evaluation studies, statistical
information, training materials, policy
statements or reports, or other relevant
information may also be included or
E:\FR\FM\10MRN1.SGM
10MRN1
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 45 / Wednesday, March 10, 2021 / Notices
referenced in responses. Please include
hyperlinks if available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Wayne Gordon, Room N–5641, 200
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington,
DC 20210; by email: ILFR@dol.gov; or by
telephone: (202) 693–3179 (this is not a
toll-free number). TTY/TDD callers may
dial toll-free 1 (877) 889–5627 to obtain
information.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A report on labor market information
on the Native American workforce was
first required under the Indian
Employment, Training and Related
Services Demonstration Act of 1992
(Pub. L. 102–477, enacted October 23,
1992). Under that law, the Secretary of
the Interior was responsible for
producing a report biennially regarding
the same data required in the Labor
Department report, under the 2017 law,
i.e., ‘‘at the national level, by State,
Bureau of Indian Affairs Service area,
and tribal level for: (1) The total service
population; (2) the service population
under age 16 and over 64; (3) the
population available for work, including
those not considered to be actively
seeking work; (4) the employed
population, including those employed
with annual earnings below the poverty
line; and (5) the numbers employed in
private sector positions and in public
sector positions.’’
The Interior Department’s Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) produced 13 reports
(entitled The American Indian
Population and Labor Force Report)
with the last report issued in 2013. Prior
to that report, the population estimates
in the reports were based primarily on
data provided by the tribes themselves.
However, in response to concerns about
the accuracy and consistency of tribally
provided data, BIA’s 2013 report made
a number of changes. These included
use of data from a combination of
sources, such as the decennial Census,
multi-year data from the Census
Bureau’s American Community Survey
(ACS), and data provided from a survey
that BIA conducted with tribes. The
report also used new methods for
estimating service populations based on
county-level data that attempted to
approximate the geographic boundaries
of tribes and nearby areas. Importantly,
in regard to the Native American
workforce, the report did not present
estimates that met the exact
requirements of the law, due to the lack
of underlying data upon which to base
such estimates. For that reason, the
report used only Census data and
presented percentage (rather than
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:22 Mar 09, 2021
Jkt 253001
population) estimates on employment
and unemployment regarding tribal
areas (rather than for the service
populations), and only state and
national level estimates on some of the
other measures identified in the law.
Overall, then, the 2013 report raised
many concerns and issues that remain
to be resolved in regard to developing
future reports presenting labor market
information on the Native American
workforce.
II. Request for Public Comment
The Department seeks information to
help assure that future reports will
present data that is accurate, consistent,
and useful, and offers below additional
information and series of questions that
respondents may want to use to guide
responses to this RFI. Response to this
RFI is voluntary. Most of the questions,
it should be noted, are geared to tribes
themselves, since they are the primary
intended beneficiaries of the report.
(1) Uses of the Report: The
Department is interested in how to
assure that the population and labor
force data presented in the report are as
useful as possible, and for that reason,
requests information related to the
following:
a. How did your tribe use information
from past reports, such as for grant
applications, service planning,
economic development, or other
purposes?
b. What data has your tribe used for
those purposes since the last report was
produced in 2013?
c. What do you think are likely to be
the most important uses for the data in
future reports for your tribe?
(2) Scope and Frequency of Reports:
The law requires that the information in
the report must include but is ‘‘not
limited to’’ data on the total and prime
age service populations and
employment, both generally, by annual
poverty-level earnings, and by private
and public sector employment. These
required data elements do not, however,
cover a range of population and labor
market data that are typically available
to other jurisdictions at the county and
municipal level in the U.S. Examples of
the data available to other jurisdictions
include those related to age, gender,
educational level, occupation, and
industry, derived from both household
and establishment surveys, among other
sources. Also, in recent years, the
Census Bureau has made changes in its
sampling and geographic mapping
capabilities, and created more accessible
population statistics for individual
tribes through its website, My Tribal
Area at https://www.census.gov/tribal/.
