[Senate Hearing 117-]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



 
  DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND 
          RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2022

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2021

                                       U.S. Senate,
           Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met at 10 a.m. in room SD-138, Dirksen 
Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray (chairwoman) 
presiding.
    Present: Senators Murray, Reed, Shaheen, Merkley, Baldwin, 
Blunt, Kennedy, and Braun.

                          DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

                        Office of the Secretary

STATEMENT OF HON. MARTIN J. WALSH, SECRETARY OF LABOR


               opening statement of senator patty murray


    Senator Murray. Good morning. The Senate Appropriations 
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, 
and Related Agencies will come to order.
    Today we are having a hearing on the Biden administration's 
fiscal year 2022 budget request for the Department of Labor. 
Senator Blunt and I will each have an opening statement. Then I 
will introduce our witness, Secretary Walsh.
    After his testimony, Senators will each have 5 minutes for 
a round of questions. While we are unable to have this hearing 
fully open to the public, or media for in-person attendance, 
live video is available on our committee website. And if you 
need accommodations, including closed captioning, you can reach 
out to the Committee of the Office of Congressional 
Accessibility Services.


           vision of the fiscal year 2022 president's budget


    You know, a budget is a reflection of values and through 
our hearings on President Biden's budget for the Department of 
Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education, we 
have seen a welcome change in values from the previous 
administration, and the budget proposal for the Department of 
Labor is no exception.
    This budget is a message to workers across the country; 
President Biden is fighting for you. Workers are the backbone 
of our economy. When we invest in workers, in keeping them 
safe, strengthening their rights, providing pathways for their 
development, ensuring their financial security, and more, we 
are investing in a stronger economy and a country for everyone.
    And that is exactly what this budget, which proposes 
increasing funding for the Department of Labor by 14 percent, 
does. When it comes to workers' safety, this past year has been 
a painful lesson on how important it is for every person to 
have a safe workplace. But even before the pandemic, our Nation 
saw 5,000 workplace deaths a year, one every 99 minutes. And 
on-the-job deaths have disproportionately spiked for Black and 
Latino workers since 2016, increasing 8 percent and 25 percent 
respectively, compared to just 3 percent overall. And while we 
know the economic cost of these deaths, a substantial $250 
billion a year, the loss to families is immeasurable.


                   protecting workers and their wages


    That is why the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration was founded 50 years ago, with the mission to 
protect worker health and safety. President Biden's budget 
would help us recommit to that mission by increasing OSHA's 
(Occupational Safety and Health Administration) funding level 
by 73 million from last year, and that will help the agency 
hire more staff, provide more assistance to workers and 
businesses, hold employers accountable to providing safe, 
healthy workplaces, and ultimately save lives.
    In addition to protecting workers' lives, this budget also 
includes funding to protect their wages. It would provide 
$276.5 million to the Wage and Hour Division, an increase of 
$30 million. This agency investigates employer wage theft and 
illegal compensation practices used to cheat people out of 
their hard-earned wages, something which most commonly happens 
to women, workers of color, and foreign-born workers. The Wage 
and Hour Division recovers, on average, $1,120 per affected 
employee. And they do it with a staff of barely 1,300 people 
covering 148 million workers at over 10 million workplaces.
    The funding in this budget would help them expand their 
capacity, and put even more money back in the pockets of even 
more workers who have been cheated by their employer. And 
President Biden's budget not only invests in accountability for 
employers in our country, but also in accountability for our 
trading partners. So workers in Washington State, or Missouri, 
or across the country, don't pay the price for unfair labor 
practices across the world.
    This budget increases funding for the International Labor 
Affairs Bureau (ILAB) by over a quarter, including $19.16 
million for ILAB to expand monitoring and enforcement of worker 
rights under our trade agreements and preference programs, and 
critical new investments to fight forced labor and child labor.
    This budget also provides support to help workers 
struggling in light of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19, 
including the millions who have lost jobs, and especially 
women, workers of color, and others who have been most set back 
by it.


                      training america's workforce


    President Biden's budget would increase funding for 
registered apprenticeships by $100 million, an increase well 
over half of what its budget was last year.
    These are proven apprenticeship models and lead to good-
paying jobs in high-demand fields. Funding for them will help 
address long-standing inequities in apprenticeships, and change 
the fact that women and workers of color are historically 
underrepresented in these apprenticeship programs, and in the 
careers that they lead to.
    The budget would also increase funding throughout the 
workforce training system, including with the $203 million 
increase for workforce development State grants, which help 
States make investments in career pathways for youth, and 
support adults and dislocated workers, including those most 
affected by the pandemic, and a new National Youth Employment 
Program, and Veterans Clean Energy Training Initiative.
    Secretary Walsh, I look forward to hearing more about your 
plans here.


               modernizing unemployment insurance systems


    And finally, this budget includes funding to administer and 
improve State unemployment insurance systems. This COVID-19 
pandemic made really clear what a lifeline that support can be, 
and how outdated and inadequate some of our systems are. This 
budget would help modernize our unemployment insurance system, 
and address vulnerabilities, inefficiencies, and other issues 
with processing these critical benefits, so families can get 
the support they need faster.
    Of course, the need for better unemployment insurance 
systems, workforce training programs, and workplace safety are 
just a few of the many issues we have to tackle in the wake of 
this pandemic.


                      empowering america's workers


    If we want a stronger economy, if we want a stronger 
country it all starts with stronger rights for workers. We also 
need to make sure workers are safe from pandemics, sexual 
assault, and harassment, and more. We need to make sure workers 
have paid family, sick, and medical leave, quality, affordable 
childcare, a livable minimum wage of $15 an hour, without 
exceptions, and a secured retirement.
    We need to make sure workers are not disadvantaged by pay 
inequality. We need to address the inequities in our economy 
that makes things so much harder for women, workers of color, 
workers with disabilities, and others.
    And we need to defend and strengthen the right to form and 
join a union, a right, which allows workers to secure better 
pay and benefits, and safer working conditions. This budget is 
a bold step in the right direction. And my colleagues and I 
have proposed other steps as well.
    Secretary Walsh, I look forward to working with you and 
President Biden in the months ahead to support workers in our 
country.
    With that, I will turn it over to Senator Blunt for his 
opening statement.


