[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 151 (Thursday, August 6, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47003-47004]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-19286]
[[Page 47003]]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Veterans' Employment and Training Administration
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food and Nutrition Service
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Required Elements for Submission of the Unified or Combined State
Plan and Plan Modifications Under the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, Health
and Human Services, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development
(Departments) are proposing a new information collection: Required
Elements for Submission of the Unified or Combined State Plan and Plan
Modifications under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)
(Pub. L. 113-128).
DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before
October 5, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice should be
submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
http://www.regulations.gov by selecting Docket ID number ETA-2015-0006
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. A copy of
the proposed information collection request (ICR) with applicable
supporting documentation, including a description of the likely
respondents, proposed frequency of response, and estimated total burden
may be obtained free of charge from http://www.regulations.gov or by
contacting Heather Fleck by telephone at 202-693-2956, TTY 1-877-889-
5627 (these are not toll-free numbers), or by email at
[email protected]. Mail and hand delivery/courier: Submit comments
to Chief/WIOA State Plan, Division of WIOA Adult Services and Workforce
System, Room S-4203, Employment and Training Administration, U.S.
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210.
Due to security-related concerns, there may be a significant delay in
the receipt of submissions by United States Mail. You must take this
into consideration when preparing to meet the deadline for submitting
comments.
Comments submitted in response to this comment request will become
a matter of public record and will be summarized and included in the
request for Office of Management and Budget approval of the information
collection request. In addition, regardless of the delivery method,
comments will be posted without change on the http://www.regulations.gov Web site; consequently, the Departments recommend
commenters not include personal information such as Social Security
Number, personal address, telephone number, email address, or
confidential business information, that they do not want made public.
It is the responsibility of the commenter to determine what to include
in the public record and to safeguard personal information.
Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Departments, in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)),
provide the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to
comment on proposed, revised, and continuing collections of
information. The PRA helps the Departments assess the impact of their
information collection requirements and minimizes the public's
reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Departments'
information collection requirements and provide the requested data in
the desired format. The Departments are soliciting comments on the
proposed ICR that is described below. The Departments are especially
interested in public comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is
this collection necessary to the proper functions of the Departments;
(2) will this information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3)
is the estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Departments
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (5) how might the Departments minimize the burden of
this collection on the respondents, including through the use of
information technology. Please note that written comments received in
response to this notice will be considered public records, and comments
posted are viewable by the public.
Title of Collection: Required Elements for Submission of the
Unified or Combined State Plan and Plan Modifications under the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
OMB Control Number: 1205--0NEW.
Type of Review: A new information collection.
Respondents/Affected Public: State, Local and Tribal Governments.
Total Estimated Number of Respondents: 57.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 38.
Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 3,278.
Total Estimated Annual Burden Cost: $141,707.00.
Abstract: Sections 102 and 103 of the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act (WIOA) (29 U.S.C. 3112 and 3113) require a State
Governor to submit a Unified or Combined State Plan for approval every
four years in order to receive funds under six core workforce
development programs, identified below. Modifications to these plans
must be submitted at least every two years. The Unified or Combined
State Plan requirements are designed to improve service integration and
ensure that the State's publicly-funded workforce system helps all
jobseekers obtain the skills needed to secure good jobs while providing
businesses with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global
economy. The Unified or Combined State Plan would describe how the
State will develop and implement a unified, integrated service delivery
system rather than discuss the State's approach to operating each
program individually.
Section 102(a) of WIOA requires each State, at a minimum, to submit
a Unified State Plan that fosters strategic alignment of the core
programs, which include the Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth
programs (Title I); the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act program
(Title II); the Wagner-Peyser program (Title III); and the Vocational
Rehabilitation program (Title IV). In the alternative, Section 103 of
WIOA permits a State to submit a Combined State Plan that includes the
core programs plus one or more of the optional Federal programs listed
in Section 103(b). If the State chooses to submit a Combined State
Plan, the plan must incorporate all of the common planning elements
required in the Unified State Plan, additional elements describing how
the State will coordinate the optional programs with the core programs
(WIOA Sec. 103(b)(3)), and elements required by the optional
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program(s) that are included in the Combined State Plan.