Further the law also requires the report
PO 00000
Frm 00070
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
13755
to be produced every two years, which
would require updating all the data
presented in it, based on new data
collection with samples of sufficient
size and representativeness to assure
accurate results. In light of options for
adding other labor force and labor
market data elements, improvements in
the population data that may be
available on your tribe, and challenges
in collecting the underlying data,
information is requested on the
following:
a. What other labor market or
workforce data, beyond the required
elements, would it be helpful to have in
the reports?
b. How frequently should reports be
issued, and for what purposes?
c. Should biennial reports cover all
the data elements each time and if not,
what other options should be
considered?
(3) Data Sources and Quality: As
noted above, prior reports drew from
different data sources, such as the
decennial census, the American
Community Survey, tribal enrollment
data, and surveys of tribes. Although the
past reports endeavored to provide the
most accurate estimates possible, they
have engendered a variety of concerns
such as: An undercount overall and at
the tribal level; incomplete information
on the depths of ‘‘joblessness’’ among
those are not actively seeking work due
to lack of available jobs; use of small
samples and data collection methods
that result in incomplete or inaccurate
data; a ‘‘spatial mismatch’’ between
tribal areas and county-level data, and
lack of recognition of part-year
residency of tribal members; and
difficulties in determining who should
be counted in the service populations in
tribal areas. To address some of these
problems, several tribes and tribal
advocacy organizations have conducted
research on alternative methods for
collecting or adjusting available data on
individual tribes’ populations and
various service needs. In light of these
issues, information is sought on the
following:
a. What in your view are the best
existing sources of data, for assuring
accuracy and consistency, such as that
from the ACS, tribal enrollment and
membership records, or some
combination of existing sources?
b. Are there other data sources or data
collection methods of which you are
aware, that may be of interest to your
tribe in developing more accurate
population or labor force estimates?
(4) Data Collection Capacity:
Improving data quality and accuracy
may depend on development of tribes’
ability to collect their own data, but
E:\FR\FM\10MRN1.SGM
10MRN1
13756
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 45 / Wednesday, March 10, 2021 / Notices
relatively little is known about the
current capacity of tribes to do so, nor
how challenges in collecting and
reporting data may vary among tribes
that have widely different population
sizes and locations. For that reason, the
Department seeks information on the
tribes’ current capacity for data
collection, analysis and reporting. The
following questions may be useful in
providing information about this:
a. Does your tribe collect any
population or labor force data? If so,
what type of data does your tribe
currently collect?
b. What are the methods used to
collect that data, and how might those
relate to the size and location of your
tribe?
c. How often are those data collected,
updated, and reported?
d. How many staff (full and part time),
including volunteers, are dedicated to
such an effort, and if so, does your tribe
partner with external organizations for
such activities?
e. If your tribe were to undertake
additional data collection and reporting,
what types or training and technical
assistance might be most useful to your
tribe? Would additional computer or
internet resources be needed in order to
engage more data collection?
(5) Privacy and Data Security:
Protecting the privacy of individuals
and their families has been of increasing
importance to tribes, and was an
important topic in the consultations
conducted with tribes by the Census
Bureau in 2019. In light of this,
information is requested on the
following:
a. What are the most important issues
related to privacy and data security
regarding the future reports with labor
market information on the Native
American work force?
b. What are the key issues of concern
regarding privacy, including access to
and security of, tribally-collected data?
(6) Technical Issues: There are a
number of technical issues that will
need to be resolved in order to develop
a report on labor market information on
the Native American work force that
includes the data as required in the law,
and possibly other data. Information is
sought on relevant issues and possible
options to resolve these technical issues,
including but not limited to the
following:
a. What are the key issues concerning
consistency across tribes for population
and labor force counts, especially the
number counted as the ‘‘service
population’’?
b. What are the key issues in regard
to the definition and boundaries of
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:22 Mar 09, 2021
Jkt 253001
tribal ‘‘service areas’’ and how might
those be resolved?
c. Should there be a single data source
used, or multiple possible data sources
permitted in the report?
d. Should data standards be
developed and if so, by whom? and
e. What other technical issues need to
be addressed in regard to national
survey data or tribally generated data?
III. Conclusion
The Department invites all tribes and
other interested parties to submit
information relevant to development of
the report, including but not limited to
the questions posed in this RFI. The
information provided by respondents
will help in identifying and clarifying a
range of approaches for meeting the
requirements of the law, and for
generating accurate, reliable and timely
population, labor force, and labor
market information that will be useful to
tribal governments, as well as to Federal
and state agencies that provide support
to them and their members.