                     statement of senator roy blunt


    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Senator Murray.
    Good morning, Secretary Walsh. Welcome to the committee. I 
look forward to your testimony today, and the chance to talk 
about the Department's budget request for the coming year.
    You know, the past 18 months have been challenging for our 
country. The COVID-19 pandemic put unprecedented strain on the 
economy, on its workforce, and on families who suddenly were 
dealing with issues they hadn't expected to deal with, and that 
families hadn't dealt with in the same way before.
    Prior to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Declaration, 
the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent. That was the lowest 
since the late 1960s. I think you have to assume from that, 
that some of the things that we are doing that were different, 
were making a difference. But at the height of the pandemic, in 
April of 2020, our unemployment rate exceeded 14 percent. While 
we have made great strides in bringing our unemployment rate 
back down since that point, I am concerned we won't reach the 
3.5 percent pre-pandemic number due to, frankly, some misguided 
Federal policies, specifically the additional $300 in Federal 
supplemental unemployment payments that have unintentionally 
incentivized unemployed individuals to remain exactly that, 
unemployed.
    In May of this year, the weekly--the average weekly 
unemployment check in the country was $318. That is a bigger 
check than a lot of people had taken home before, and you 
didn't have the expenses of going to work. And so frankly, a 
lot of people did not go to work. While businesses in America 
have been searching for workers, this benefit has really 
misaligned the workforce needs across the Nation.
    And in Missouri recently, I continue, to see ``Help 
Wanted'' signs all across the State, and in my hometown of 
Springfield, these help wanted signs often included hiring 
bonuses, and pay well above the $10.30 minimum wage in our 
State. Missouri, like many States across the country, has 
decided to end the Federal supplemental payment to increase the 
level of participation in the economy.
    I believe that it is beginning to work, but I also believe 
it is now time for Congress to recognize the importance of 
balancing, providing a safety net when you need it, and 
ensuring that our labor needs are met. We need to create an 
environment for Americans to thrive, where people want to go 
back to work, where they are encouraged to go back to work, and 
where people who can't go back to work have a basic 
unemployment benefit.
    However, I am concerned that some of the components of the 
Department's budget request, and particularly some of the 
increases, don't consider this, or the very real needs of local 
communities, and the needs for a workforce to be more actively 
engaged. Really, too much of this budget is driven by the 
politics of the administration. Now every administration 
should, and has every reason to make some changes. I think this 
budget makes way too many changes, in way too short a time.
    For example, instead of focusing funding on flexible 
workforce training, determined by States to meet their own 
unique employment needs, the administration is tying training 
funds in many, many cases to green jobs. I am not opposed to 
green jobs. I am just opposed to the Federal Government 
deciding how States approach the needs they have right now.
    According to the analysis of the U.S. Energy and Employment 
Report, and the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, when compared to jobs in fossil fuels, jobs in 
solar, and wind power, employ a larger share of individuals in 
their construction, rather than more permanent roles, as plant 
managers, and other jobs. These jobs don't pay enough, and are 
unionized at lower rates.
    Mr. Secretary, I agree with you, and we have talked about 
this, that we really need to target funding to the workforce of 
the future. However, I think it is unlikely that the Federal 
Government alone will be able to figure out what that workforce 
of the future should look like. And we need to have more 
involvement from States, communities, and local economies.
    Now, we are going to disagree on some things in this 
budget, but I am encouraged to see things we are going to agree 
on. For instance, the increase of the apprenticeship program, I 
think this has been, and needs to continue to be a successful 
tool to allow workers to get paid while they train. And 
frankly, to find out as early as possible, if what they think 
they want to do is not meeting their expectations. So they 
don't get way too far down a line before they realize, this is 
not what I want to do.
    This budget supports programs that are targeted to the 
hardest hit parts of the country. For instance, the Appalachian 
and the Lower Mississippi Delta regions have challenges there. 
And I think your budget does what it needs to, to begin to 
allow us to look at those challenges; there is support here for 
veterans transitioning to civilian workforce, one of the key 
priorities of this committee, and I think of this Congress.
    Mr. Secretary, we are in a challenging environment. It is 
going to be a difficult year. I believe we can work toward 
consensus with the Department's budget, but frankly, as I have 
said at our other budget hearings this year, I think this can 
only be achieved by more parity between the defense and 
nondefense funding. The President's budget request did not 
achieve that goal. However, I remain confident that the final 
appropriations bill will.
    And Mr. Secretary, I am glad that you plan to be in St. 
Louis tomorrow. I know we were told yesterday a couple of the 
things you would be talking about: one, promoting vaccines, and 
the other, the Job Corps. On the vaccine front, I was talking 
about this at our leadership stakeout yesterday. I have talked 
about it I think in every event I have been in in Missouri 
since we started the Warp Speed effort to try to get vaccines 
available more quickly.
    Vaccines are a necessary, an absolutely necessary part of 
us creating an environment where this virus can't continue to 
replicate itself and change in new ways, and the variants are 
going to be the future enemy. Vaccine is the answer to those 
variants.
    On Job Corps, Senator Murray, and I, and the committee have 
worked together the last 6 years to increase that funding. I 
know those programs continue to be programs that we can do more 
with and, can look for reforms in. And I look forward to your 
leadership in that area.
    So again, thank you for your time here today. I look 
forward to working together, as we try to be sure that 
Americans, working families, have the opportunities they need, 
and that our economy continues to grow. Thank you, Senator.
    [The statement follows:]
                Prepared Statement of Senator Roy Blunt
    Thank you, Chair Murray. Good morning and welcome, Secretary Walsh. 
I look forward to your testimony on the Department of Labor's fiscal 
year 2022 budget request.
    The past 18 months have been challenging for our nation. The COVID-
19 pandemic put unprecedented strain on our economy and its workforce. 
Prior to the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, the 
unemployment rate was at 3.5%, the lowest since the late 1960s. At the 
height of the pandemic, in April 2020, our unemployment rate exceeded 
more than 14%. While we have made great strides in bringing our 
unemployment rate back down since that point, I'm concerned that we 
won't reach that 3.5% pre-pandemic number due to misguided federal 
policies.
    Specifically, the additional $300 in federal supplemental 
unemployment payments have unintentionally incentivized unemployed 
individuals to remain exactly that: unemployed. While so many 
businesses in America are searching for workers, this excessive benefit 
seems misaligned with the workforce needs across the nation.
    When I was in Missouri recently, I saw ``help wanted'' signs across 
the state. In my home town of Springfield, these ``help wanted'' signs 
included hiring bonuses and pay well above the $10.30 minimum wage in 
the state. Missouri, like many states across the country, has decided 
to end the federal supplemental payment to increase the level of 
participation in our state's economy. And I believe it is now time for 
Congress to recognize the importance of balancing providing a safety 
net, when needed, with ensuring that our labor needs are met.
    We need to create an environment for Americans to thrive--where 
people want to go back to work, where they are encouraged to go back to 
work, and where people who can't go back to work have a basic 
unemployment benefit. However, I am concerned that some components of 
the Department of Labor's budget request, and particularly some of the 
increases don't consider this or the very real needs of the local 
communities. Instead, too much of the budget is engrossed in the 
politics of this Administration.
    For example, instead of focusing funding on flexible workforce 
training determined by states to meet their own unique employment 
needs, the Administration is tying training funds to ``green jobs.'' 
Yet, according to an analysis from the U.S. Energy and Employment 
Report and the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, when 
compared to jobs in fossil fuels, jobs in solar and wind power employ a 
larger share of individuals in their construction rather than in more 
permanent roles as plant operators; these jobs also don't pay as much, 
and are unionized at lower rates.
    Mr. Secretary, I agree with you that we should target funding to 
the workforce of the future. However, I think it's wrong for the 
federal government to dictate what that workforce should look like, and 
for bureaucrats in Washington, DC to determine the speed at which we 
get there. That should be left up to states, to communities, and to 
local economies.
    While we may disagree on this point, there are many components of 
the budget request on which we do agree. I'm encouraged to see an 
increase for the Apprenticeship Program--which has been a successful 
tool to allow workers to get paid as they train--support for programs 
targeted to the hardest hit parts of our country--in the Appalachian 
and Lower Mississippi Delta regions--and support for our veterans 
transitioning to the civilian workforce.
    Mr. Secretary, we are in a challenging environment and this is 
going to be a difficult year. I believe we can work toward consensus 
with the Department's budget, but as I have said at other FY2022 budget 
hearings this year, this can only be achieved when there is parity 
between defense and non-defense funding. The President's budget request 
did not achieve this goal. However, I remain confident that final 
appropriations bills will.
    Thank you for your time here today. I look forward to working with 
you to strengthen our nation's workforce and create a more prosperous 
economy for all Americans. Thank you.

