Employment and Training Administration – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Labor's (DOL's) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Youthful Offender Grants Management Information System.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

In this direct final rule (DFR), the Department of Labor (Department) makes two procedural changes to its Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Job Corps regulations to enable the Secretary to delegate procurement authority as it relates to the development and issuance of requests for proposals for the operation of Job Corps centers, outreach and admissions, career transitional services, and other operational support services. The Department is taking this procedural action to align regulatory provisions with the relevant WIOA statutory language and to provide greater flexibility for internal operations and management of the Job Corps program.

The Department of Labor's (DOL's), Employment Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning the information collection request (ICR) titled ``Student Experiences Assessment of Job Corps Centers.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA), Public Law 115-123 (2018), established permanent authorization for the RESEA program by enacting section 306 of title III, (SSA). This notice announces the formula to allocate base funds for the RESEA program, as provided under Section 306(f)(1), SSA, 42 U.S.C. 506(f)(1). On April 4, 2019, ETA published a notice in the Federal Register (84 FR 13319) requesting public comment concerning the development of a proposed formula that ETA will use to distribute funding to States for RESEA. The notice presented a description of a proposed allocation formula and public comments were requested. The comment period closed on May 6, 2019. This notice summarizes and responds to the comments received and publishes the final allocation formula that will take effect in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021.

The Department of Labor's (DOL's) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``National Agricultural Workers Survey.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Secretary of Labor (Secretary) has renewed the charter for NAETC. The new charter will expire 2 years from the filing date.

The Department of Labor (DOL), Employment Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed request for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Student Safety Assessment of Job Corps Participants.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor's (DOL's), Employment Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed revision for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Post Enrollment Data Collection for Job Corps Participants.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The U.S. Department of Labor (Department) is issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that, if finalized, would give States increased flexibility in their administration of Employment Service (ES) activities funded under the Wagner-Peyser Act. The proposed changes would modernize the regulations to align them with the flexibility allowed under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). The changes would also give States the flexibility to staff employment and farmworker-outreach services in the most effective and efficient way, using a combination of State employees, local government employees, contracted services, and other staffing models in the way that makes the most sense for them. This in turn could leave more resources to help employers find employees, and to help employees find the work they need. The proposed changes are also consistent with Executive Order (E.O.) 13777, which requires the Department to identify outdated, inefficient, unnecessary, or overly burdensome regulations that should be repealed, replaced, or modified.

The Department of Labor's (DOL's), Employment Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed revision for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Contractor and Grantee Information Gathering'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor (Department) is seeking public comment on the following proposed performance measures: [ssquf] Reemployment Rate for all UI Eligible Individuals after the 2nd Quarter of Program Exit (a Core Measure); [ssquf] Reemployment Rate after the 2nd Quarter of Program Exit for Reemployment Service and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Program participants (a Program Performance Measure); and [ssquf] Median Wage in the 2nd Quarter after Program Exit for RESEA Program Participants (a Program Performance Measure). These measures are designed to align with the common performance measures for other workforce programs authorized by WIOA and will assist ETA in overseeing states' performance related to reemployment of UI claimants. This notice also informs states of the Department's discontinuance of the UI Facilitate Reemployment Core Measure.

Title I of WIOA requires the U.S. Secretary of Labor (Secretary) to update and publish the LLSIL tables annually, for uses described in the law (including determining eligibility for youth). WIOA defines the term ``low income individual'' as one whose total family annual income does not exceed the higher level of the poverty line or 70 percent of the LLSIL. This issuance provides the Secretary's annual LLSIL for 2019 and references the current 2019 Health and Human Services ``Poverty Guidelines.''

The Department of Labor's (DOL's) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed extension for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services Activity and Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services Outcomes.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

This notice announces allotments for PY 2019 for WIOA Title I Youth, Adult and Dislocated Worker Activities programs; final allotments for Employment Service (ES) activities under the Wagner- Peyser Act for PY 2019 and the allotments of Workforce Information Grants to States for PY 2019. WIOA allotments for states and the state final allotments for the Wagner-Peyser Act are based on formulas defined in their respective statutes. WIOA requires allotments for the Outlying Areas to be competitively awarded rather than based on a formula determined by the Secretary of Labor (Secretary) as occurred under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). However, for PY 2019, the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 waives the competition requirement, and the Secretary is using the discretionary formula rationale and methodology for allocating PY 2019 funds for the Outlying Areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the United States Virgin Islands) that was published in the Federal Register on February 17, 2000. WIOA specifically included the Republic of Palau as an Outlying Area, except during any period for which the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Education determine that a Compact of Free Association is in effect and contains provisions for training and education assistance prohibiting the assistance provided under WIOA; no such determinations prohibiting assistance have been made. The formula that the Department of Labor (Department) used for PY 2019 is the same formula used in PY 2018 and is described in the section on Youth Activities program allotments. The Department invites comments only on the formula used to allot funds to the Outlying Areas.

The Department of Labor's (DOL's), Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Required Elements of an Unemployment Insurance (UI) Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grant State Plan.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is issuing new regulations governing the certification of temporary employment opportunities to be filled by nonimmigrant workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the obligations applicable to employers of such workers under the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker visa program (CW-1). This interim final rule (IFR), implementing provisions of the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018 (Workforce Act), establishes the process by which a CNMI employer will obtain a prevailing wage determination (PWD) and temporary labor certification (TLC) from DOL for use in petitioning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to employ a nonimmigrant worker in CW-1 status. Although the CW-1 visa classification predates the Workforce Act, classification as a CW-1 nonimmigrant does not currently require a labor certification. The Workforce Act institutes a labor certification requirement as a prerequisite for approval of a CW-1 petition by DHS and charges the Department with promulgating an IFR to administer this new labor certification requirement. We are also issuing regulations to provide for increased worker protections for both United States (U.S.) and foreign workers to ensure no U.S. worker is placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to a foreign worker or is displaced by a foreign worker.

The Department of Labor's (DOL's) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning a proposed revision for the authority to conduct the information collection request (ICR) titled, ``Trade Adjustment Assistance Program Reserve Funding Request.'' This comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is issuing this Notice to announce the annual update to: (1) The allowable charges that employers seeking H-2A workers in occupations other than herding or production of livestock on the range may charge their workers when the employer provides three meals per day; and (2) the maximum travel subsistence meal reimbursement that a worker with receipts may claim under the H-2A and H-2B programs. The Notice also includes a reminder regarding employers' obligations with respect to overnight lodging costs as part of required subsistence.