Suzan G. LeVine,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2021–04938 Filed 3–9–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510–FM–P
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training
Administration
Labor Certification Process for the
Temporary Employment of H–2A and
H–2B Foreign Workers in the United
States: Annual Update to Allowable
Monetary Charges for Agricultural
Workers’ Meals and for Travel
Subsistence Reimbursement,
Including Lodging
Employment and Training
Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Employment and
Training Administration (ETA) of the
Department of Labor (Department) is
issuing this notice to announce the
annual updates to allowable monetary
charges employers of H–2A workers, in
occupations other than herding or
production of livestock on the range,
may charge these workers when the
employer provides three meals per day.
This notice also announces the
maximum travel subsistence meal
reimbursement a worker with receipts
may claim under the H–2A and H–2B
programs. Finally, this notice includes a
reminder regarding employers’
obligations with respect to overnight
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00071
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
lodging costs as part of required
subsistence.
This annual update is effective
on March 10, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Brian Pasternak, Administrator, Office
of Foreign Labor Certification,
Employment and Training
Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor, N–5311, 200 Constitution
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210, by
telephone at 202–693–8200 (this is not
a toll-free number). Individuals with
hearing or speech impairments may
access the telephone numbers above via
TTY/TDD by calling the toll-free Federal
Information Relay Service at 1 (877)
889–5627 (this is not a toll-free
number).
DATES:
The U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services of
the Department of Homeland Security
will not approve an employer’s petition
for the admission of H–2A or H–2B
nonimmigrant temporary workers in the
United States unless the petitioner has
received an H–2A or H–2B labor
certification from the Department. The
labor certification generally provides
that: (1) There are not sufficient U.S.
workers who are able, willing, and
qualified and who will be available at
the time and place needed to perform
the labor or services involved in the
petition; and (2) the employment of the
foreign worker(s) in such labor or
services will not adversely affect the
wages and working conditions of
workers in the U.S. similarly employed.
See 20 CFR 655.1(a) and 655.100.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Allowable Meal Charge
H–2A agricultural employers who are
employing workers in occupations other
than herding or production of livestock
on the range must offer and provide
each worker three meals per day or
provide the workers free and convenient
cooking facilities.1 See § 655.122(g).
Where the employer provides the meals,
the job offer must state the charge, if
any, to the worker for such meals. See
id. The amount of meal charges is
governed by § 655.173.
By regulation, the Department has
established the methodology for
determining the maximum amount that
H–2A agricultural employers may
charge workers for providing them with
three meals per day. See § 655.173(a).
This methodology allows for annual
adjustments of the previous year’s
maximum allowable charge based on
1 H–2A employers must provide workers engaged
in herding or the production of livestock on the
range meals or food to prepare meals without
charge or deposit charge. See 20 CFR 655.210(e).
E:\FR\FM\10MRN1.SGM
10MRN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 10, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13754-13756]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-04938]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Request for Information Concerning a Report on Labor Market
Information on the Native American Work Force
AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor.
ACTION: Request for information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (the ``Department'') requests
information on issues related to the development of a report concerning
``Labor Market Information on the Indian Workforce,'' pursuant to the
requirement in the Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2017. The law tasks the Secretary of Labor to ``in
a consistent and reliable manner, develop, maintain and publish, not
less than biennially'' information related to 574 federally recognized
tribes who are eligible for services under the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(in the Department of the Interior). The Department invites tribal
leaders, representatives, data specialists, and tribal members, as well
as researchers and other interested parties to submit information
related to the discussion and questions identified in the Supplementary
Information section below. Responses to this Request for Information
(RFI) will help the Department to identify approaches for generating
accurate, timely and useful labor market information, and will
complement the Department's consultations, as required under the law,
with the Department of the Interior, tribes, and the Census Bureau.
DATES: Submit written responses on or before April 9, 2021. Responses
are requested by 11:59 p.m. on the date above.
ADDRESSES: Information provided in response to this request can be
submitted electronically to: [email protected] or in hard copy, by mail or
delivery service, to: Wayne Gordon, Director, Division of Research and
Evaluation, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of
Labor, Room N-5641, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210.
Additional Information and Instructions
(1) All submissions should reference the agency name (Employment
and Training Administration (ETA) and concern ``Information Concerning
a Report on Labor Market Information on the Native American Work
Force.''