    Senator Murray. Thank you, Senator. Thank you.
    And with that, we will turn to Secretary Walsh. Welcome to 
our committee. And you may begin your testimony.

               SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. MARTIN J. WALSH

    Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Murray, I 
appreciate it; and Ranking Member Blunt, and the members of the 
subcommittee, thank you for having me today.
    I look forward to aligning the Biden-Harris 
administration's version of the Department of Labor's fiscal 
year 2022 budget and beyond. And I am excited to be here in 
person. This is my second in-person hearing. My first was my 
confirmation. So if I make some mistakes, bear with me until I 
get used to this process. So I truly appreciate it.
    I want to just start by saying how humbled and honored I am 
to be here, as the son of Irish immigrants, and a member--my 
father was a member of the Labors Union in Boston, to lead the 
Department of Labor. Just to think about their journey to 
America, and having their son sitting in front of Congress--in 
front of the Senate today.
    I also believe, as the President says, we are at an 
inflection point in our Nation's history right now. We are 
coming out, as was mentioned a couple of times, of a pandemic 
that has taken over 600,000 American lives. And it has pushed 
working people to the breaking point in so many different ways, 
in so many different corners of our country.
    The President and Congress worked together to pass the 
American Rescue Plan. It changed the course of the pandemic. It 
delivered relief to the American people, and it certainly set 
us on a pathway to recovery. At the Department of Labor, the 
team over there is working hard to implement this plan, from 
strengthening our unemployment systems to fully subsidizing the 
corporate premiums, to protecting workers' health and safety.
    But there is certainly much more work to be done. We need 
to build back better. That means putting workers at the center 
of a more resilient, more inclusive, and ultimately more 
competitive economy as a country. That is what the President's 
economic vision is all about.
    The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework negotiated with 
members of the Senate would rebuild our communities and create 
millions of good jobs all across this country. And the Build 
Back Better agenda would make historic investments in working 
people through job training, and education, which I think we 
can all agree on, the CARES economy, and paid family leave, and 
medical leave, and workers' rights and protections.