This consolidated ICR for the Unified or Combined State Plan will
replace existing planning information collections for the core
programs. For States that choose to submit a Combined State Plan, the
existing information collections for the program-specific State plans
for the optional programs will continue to exist under their current
control numbers. If the Combined State Plan is approved, the State is
not required to submit any other plan to receive Federal funding for
any optional program covered under that Combined State Plan (WIOA sec.
103(b)(2)). If a State plan for an optional program changes from the
one approved under the Combined State Plan, the State may have to
submit additional plans to the appropriate Department--such additional
plans will be counted under the optional programs' existing information
collection requirements.
Some of the optional programs that a State may include in the
Combined State Plan currently fulfill their program-specific State
planning requirements through a broader information collection
administered by the program's appropriate Department. For example,
section 103(b)(2) of WIOA specifically allows the employment and
training activities carried out under the Community Services Block
Grant (CSBG) Act administered by the Department of Health and Human
Services and employment and training activities under the Department of
Housing and Urban Development to be included in a WIOA Combined State
Plan. However, the existing CSBG information collection, for example,
includes planning elements for the employment and training activities
along with planning elements for other activities under CSBG.
Therefore, if States choose to include programs such as these in the
Combined Plan, only the portion of the existing planning requirements
that address the employment and training activities are included in the
Combined State Plan (WIOA sec. 103), and States are still required to
separately submit all other required elements of a complete CSBG State
Plan directly to the Federal agency that administers the program.
Departmental program-specific State Plan requirements for the
optional programs that may be included in the Combined State Plan will
continue collecting data under the information collections currently
approved by OMB. This Notice is not soliciting comments about these
currently approved information collections.
As mentioned above, this ICR is intended to cover the State
planning information collection requirements in sections 102 and 103 of
WIOA. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) proposing regulations
that would implement those sections was published on April 16, 2015, at
80 FR 20573. The comment period closed on June 15, 2015. The proposed
regulations that correspond to these information collection
requirements are: 20 CFR part 676 (WIOA Adult, Dislocated Worker, and
Youth programs and Wagner-Peyser Act programs); 34 CFR part 361,
subpart D (State Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program); and 34
CFR part 463, subpart H (Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
programs).
Sec. 102(c)(1)(A) of WIOA requires States to submit their first
Unified State Plan to the Secretary of Labor not later than 120 days
prior to the commencement of the second full program year after the
date of enactment of WIOA, which was July 22, 2014. Therefore, the
second full program year commences on July 1, 2016, and the State plans
must be submitted no later than March 3, 2016. Approval of this ICR is
required so that the States can begin working to develop their plans, a
process that requires months of coordination among State agencies and
other stakeholders.
The Departments have all worked together to develop this
information collection; however, this information collection will
initially be approved under a Department of Labor, Employment and
Training Administration (ETA) account using the common forms clearance
process that allows several agencies to use a single information
collection instrument. Burden estimates for all the partner agencies
have been included in this Notice, in order to facilitate an
understanding of the full impact of the collection; however, in
accordance with OMB guidance for common forms, the ICR submitted to OMB
will initially identify only the ETA burdens. OMB approval of the ICR
will trigger the ability for the other Federal agencies to formally
submit requests to sign on the collection; those actions would not
require additional notice or public comment. This ICR may receive OMB
approval before Final Rules implementing WIOA are published. If this
occurs, the Departments will submit another ICR for this collection to
OMB to incorporate the Final Rule citations, as required by 5 CFR
1320.11(h). Those citations currently do not exist and, therefore,
cannot be included at this time. Additionally, the Departments will
review, analyze, and incorporate any comments received on the NPRM that
are relevant to this ICR together with comments we receive in response
to this Federal Register Notice in order to finalize the substantive
information collection requirements to the extent legally possible.
Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, U.S. Department of
Labor.
Johan E. Uvin,
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and
Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education.
Michael K. Yudin,
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education.
Mark H. Greenberg,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.
Teresa W. Gerton,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Veterans' Employment and Training, U.S.
Department of Labor.
Kevin Concannon,
Under Secretary, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
Clifford Taffet,
General Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Community Planning and
Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Jemine A. Bryon,
General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
[FR Doc. 2015-19286 Filed 8-5-15; 8:45 am]
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