(2) Submissions should include a name, phone number, and email
address for a single point of contact, in addition to the
organizations, tribes, or other governmental agencies with which
respondents are associated.
(3) Responses will not be posted publicly but will be summarized in
a report prepared by the Department of Labor. It should be noted that
any information submitted to the Department may be releasable pursuant
to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act or other applicable
law. For that reason, the Department requests that no business
proprietary information, copyrighted information, or personally
identifiable information be submitted in response to this RFI.
(4) Please refer to the section on Supplementary Information below
for background information and questions that respondents may want to
address in their submissions. Should they choose to reply to some or
all of those questions, respondents are requested to identify the
section number(s) relevant to the appropriate sections of their
submission.
(5) Please note that research and evaluation studies, statistical
information, training materials, policy statements or reports, or other
relevant information may also be included or
[[Page 13755]]
referenced in responses. Please include hyperlinks if available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wayne Gordon, Room N-5641, 200
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210; by email: [email protected];
or by telephone: (202) 693-3179 (this is not a toll-free number). TTY/
TDD callers may dial toll-free 1 (877) 889-5627 to obtain information.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A report on labor market information on the Native American
workforce was first required under the Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Demonstration Act of 1992 (Pub. L. 102-477, enacted
October 23, 1992). Under that law, the Secretary of the Interior was
responsible for producing a report biennially regarding the same data
required in the Labor Department report, under the 2017 law, i.e., ``at
the national level, by State, Bureau of Indian Affairs Service area,
and tribal level for: (1) The total service population; (2) the service
population under age 16 and over 64; (3) the population available for
work, including those not considered to be actively seeking work; (4)
the employed population, including those employed with annual earnings
below the poverty line; and (5) the numbers employed in private sector
positions and in public sector positions.''
The Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) produced
13 reports (entitled The American Indian Population and Labor Force
Report) with the last report issued in 2013. Prior to that report, the
population estimates in the reports were based primarily on data
provided by the tribes themselves. However, in response to concerns
about the accuracy and consistency of tribally provided data, BIA's
2013 report made a number of changes. These included use of data from a
combination of sources, such as the decennial Census, multi-year data
from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), and data
provided from a survey that BIA conducted with tribes. The report also
used new methods for estimating service populations based on county-
level data that attempted to approximate the geographic boundaries of
tribes and nearby areas. Importantly, in regard to the Native American
workforce, the report did not present estimates that met the exact
requirements of the law, due to the lack of underlying data upon which
to base such estimates. For that reason, the report used only Census
data and presented percentage (rather than population) estimates on
employment and unemployment regarding tribal areas (rather than for the
service populations), and only state and national level estimates on
some of the other measures identified in the law. Overall, then, the
2013 report raised many concerns and issues that remain to be resolved
in regard to developing future reports presenting labor market
information on the Native American workforce.
II. Request for Public Comment
The Department seeks information to help assure that future reports
will present data that is accurate, consistent, and useful, and offers
below additional information and series of questions that respondents
may want to use to guide responses to this RFI. Response to this RFI is
voluntary. Most of the questions, it should be noted, are geared to
tribes themselves, since they are the primary intended beneficiaries of
the report.
(1) Uses of the Report: The Department is interested in how to
assure that the population and labor force data presented in the report
are as useful as possible, and for that reason, requests information
related to the following:
a. How did your tribe use information from past reports, such as
for grant applications, service planning, economic development, or
other purposes?
b. What data has your tribe used for those purposes since the last
report was produced in 2013?
c. What do you think are likely to be the most important uses for
the data in future reports for your tribe?
(2) Scope and Frequency of Reports: The law requires that the
information in the report must include but is ``not limited to'' data
on the total and prime age service populations and employment, both
generally, by annual poverty-level earnings, and by private and public
sector employment. These required data elements do not, however, cover
a range of population and labor market data that are typically
available to other jurisdictions at the county and municipal level in
the U.S. Examples of the data available to other jurisdictions include
those related to age, gender, educational level, occupation, and
industry, derived from both household and establishment surveys, among
other sources. Also, in recent years, the Census Bureau has made
changes in its sampling and geographic mapping capabilities, and
created more accessible population statistics for individual tribes
through its website, My Tribal Area at https://www.census.gov/tribal/.