                           BUDGET INVESTMENTS

    Building on that vision, the Department of Labor's fiscal 
year 2022 budget request proposes an investment of $14.2 
billion. That is, as the Chairwoman mentioned, a 14 percent 
increase over 2021 enacted levels. That includes $3.7 billion 
in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Acts, and the Wagner 
Peyser state formula grants. It is an increase of 6 percent. 
That is about creating more pathways to good-paying jobs for 
workers who need them the most. And we have seen it with people 
unemployed now, and underemployed, the opportunity to make 
those investments.
    This budget also would invest $285 million in registered 
apprenticeship programs. That is an increase of $100 million 
that would allow us to expand and diversify a model of economic 
mobility that has proven to produce results for both workers 
and employers all across this country.
    For unemployment insurance, we would fully fund and update 
the formula for what States receive to administer UI 
(Unemployment Insurance), it is the first update, quite 
honestly, in decades. We also request $100 million for 
technology solutions to prevent fraud and ensure access to UI 
benefits for all people that need them.
    For our worker protection agencies, this budget requests 
$2.1 billion, a 17 percent increase. We need to rebuild and 
strengthen our capacity to protect workers, wages, benefits, 
and rights, and safety on the job sites.
    This budget also requests $100 million for the multiagency 
POWER Plus Initiative that is aimed at empowering displaced 
workers in coal communities with new--with new skills and new 
job opportunities. And it requests $20 million for a new 
program to help veterans. The ranking member mentioned this. It 
is transitioning services for members and military spouses to 
get good careers in clean energy.
    It was developed with the Department of Labor--with the 
Department of Labor's Department of Veterans Affairs. Across 
the Department of Labor's work, this budget invests in those 
who have been shut out of economic opportunities in the past, 
from women, and people of color, to rural Americans, and 
veterans, to at-risk youth, justice-involved adults, and people 
with disabilities.
    The pandemic proved that the systems failing some workers 
end up failing all workers, and failing our country, 
ultimately. But we have an opportunity to do better now, coming 
out of the pandemic. We can empower all American working 
people. It is a moment in history when we need to move forward 
together, we need to come together.
    Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member, thank you for the 
opportunity; I know that we will have many more conversations, 
and we will work together to support the economic recovery that 
works for all American workers.
    I look forward to discussing the budget proposals and 
requests with you and the committee today. And I am happy to 
respond to any questions that you have. And if I do not have an 
answer to your question, I guarantee you our team will get back 
to you in the next couple of days with questions--answers that 
I don't have today. So thank you.
    [The statement follows:]
                 Prepared Statement of Martin J. Walsh
    Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Blunt, and members of the 
Subcommittee, thank you for the invitation to testify today. I am 
pleased to appear before this Subcommittee for the first time and to 
outline the Biden Administration's vision for the Department of Labor 
in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 and beyond. I am honored and humbled to lead 
the Department in its critical work.
    The Department's mission is to foster, promote, and develop the 
welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United 
States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for 
profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. 
This mission is personal to me and my family's story. My father's 
participation in the Laborers Union, Local 223 in Boston, was the 
pathway to a fair wage, so my family was not worried about housing 
insecurity. My parents had a safe workplace, so I never knew the fear 
of them not returning from work. The job came with a pension, so my 
parents could retire with dignity. And the job included health 
insurance, so that when my parents experienced the worst nightmare of 
having a child diagnosed with cancer, they had health insurance so that 
I could be treated and recover.
    Years later, I followed my father into construction and joined the 
same union, and experienced those same benefits of having a safe 
workplace, health insurance, a fair wage, and a pension. These are not 
abstract policies--these are life-changing rights. I have spent my 
career fighting for the rights of working people as a State 
Representative, as General Agent for the Metro Boston Building Trades 
Council, and as Mayor of Boston. I feel privileged to continue this 
work as the Secretary of Labor.
                          american rescue plan
    As a former Mayor, I know that our communities--and our families--
have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. That's why it was so 
important that Congress worked with President Biden to pass the 
American Rescue Plan (ARP) to change the course of the pandemic and 
deliver immediate relief for American workers. In terms of jobs, not 
only did the ARP extend unemployment insurance benefits for our friends 
and neighbors who lost their jobs during this pandemic, but it also 
laid the groundwork for shoring up and modernizing our unemployment 
insurance system to help workers get the benefits they deserve when 
they need them. The ARP also helps workers who lost their jobs or had 
their hours reduced pay for health insurance by fully subsidizing COBRA 
premiums for eligible individuals from April 1 through September 30 of 
this year. And it provides additional funding for the Department to 
help keep vulnerable workers healthy and safe. Finally, ARP also 
distributes more than $360 billion in emergency funding for state, 
local, territorial, and Tribal governments to ensure that they are in a 
position to keep front line public workers on the job and paid, while 
also effectively distributing the vaccine, scaling testing, reopening 
schools, and maintaining other vital services. We appreciate this 
landmark law, and we are working hard to ensure that this law is 
implemented in the way that Congress and the President intended to 
reopen our economy.
                           american jobs plan
    As a former construction worker, I know a good job can change your 
life. One of the most important things we do at the Labor Department to 
improve the economy and strengthen the workforce is help people pursue 
training that leads to good jobs and helps close racial and gender 
equity gaps throughout the economy. The President's American Jobs Plan 
is a historic investment in the working people of America. It will 
create millions of good paying, family sustaining jobs that rebuild the 
middle class by empowering our workers to build America's future.
    The President's plan provides funding for sector-based training 
programs focused on growing, high-demand sectors, such as clean energy, 
manufacturing, and caregiving, helping workers of all kinds to find 
good-quality jobs in an ever-changing economy. In addition, the plan 
provides for a new Dislocated Workers Program that provides 
comprehensive supports for workers who have lost jobs through no fault 
of their own, to ensure they are able to successfully participate in 
training that can prepare them for in-demand jobs. The plan will 
prioritize workforce development opportunities for underserved 
communities and ensure job opportunities are open to, and support, 
women, people of color, people with disabilities, and people impacted 
by the criminal justice system, among other disadvantaged groups. 
Further, subsidized jobs programs will support unemployed and 
underemployed workers who have faced significant barriers to employment 
to gain a key foothold in the labor market. Additional investments to 
establish more pathways to good jobs include creating up to two million 
new registered apprenticeship slots, while strengthening access for 
women, people of color, and individuals with disabilities; creating 
career pathway programs in middle and high schools, including those 
that increase access for underrepresented students to computer science 
and other STEM sectors; and supporting community college partnerships 
that build capacity to deliver job training programs that lead to good 
jobs. The plan also makes key investments in expanded career services 
and adult literacy programs to equip job seekers with the tools, 
information, and foundational skills they need to be successful in the 
labor market.
    The plan provides critical funding to strengthen the capacity of 
our labor enforcement agencies to prevent discrimination, protect wages 
and benefits, enforce health and safety rules, and strengthen health 
care and pension plans. In addition to these investments, the President 
is calling for increased penalties when employers violate workplace 
safety and health rules, which have proven inadequate to address 
serious violations.
 fy 2022 budget: supporting america's workers through the pandemic to 
                                recovery
    Building on the American Rescue Plan and the American Jobs Plan, 
the Department's FY 2022 budget proposes investments in workers and in 
our country's future: a future of opportunity and shared prosperity, a 
future of robust job growth and a thriving middle class, a future where 
workers nationwide get the skills and training that leads to jobs that 
pay a fair wage without risking their health or safety. The 
Department's budget requests an investment of $14.2 billion in 
discretionary resources, which is a 14 percent increase above the FY 
2021 enacted level.
    The budget includes resources to expand training opportunities, 
supporting workers and building a better future. There is no single 
path to a good-paying job, and the country's future growth and 
prosperity depend, in part, on ensuring workers have multiple pathways 
to high-quality, good-paying jobs. To that end, the budget requests 
$3.7 billion, a six-percent increase, for the Workforce Innovation and 
Opportunity Act and Wagner Peyser state formula grants to make 
employment services and training available to more dislocated workers, 
low-income adults, and disadvantaged youth hurt by the economic fallout 
from the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The budget also invests additional resources in programs that serve 
marginalized groups, such as justice-involved individuals, at-risk 
youth, and vulnerable veterans. While higher-income earners have 
recovered many of the jobs lost, workers in low-wage industries have 
experienced persistent net loss. As seen in the June 2021 Employment 
Situation, disparities among workers continue, and over 5.7 million 
jobs that existed last February are yet to return. While the overall 
unemployment rate was 5.9 percent, the African American unemployment 
rate was 9.2 percent and the Hispanic rate was 7.4 percent, compared 
with 5.2 percent for Whites. For individuals with disabilities, the 
unemployment rate was 10.9 percent. Due in large part to the impact of 
the pandemic, there are roughly 3.4 million fewer women working now 
than there were in February 2020--and many women have had to reduce 
their hours, often in response to caregiving demands. Women, 
particularly women of color, continue to face barriers to good jobs 
with equal pay. The budget prioritizes investments in these communities 
of color, with a goal of increasing success for all groups, because 
systems that are failing these populations are failing us all.
    The Department will continue to invest in proven approaches, such 
as expanding the Registered Apprenticeship model by investing $285 
million, an increase of $100 million, which will allow the Department 
to create a more balanced apprenticeship portfolio, support states' 
efforts to implement a reauthorized National Apprenticeship Act, and 
further the development of youth apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship 
opportunities, all while increasing equity for under-represented 
populations. Registered Apprenticeships provide a pathway to good-
paying jobs, and as Secretary of Labor, I am committed to expanding 
these opportunities across the United States, in order to help rebuild 
the middle class and create millions of new opportunities for workers 
to enter into relevant, high quality training that both protects 
workers' rights and propels workers into career paths that provide a 
sufficient and fair wage. Registered Apprenticeships produce strong 
results for both employers and workers. The Department's investments in 
Registered Apprenticeship will work to address the systemic disparities 
that have impacted women, people of color, and other under-served and 
under-represented populations.
    This last year has again demonstrated that Unemployment Insurance 
(UI) is an essential social insurance program and economic stabilizer, 
and it has been a lifeline to millions of workers and to the economy 
throughout the pandemic. Yet the pandemic uncovered longstanding 
problems in the UI system, including the challenges facing states' 
administration of their UI systems. These systems, in part as a result 
of persistent underfunding and inadequate technology, have been plagued 
by delays and obstacles that disproportionately affect workers of 
color. When benefits are slow to reach workers who have lost their 
jobs, it delays both their recovery and negatively impacts the country. 
To address these challenges, the budget provides resources to ensure 
States can better handle higher volumes of claims and be better 
prepared for future crises or high unemployment levels. The budget 
request fully funds and updates the formula for determining the amount 
states receive to administer UI--the first comprehensive update in 
decades. In addition, the budget requests $100 million to support the 
development of information technology solutions that can be deployed in 
states to ensure timely and equitable access to benefits. The $100 
million increase will further support and complement the resources the 
Department was appropriated under the American Rescue Plan to prevent 
fraud, promote equitable access, and ensure timely payment of benefits.
    The Biden-Harris Administration has taken stock of the challenges 
the unemployment system faces and developed a set of high-level 
principles that should guide future efforts to reform the UI system. 
Those principles include ensuring adequate benefit levels and duration 
for unemployed workers; ensuring the UI system can ramp up quickly and 
automatically in response to recessions; addressing the lack of access 
to UI for workers misclassified as independent contractors, low-income 
and part-time workers, and workers with non-traditional work histories; 
shoring up UI trust funds; and improving UI program access and 
integrity.
    The budget request includes $2.1 billion--a 17 percent increase in 
funding--for our worker protection agencies, enabling the Department to 
conduct the enforcement and regulatory work needed to ensure workers' 
wages, benefits, and rights are protected, address the 
misclassification of workers as independent contractors, and improve 
workplace safety and health. These are the staff who recover back wages 
owed, help prevent fatalities and life-altering injuries or illnesses, 
respond to whistleblower complaints, reduce exposure to cancer-causing 
agents, help ensure retirees get their benefits, and address pay 
inequities.
    Over the past four years, the Department's worker protection 
agencies have lost 14 percent of their staff. A lack of enforcement 
makes workers more vulnerable to workplace violations. The President's 
budget reverses this trend by proposing $304 million in additional 
funding for the Department's worker protection agencies, including $73 
million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, $67 
million for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, $35 million for 
the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, $31 million for the 
Wage and Hour Division, and $37 million for the Employee Benefits 
Security Administration.
    The budget continues the President's commitment to tackling the 
climate crisis. For the Department, the request includes an additional 
$100 million investment in an initiative as part of the new Interagency 
Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic 
Revitalization, aimed at reskilling and reemploying displaced workers 
in legacy energy communities. The request also includes $20 million for 
a new discretionary program, developed in collaboration with the 
Department of Veterans Affairs, which is focused on helping 
transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses to pursue 
careers in clean energy, which will help combat climate change, while 
preparing this population for good-paying jobs.
    I know we will have a lot of conversations, as we collaborate on 
the American Jobs Plan and the FY 2022 Budget. I look forward to those 
collaborations and partnering with you all to invest in the nation's 
economic recovery. The Department plays an important role in expanding 
opportunity.
    Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member, thank you for the opportunity to 
testify. I look forward to discussing our budget request with the 
committee, and I am happy to respond to any questions you may have.

