Employment and Training Administration February 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor, announces the availability of up to $20,000,000 in grant funds authorized by section 169(c) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Public Law 113-128, Dislocated Worker Demonstration Projects, and the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2016, Public Law 114-113 for the pilot grant program, Summer Jobs and Beyond: Career Pathways for Youth (CPY). ETA plans to award approximately 10-11 grants of approximately $2,000,000 each to Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDB). This program is designed to provide employment-related services to eligible youth who are new entrants to the workforce, including those with limited current or past work experience. The program will provide youth with work experience opportunities, including summer and year[hyphen]round part[hyphen]time job opportunities for in-school youth and employment and work experience opportunities throughout the year for out-of-school youth, and exposure to career pathways in in[hyphen]demand job sectors. The grants will require partnerships between LWDBs and local summer employment programs, employers, Local Education Agencies (LEAs), and re[hyphen]engagement centers. Other community partners may provide services to eligible youth that assist in the development of work experience and entry into career pathways. The complete FOA and any subsequent FOA amendments in connection with this solicitation are described in further detail on ETA's Web site at https://www.doleta.gov/grants/ or https://www.grants.gov. The Web sites provide application information, eligibility requirements, review and selection procedures, and other program requirements governing this solicitation.

The Department of Labor (Department), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a preclearance consultation program to provide the public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program helps ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed. Currently, ETA is soliciting comments concerning the revisions to the WIA Management Information and Reporting System data collection supporting statement to update the burden estimate to account for annual changes in hourly rates for respondents and remove any outdated language referencing updates made to the WIA reporting system prior to its 2013 renewal. No other revisions were made to the package. On July 22, 2015, the Department issued an information collection request (ICR) for implementing WIOA performance requirements in accordance with section 116. Section 136 of WIA will remain in place until the performance requirements under WIOA have been fully implemented. Because we are using WIA performance measures, we are referring to the reports collected under this collection as ``WIA Reports.'' Generally, WIOA took effect on July 1, 2015 (See WIOA sec. 506(a.)). Sec. 116 of WIOA, which outlines the performance accountability requirements, including the indicators of performance, does not take effect until July 1, 2016 (See WIOA sec. 506(b)(1)). Under the Department's transition authority, in order to provide for an orderly transition from WIA to WIOA, we will require the states to use the WIA performance metrics in WIA sec. 136 to report on WIOA participants for one program year. This means that WIOA participants who became WIOA participants after July 1, 2015, are being measured according to the WIA section 136 performance measures. Once the Department has fully implemented WIOA's performance system, and all reporting requirements under WIA are met, the WIA reporting system will be discontinued. ETA seeks extension and approval of WIA reporting requirements during this transition period. Provisions will cover both individuals who were participants under WIA and new participants who enter the workforce system prior to full implementation of WIOA. For convenience we have included references to both the WIA statute and their corresponding updated sections within WIOA.

The Department of Labor (Department) is providing notice that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification's National Prevailing Wage Center, responsible for the processing of prevailing wage determination requests for use in the E-3 (Australia), H-1B, H-1B1 (Chile/Singapore), H-2B, and the permanent/``green card'' visa programs is relocating within Washington, DC effective on January 11, 2016.