Further the law also requires the report to be produced every two
years, which would require updating all the data presented in it, based
on new data collection with samples of sufficient size and
representativeness to assure accurate results. In light of options for
adding other labor force and labor market data elements, improvements
in the population data that may be available on your tribe, and
challenges in collecting the underlying data, information is requested
on the following:
a. What other labor market or workforce data, beyond the required
elements, would it be helpful to have in the reports?
b. How frequently should reports be issued, and for what purposes?
c. Should biennial reports cover all the data elements each time
and if not, what other options should be considered?
(3) Data Sources and Quality: As noted above, prior reports drew
from different data sources, such as the decennial census, the American
Community Survey, tribal enrollment data, and surveys of tribes.
Although the past reports endeavored to provide the most accurate
estimates possible, they have engendered a variety of concerns such as:
An undercount overall and at the tribal level; incomplete information
on the depths of ``joblessness'' among those are not actively seeking
work due to lack of available jobs; use of small samples and data
collection methods that result in incomplete or inaccurate data; a
``spatial mismatch'' between tribal areas and county-level data, and
lack of recognition of part-year residency of tribal members; and
difficulties in determining who should be counted in the service
populations in tribal areas. To address some of these problems, several
tribes and tribal advocacy organizations have conducted research on
alternative methods for collecting or adjusting available data on
individual tribes' populations and various service needs. In light of
these issues, information is sought on the following:
a. What in your view are the best existing sources of data, for
assuring accuracy and consistency, such as that from the ACS, tribal
enrollment and membership records, or some combination of existing
sources?
b. Are there other data sources or data collection methods of which
you are aware, that may be of interest to your tribe in developing more
accurate population or labor force estimates?
(4) Data Collection Capacity: Improving data quality and accuracy
may depend on development of tribes' ability to collect their own data,
but
[[Page 13756]]
relatively little is known about the current capacity of tribes to do
so, nor how challenges in collecting and reporting data may vary among
tribes that have widely different population sizes and locations. For
that reason, the Department seeks information on the tribes' current
capacity for data collection, analysis and reporting. The following
questions may be useful in providing information about this:
a. Does your tribe collect any population or labor force data? If
so, what type of data does your tribe currently collect?
b. What are the methods used to collect that data, and how might
those relate to the size and location of your tribe?
c. How often are those data collected, updated, and reported?
d. How many staff (full and part time), including volunteers, are
dedicated to such an effort, and if so, does your tribe partner with
external organizations for such activities?
e. If your tribe were to undertake additional data collection and
reporting, what types or training and technical assistance might be
most useful to your tribe? Would additional computer or internet
resources be needed in order to engage more data collection?
(5) Privacy and Data Security: Protecting the privacy of
individuals and their families has been of increasing importance to
tribes, and was an important topic in the consultations conducted with
tribes by the Census Bureau in 2019. In light of this, information is
requested on the following:
a. What are the most important issues related to privacy and data
security regarding the future reports with labor market information on
the Native American work force?
b. What are the key issues of concern regarding privacy, including
access to and security of, tribally-collected data?
(6) Technical Issues: There are a number of technical issues that
will need to be resolved in order to develop a report on labor market
information on the Native American work force that includes the data as
required in the law, and possibly other data. Information is sought on
relevant issues and possible options to resolve these technical issues,
including but not limited to the following:
a. What are the key issues concerning consistency across tribes for
population and labor force counts, especially the number counted as the
``service population''?
b. What are the key issues in regard to the definition and
boundaries of tribal ``service areas'' and how might those be resolved?
c. Should there be a single data source used, or multiple possible
data sources permitted in the report?
d. Should data standards be developed and if so, by whom? and
e. What other technical issues need to be addressed in regard to
national survey data or tribally generated data?
III. Conclusion
The Department invites all tribes and other interested parties to
submit information relevant to development of the report, including but
not limited to the questions posed in this RFI. The information
provided by respondents will help in identifying and clarifying a range
of approaches for meeting the requirements of the law, and for
generating accurate, reliable and timely population, labor force, and
labor market information that will be useful to tribal governments, as
well as to Federal and state agencies that provide support to them and
their members.
Suzan G. LeVine,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training,
Labor.
[FR Doc. 2021-04938 Filed 3-9-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FM-P