    Senator Murray. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. We will 
now begin a round of 5-minute questions of our witness. I ask 
our colleagues to please keep track of your clock and stay 
within your allotted time.

               OSHA INCREASES IN THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN

    I appreciate that the budget addresses the need to rebuild 
and strengthen the capacity of the occupational safety and 
health administration. Under the previous administration, OSHA 
didn't do more than issue non-binding guidance on how employers 
could protect workers from COVID-19. And that left a lot of 
workers exposed, as we witnessed thousands of deaths and 
illnesses of workers in healthcare, and meat packing, and other 
essential industries.
    Now, the Biden administration recently issued an Emergency 
Temporary Standard, but it does not yet cover all frontline 
workers. And as you know, OSHA received $100 million in the 
American Rescue Plan, which it plans to use to support more 
than 80 compliance and safety health officers, among some other 
priorities. But as the economy continues to reopen, and more 
contagious COVID variants emerge, workers need OSHA to be fully 
engaged in its job of making sure employers provide a safe 
workplace for their employees, and their workers.
    So I wanted you to describe for the committee this morning, 
your plans to use those ARP (American Rescue Plan) funds to 
hire the staff OSHA needs to do its job, and how quickly do you 
expect to get these staff on the job.
    Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. OSHA is 
one of the areas that, when I was sworn in, work had already 
begun there, due to the help of the American Rescue Plan, and 
investments in staffing up. They were severely understaffed to 
be able to make sure that we keep our workplaces safe in 
America. Certainly, we have a difficult time keeping up with 
the average volume of business, but if you throw COVID-19 and 
the atrocities of some of the workplaces in our country with 
COVID-19, it made it very complicated.
    We are currently in the process of hiring up and staffing 
up in OSHA so that we can have more inspectors to go out to job 
sites. Quite honestly, I would love OSHA, at some point--we are 
asking for an increase in this budget--I would love OSHA at 
some point to get to a point where we are not responding to 
accidents on the job site, that we are actually being proactive 
working with businesses, in how do we create better, safer work 
conditions, and work sites.
    We are not at that point right now, so we are at the point 
where we are still looking to staff up, and hire up. And also 
just--and I have spent many, many hours on Zooms with the OSHA 
employees across the country, just thanking them for their 
work, because throughout the pandemic OSHA employees went to 
work every day. They didn't have the luxury of sitting home on 
a Zoom and doing their job. They had to be on a job site. They 
had to be touring facilities, and they had to see some of the 
toughest situations out there. So I look forward to working 
with this committee and continuing the staffing up of OSHA.

                OSHA INCREASES IN FISCAL YEAR 2022 BUDGET

    Senator Murray. Well, the budget requests an increase of 
$73 million for OSHA in fiscal year 2022. Can you describe why 
those funds are needed in addition to the ARP funds that were 
provided?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes, because--thank you. With the ARP 
funds as it just--it restores us back to where we were pre-5-
years-ago. What the new funds allow us the opportunity to do is 
expand the office and to get into some of the other work that 
we want to do. People should not be, businesses should not look 
at OSHA as a burden. People should be looking at OSHA as a 
partner, and being able to create opportunities to help create 
safe work environments.
    When I was a young person working on construction sites, 
and OSHA came on the job, they would come on the job to 
investigate, but they were not investigating after an accident 
happened, they were not investigating after a tragedy happened, 
they were making sure that there were proper procedures in 
place there to make sure that workplaces are safe.
    We need to do work around this country to make sure that 
our workplaces are safe, that workers are safe. And that we 
collectively work with businesses as well as we move forward 
here. So that additional revenue will go into continuing to 
hire up in OSHA, and to create better opportunities to 
training, and to have the best prepared--OSHA inspectors we 
have in the country.
    Senator Murray. You didn't mention whistleblower 
complaints, but I understand that last year the inspector 
general reported a significant increase in complaints, and 
insufficient staff to investigate those complaints. What are 
you going to do to address that issue?
    Secretary Walsh. Again, it is about the staffing when--I 
might have the numbers wrong--let me just get the numbers here 
for you. We are going to double the number of inspectors by the 
end of the administration, the first administration, Biden-
Harris administration, the first term, we are about--we were at 
about 360 inspectors in the country, inspecting about 170 
million workers in our country. That certainly is not going to 
do the job.
    So what we are doing here is making sure that we have 
enough inspectors out there that when an employee calls the 
office with a complaint, we are able to respond to that, and 
not have it sit in a pile, or sitting in an inbox somewhere. 
And again, it is about when you think about whether it is OSHA, 
Wage and Hour, the Department of Labor was down about 3,000 
employees to where it was 4 years ago.
    And when you are down employees in the Department of Labor, 
the Department of Labor is an agency, as you know, that is out 
there protecting workers. If we don't have the staff and don't 
have the employees to protect the workers, then we can't be on 
the job sites, we can't be checking Wage and Hour, we can't be 
making sure that people are working in safe conditions.
    So our intention, with this investment that we are asking 
for today, and with the intention of the American Rescue Plan, 
to staff back up, to build back pre-4-years-ago level, but also 
enhance that.
    Senator Murray. Okay. I have a number of other questions, 
and I am going to ask them at the end, so our other committee 
members can have their time.
    I will turn to Senator Blunt.

                   CREATING A WELL-PREPARED WORKFORCE

    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chair. Let me start with a 
question that is really going to be more of a question I will 
follow up with later, but I want to be sure we cover this. You 
and I have talked about this before, Mr. Secretary, the idea 
that people don't get the information they need early enough to 
decide what kind of job is out there, what their personal sense 
of job satisfaction would be, and what those jobs pay.
    A few years ago I went with the Secretary of Labor to the 
Carpenter Training facility in St. Louis, and as we visited 
individually, the people, at the end of that visit, they were 
all in their late-20s; they all had a similar story, and it was 
sort of that lost decade of not knowing what they wanted to do, 
or not having information about the importance of benefits, the 
importance of job satisfaction.
    And we have looked at that as sort of a lost decade that we 
would like to avoid. It is hard to recover, frankly, from that 
lost decade. You ask for $10 million to continue to pursue that 
in your budget. The Secretary of Education didn't ask for the 
$10 million education had last year. We put $10 million in both 
budgets.
    At some point when you have had time to think about this 
more, I am going to ask you, I will be asking the Secretary of 
Education what the two of you are doing to try to close that 
gap between getting the information you need. If you want to 
talk about the importance of knowing what jobs are out there 
sooner rather than later. Just let me let you do that for a 
moment.
    Secretary Walsh. No. Thank you, ranking member. And to be 
quite honest with you, I want to ask--add another component to 
that: the Secretary of Commerce. So the Secretary of Commerce, 
Gina Raimondo; the Secretary of Education, Secretary Cardona, 
and myself, have had conversations. And when you think about 
the jobs of the future, the three of us, the three of our 
departments catch people--catch employers in educational 
opportunities to prepare people for the future.
    So what we are doing is, we are working collectively 
together to make the investments. Gina Raimondo is working with 
the business community as well as I am, to find out where the 
gaps are, where they need employers--employees now, and in the 
future, working with education on how do we create those 
programs in our primary schools, in our high schools? How do we 
create those opportunities in community college moving forward?
    And the Department of Labor is offering--obviously has the 
workforce development grants, and the workforce grants to be 
able to fund those jobs. So it really has to be real 
intentional work that we are doing here to make sure that this 
money that we are asking for today, and the money through the 
rescue plan, and potentially, through the CARES Economy Plan, 
that this investment is preparing workers of the future.

           ADAPTING TRAINING PROGRAMS TO MEET INDUSTRY NEEDS

    You just said it yourself. I mean, when you think back and 
look at the history of this country, and you look at the 
investments that were made in the '50, and '60s and '70s, lots 
of schools around America had training--had Vo-Tech schools, 
and they were doing Vo-Tech training, and young people that 
were going to those programs were going into the trades. That 
would become an electrician, plumber, carpenter, laborer, and 
mechanic, what have you.
    Many of those programs are very different today. And I 
think we are at a moment in time, coming out of a pandemic, or 
getting through a pandemic, I should say--we are not out of it 
yet--that we have an opportunity right now to retrain and 
reskill workers, young people, as well as some older workers as 
well, into those careers. But it has to be a coordinated 
effort, it has to be the secretaries of commerce, labor, and 
education, and it has to be Democrats and Republicans, quite 
honestly.
    Senator Blunt. All right. I am going to run out of time 
here. I agree with that, but the component I want to be sure we 
continue to add is like those Vo-Tech programs.
    I was at a great new facility in Buffalo, Missouri, the 
other day that they are building, and being focused again, 
people need to know, sooner rather than later, what jobs are 
out there, what those jobs pay. A lot of jobs that have that 
kind of training actually produced greater satisfaction and 
more income than jobs that you have a college degree for. And 
sharing all that information early is important.
    One way to create an early sense of what you want to do are 
apprenticeships. Missouri, where you will be tomorrow, is 
ranked second in the United States in apprenticeships. We are 
working toward a goal in our State of having 20,000 active 
apprenticeships by 2025. The one thing left out of that, it 
appears to be the nontraditional industries and what we can do 
to develop apprenticeships outside of the well-run trade union 
programs, and other programs. For instance, like healthcare, 
cybersecurity, even finance. What can we be doing to think 
about how we expand that apprenticeship opportunity to new 
fields?
    Secretary Walsh. Well, what I have been doing, and what we 
are going to continue to do is talk to companies, the tech 
companies as well. We have opportunities in tech, and biotech, 
and high-tech, and even pharmaceuticals. So having 
conversations with those industries on how we create pathways 
into those industries would be important. Those are good-paying 
jobs, and they are looking for people.
    And quite honestly, we have a huge opportunity right now in 
this country to really think about those apprenticeships, and 
how do we create more apprenticeships; and the beauty is--I 
know my time is over--the beauty is, is the apprenticeships you 
are paying while you are learning. And that is the difference 
between workforce development and job training. You are 
actually getting paid in the apprenticeship while you are 
learning on the job.
    Senator Blunt. Right.
    Secretary Walsh. And that allows a person that might be 
unemployed or underemployed right now, to get on-job 
experience, real-life experience moving forward.
    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Secretary. I will have some more 
questions also later, Chairwoman. And thank you for the time.
    Senator Murray. Thank you.
    Senator Reed.

                    SHORT-TERM COMPENSATION PROGRAM

    Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman.
    And congratulations, Secretary Walsh, I am glad you are 
there in the Department. Let me raise the first question about 
the Short-Term Compensation Program, or otherwise known as 
``work sharing''. After the last recession in 2010/2009, it is 
estimated that we saved 570,000 jobs. And I know Congress and 
the Biden administration stepped up and they are providing 
fiscal support for this program, and it is saving tens of 
thousands of jobs.
    And as you know, what it does is it basically provides 1 or 
2 days on unemployment compensation while the individual works 
at the facility. Can you explain how, and if you will continue 
to support this program, and try to extend it to every State in 
the union?
    Secretary Walsh. Thank you very much, Senator. And thank 
you for raising this issue. Work sharing certainly is an 
important and innovative tool. I agree with you, and I wished 
that we had seen it across the States, and we want to see it 
across the States. I think it is going to be very important for 
the future of our workforce. It is important that we continue 
to explore that. I am going to, as Secretary of Labor; our 
Department is. The Department is certainly committed to 
promoting State adaptation of this program.
    And we are going to continue to find ways to increase 
awareness and participation in the program. We have seen--you 
have seen the benefit of it, and I think that--and workers are 
seeing the benefit of it. And I think that those are 
opportunities for us throughout the United States of America 
for other States, and other workers, more honestly, to see the 
benefit as well.
    So I know that, Rhode Island, they have been a leader on 
this, and I want you to know that I want to continue to work 
with you, and maybe some of the other members of the Senate, in 
governance, quite honestly, around the country to expand the 
program.

                    DEMAND-DRIVEN TRAINING PROGRAMS

    Senator Reed. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Switching gears a 
bit, I secured about $28 million in the Defense Appropriations 
Bills for a submarine, industrial-based support of workers, and 
of training, and education initiatives. And I think you have 
seen one of these when you visited Westerly, Rhode Island, and 
saw our training program, where our Department of Labor, 
together with Electric Boat collaborates. And I think this is 
another example of what Senator Blunt was getting at. This 
demand-driven model for training, it is not the old-fashioned: 
We turn out X, we have always done that. It is: What does 
business need?
    And up in our place where Electric Boat, over the next 
several years, is going to have to hire 17,000 people, many of 
them machinist, welders, et cetera. So how are you going to 
continue to work with the Department of Defense to support 
programs like this, and with other agencies to support demand-
driven programs?
    Secretary Walsh. Well, first of all, thank you for your 
work on this. Ranking Member Blunt talked about this as well. I 
think first I want to say is that, the jobs that you work with 
your hands are now computer jobs, meaning that you have to have 
not just the skill to be able to be the craft person working 
with your hands, but you need to be able to learn and read off 
a computer because the work has gone so technical.
    The Department of Labor has just awarded the State of Rhode 
Island a $3 million--$3.9 million grant to expand registered 
apprenticeship opportunities. I think that this is one of the 
areas that we have such a great opportunity. Electric Boat is a 
great example. I was in Connecticut; we went through Rhode 
Island to get to Connecticut. I know there is facility in Rhode 
Island, as well, and the expansion that was going on there, and 
the opportunity for employees.
    I guess the best way I can sum it up is what I am going to 
do about it is make sure that these investments are there, and 
that we work with companies like Electric Boat, but the human 
side of it. When I was at Electric Boat, I was talking to a 
couple of apprentices that were standing there next to me, and 
I got to talking with them.
    And I am like: What are you doing? You know, did you go to 
college? One kid went to college a little while, dropped out. 
It wasn't for him. I told them my story. I dropped out of 
college after a-year-and-a-half.
    He is now on a pathway to a career. He is on a pathway to 
working on submarines for the United States of America. He is 
on a pathway to doing some amazing work. He is proud of his 
work. He is happy with what he does. He told me he is earning 
good money. He is making a living. He is able to raise a 
family.
    That is the type of stories that we need to continue to 
happen. So I think it is incumbent upon us. If I do anything as 
Secretary of Labor, it is making sure that the money in the 
workforce development grants, in the apprenticeship program, 
money that we get, we get out in the street because that, that 
is going to be the fundamental, biggest game changer in the 
United States of America, to get workers retrained, or workers 
trained, and the ability to raise and get into the middle-
class. That is what we can do. That is the one thing. If I 
accomplish anything and I do that, I will be happy.

                       COMBATING LITERACY ISSUES

    Senator Reed. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. 
Just a final point, not a question; as I was sitting down with 
adult educators in Rhode Island a few weeks ago, they pointed 
out that one of the problems is literacy; that they have a 
significant number of adults who walk in and they want jobs, 
they want to work, but they have very poor literacy, and very 
poor numeracy and, digital skills too.
    And I will just, not a question, but I assume, and I know 
you will follow up with the Department of Education to try to 
collaborate, to see how we can integrate our literacy programs, 
as well as our training programs. And I will then--I won't 
follow up with additional question. I will just, thank you. 
Thank you, ma'am.
    Senator Murray. Thank you.
    Senator Kennedy.
    Senator Kennedy. Thank you, Madam Chair.

                            BUDGET INCREASES

    Mr. Secretary, welcome. I agree with you, by the way, for 
what it is worth, about getting the money out on the streets, 
literally. So I am looking at your budget here. Your current 
budget is $12.5 billion. You are asking for $14.2 billion. Does 
that sound about right?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Kennedy. That is a 14 percent increase. You want an 
extra $1.7 billion?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Kennedy. Okay. Explain to me why the American 
people would be better off giving you $1.7 billion, than taking 
that $1.7 billion and spending it on infrastructure? I did a 
little math and for $1.7 billion, we can resurface a four-lane 
highway from Washington to Denver. So why are the American 
people better off giving you more money than putting it on 
infrastructure?
    Secretary Walsh. Well, thank you very much, Senator. And 
thank you for the question. It is a great question. And I think 
the way I would think about it is the $1.7 billion increase to 
my--to the budget, my budget is an investment in infrastructure 
as well. It is an----
    Senator Kennedy. It is what? I am sorry?
    Secretary Walsh. Infrastructure investment as well. It is 
an infrastructure investment in the American worker in this 
country. It is an opportunity for us to look at, as I think 
about the Department of Labor----
    Senator Kennedy. Would you believe every--excuse me for 
interrupting--I am sorry, Mr. Secretary.
    Secretary Walsh. No problem.
    Senator Kennedy. We don't have much time. Do you believe 
that every expenditure by the Federal Government is an 
investment?
    Secretary Walsh. This----
    Senator Kennedy. What is the difference between an 
investment and an expenditure?
    Secretary Walsh. An investment is an investment in the 
future of workers, and expenditure is an expenditure in 
building a bridge.
    Senator Kennedy. Okay. Well, you have a union background, 
which I respect and admire. If we took $1.7 billion that you 
say you need, you need more to run your Department, and we 
spent that on infrastructure. That is going to create a lot of 
union jobs. Isn't it?
    Secretary Walsh. It is going to create a lot of jobs, but 
we are also not going to be able to educate the workforce that 
needs those new jobs that are going to be created off of that 
infrastructure investment of new bridges.
    Senator Kennedy. But they are already educated. The people 
building the roads are already educated. They are good at what 
they do.
    Secretary Walsh. Well, Senator Reed just mentioned of--an 
issue around literacy in this country. So again, it is an 
investment in helping people to be able to be retrained and 
trained in the jobs of the future. I come out of construction. 
I worked construction as well. The construction industry that I 
worked on in the early-'90s and late-'90s is different than the 
construction industry of today.

                 TAX INCREASES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

    Senator Kennedy. Yes, sir. Let me stop you for a second. I 
don't want to get too far afield here into a history of the 
construction industry. I used to work construction too.
    Let me be sure I understand what you are saying. When my 
constituents call me and they say, look, you are being asked to 
raise taxes to pay for infrastructure. Why, instead of putting 
$1.7 billion in extra taxes on us, why did you give $1.7 
billion to the Department of Labor? Why didn't you use that for 
infrastructure? Am I just supposed to say, because the 
Department of Labor says they are going to make an investment?
    What metrics are you going to use this time next year to be 
able to prove to this Congress that your investment paid off 
better than $1.7 billion in infrastructure?
    Secretary Walsh. Before I answer that, let me just quickly 
go back to the tax question. I think the beauty for your 
constituents is that the infrastructure bill that is being 
negotiated right now does not raise taxes on the average 
American who earns under $400,000. So the average American is 
not paying for that.
    Senator Kennedy. That is not true.
    Secretary Walsh. Okay. Well, that is not why I am here 
today.
    Senator Kennedy. We just have to agree to disagree.
    Secretary Walsh. It really----

                      DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SURVEYS

    Senator Kennedy. Let me move on, because I have got one 
minute left, and I like to stay within my time. Does your 
agency conduct surveys?
    Secretary Walsh. As far as employee surveys?
    Senator Kennedy. Any surveys.
    Secretary Walsh. We do, yes.
    Senator Kennedy. Okay. Do you pay people?
    Secretary Walsh. Pay the people who do the surveys?
    Senator Kennedy. No, to take the survey.
    Secretary Walsh. I actually don't know the answer to that.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, here is why I am asking. And I am 
not trying to----
    Secretary Walsh. I will get back. I don't know. I don't 
know the answer to that.
    Senator Kennedy. I need your help finding something. One of 
my constituents got this in the mail. It is a letter--I know it 
is not under your jurisdiction--from the Bureau--Census Bureau. 
And they asked him to fill out a form on children's health, and 
he opened it up, and look what fell out, a five-dollar bill. 
And there is no reference in the letter to the $5 in cash he 
got from the Federal Government. What is this all about?
    Secretary Walsh. I have no idea. I will look into----
    Senator Kennedy. Can you help me find out?
    Secretary Walsh. I will help you find out.
    Senator Kennedy. I took the----
    Secretary Walsh. I didn't get one of those letters.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, I filled out my census, my survey. I 
want five bucks.
    Secretary Walsh. I do, too.
    Senator Kennedy. And I understand that under the Biden 
administration is also sending people $40 gift cards.
    Secretary Walsh. I doubt that is from the Biden 
administration. But I will look into it.
    Senator Kennedy. I looked it up, it is on the Internet. It 
must be true.
    Secretary Walsh. I will look into it with you, my friend.
    Senator Kennedy. Would you?
    Secretary Walsh. I promise.
    Senator Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
    Secretary Walsh. All right, sir.
    Senator Murray. Senator Shaheen.

                  IMPORTANCE OF THE JOB CORPS PROGRAM

    Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you, Madam Chair.
    And congratulations, Mr. Secretary, we are delighted to 
have you in your current role, and it is nice to have a New 
Englander who I can understand.
    You were talking earlier about the need to have more 
nontraditional apprenticeships, and the potential for doing 
that for organizations to make that possible. One of those 
organizations in New Hampshire is the Job Corps where they have 
a number of training programs that train people for healthcare 
roles, for dental assistants, for some of the things that have 
been nontraditional.
    Can you speak to the importance of the Job Corps and why it 
is a great opportunity for young people who may not have 
another alternative?
    Secretary Walsh. Absolutely, Senator. Thank you for that. 
You know, prior to my being here, I did not have, per se, a Job 
Corps Center in the City of Boston, but we had lots of 
workforce development programs. My first Job Corps visit was in 
Memphis, Tennessee, where I got a chance to tour the Job Corps 
facility there. And I saw first-hand the unbelievable potential 
of creating pathways for so many young people in America.
    And then I started to look into it, and realize the amount 
of young people that go through Job Corps. Job Corps, there is 
no question in my mind, that everybody today who brought up the 
question with me so far, Job Corps should be a main stay in 
Opportunity For Economic Development and Job Growth.
    I think that we need to continue--I am going to continue to 
partner with Job Corps. I am going to do everything I can. I 
have asked for a budget increase for Job Corps. I am also going 
to do everything I can to make sure that Job Corps all across 
this country is successful.
    I know your Job Corps in New Hampshire. I know it is 
successful, and we want to take those models and make it 
successful. So I am spending, you know--again not to kind of 
get off the beaten path here--but I know when I became 
Secretary of Labor, you know, people talk about OSHA, 
unemployment insurance, and all of the--kind of the bigger 
ticket items, Job Corps is as important as any of these, if we 
do it right and continue to create pathways.
    Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you. I worked for 20 years, 
first as governor, to get that Job Corps, with a lot of other 
people who supported it. So it is really nice to see it be 
successful. And I appreciate the support from--your support for 
Job Corps.

                               H-2B VISAS

    Something that has not been so positive this year has been 
the challenges with finding workers in New Hampshire, as 
everyone has spoken to already. And one of those issues in New 
Hampshire has been the access for H-2B visa workers. You and I 
talked about this last spring. But we have a lot of seasonal 
businesses that rely on H-2B visa workers to fill those 
temporary jobs. When we don't have workers in New Hampshire who 
are willing to take those jobs, and we have an unemployment 
rate that is now back to under 3 percent.
    Congress charged the Secretary of Homeland Security and 
you, as Secretary of Labor, with the responsibility of 
collaborating to determine the appropriate number of additional 
H-2B visas to release for this fiscal year. I was disappointed 
to see the administration's ultimate decision to release just 
22,000 additional visas. And just 16,000 of those were set 
aside for returning workers. They were fully applied for less 
than 2 weeks after being made available.
    So can you tell us how the administration determined that 
22,000 number, and why only 16,000 of those should be available 
for returning workers?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. I can. First and foremost, it was, as 
somebody who was literally on the job about 3 weeks at that 
particular moment, I sat with Secretary Mayorkas, and we were 
looking at different numbers. He had a very high number--a much 
higher number than that. And we were looking at the consistency 
of what the past practice has been, and what the average number 
of additional visas have been; 22,000--well, let me, 16,000 of 
the traditional ones is about the average of the last 3 years, 
not including last year, what the average was.
    The 6,000 that were added was for the Northern Triangle of 
Central America and Southern America. So we have made--my 
office and Homeland Security's office is coming up with a 
better formula for how we operate and move forward next year. 
And I think that, certainly, your office, I spoke to you 
directly, and Senator Hassan called me, and many Senators from 
around the country called me as well, from all over the 
country, really concerned about this.
    We got the number out late. And so what we want to do now 
is prepare for next year as we move forward so this same thing 
doesn't happen. I know that in New Hampshire, Maine, and other 
places, the tourism industry is in desperate need of these 
workers, and other parts of the country, the fishing industry 
is desperately in need of these workers.
    And then we are also looking at the H-1B program as well 
for the farmers. So I don't have a great answer for you, how we 
came up with that number, other than we sat down and had a 
compromise, a conversation. But I can tell you this: you have 
my commitment that next year we will not be dealing with this 
at the last minute. We will have this conversation beforehand, 
and may be even an opportunity for me to visit with you and 
talk to some of the workers that are in your State, to talk 
about the importance of that program.
    Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate 
that.

                   ADDRESSING THE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE

    And I know I am out of time, Madam Chair. But I would just 
remind us all that we are dealing with an aging workforce in 
this country. And if we expect to fill the jobs that we are 
creating, we need to get more older workers into the workplace, 
and we need to get more immigrants into the workplace. And I 
understand that is a charged political issue, but it is one we 
need to face if we are going to address our workforce shortage. 
Thank you.
    Senator Murray. Thank you.
    Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Chair Murray.

                PARTNERS ACT APPRENTICESHIP LEGISLATION

    Secretary Walsh, I am going to join the chorus here as a 
big supporter of apprenticeship programs. And I plan to shortly 
re-introduce my apprenticeships legislation, known as the 
PARTNERS Act, in the near future. That is focused particularly 
on collaboration between smaller work places, and technical 
colleges, and workforce Boards to sometimes create novel 
apprenticeships, but to assist, especially, smaller businesses, 
in standing up apprenticeship programs.

                  DIVERSITY IN APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS

    Anyways, I was pleased to see that your budget requested a 
$100 million increase for apprenticeship programs, along with a 
commitment to increase access to apprenticeships for, 
historically underrepresented groups. I wanted to call your 
attention to my home State of Wisconsin, where in Milwaukee we 
learned that the number of Black apprentices decreased by 
nearly 22 percent over the last year. That is a deeply 
disturbing statistic.
    And so I am interested in learning how the Department will 
use the appropriated funds to attract more racially-diverse 
apprentices. And what strategies you have to prevent the sort 
of numbers that we have seen in Wisconsin, and Milwaukee in 
particular?
    Secretary Walsh. No. Thank you. I was in Milwaukee about 3 
weeks ago, or with the Mayor, and we were on a job site, 
replacing lead pipes, they were replacing lead pipes in one of 
the neighborhoods in Milwaukee. And prior to that I was at a 
roundtable with the Building Trades, I think that there are two 
things we have to do.
    Number one is, I think the people that we have to--that 
want to get access to these apprenticeship programs, that there 
are people of color, African-American, Latino. People want to 
get in. It is about, you have to be real intentional about 
reaching out to the community and creating open-door 
opportunities for these programs. I have done it in the city as 
a head of the Building Trades. I have done it as the Mayor of 
the City of Boston.
    And I think that we have a unique opportunity right now in 
the--you know, at the Department of Labor equity is kind of at 
the core of everything that we are doing, and we need to make 
sure, if we want to really come back and build back better, it 
has to be built back better for all people, it cannot just be 
build back better for some communities.
    And so I think we--number one, to answer your question, at 
the Department of Labor, when we start to think about putting 
RFPs (Request for Proposals) out, we start to expand these 
apprentice programs, we also have to put in some 
recommendations on how, and explain to people, how do you get 
people that don't have access to these programs, access.
    So you just got to be intentional about it, bottom line. I 
mean, in Boston, it has worked. I mean, are the numbers great? 
No. Are the numbers better? Yes. So we have to be better than 
we were.

                   IT SOLUTIONS FOR AGING UI SYSTEMS

    Senator Baldwin. During the pandemic Wisconsin's Department 
of Workforce Development really struggled to make timely 
unemployment insurance payments because of outdated computer 
systems.
    Secretary Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Baldwin. And they were a product of years of 
neglect, and frankly, partisan attacks on the unemployment 
insurance program to begin with. I am encouraged to see that 
your budget will provide, again, $100 million specifically for 
IT solutions that can be deployed in the State. And this money, 
I think will be well spent in Wisconsin. But I was also 
interested in learning more about the first comprehensive 
update in decades to the formula that determines the funding 
States received to administer unemployment.
    Can you provide more information on the proposed changes to 
the formula? And is this something that the Department expects 
to undertake administratively? Or do you think you are going to 
need changes to authorizing language?
    Secretary Walsh. Well, first of all, thank you for bringing 
this up. Because as I was prepping for this hearing, most of my 
prep was about--around unemployment insurance, so I thank you 
for bringing it up. I think that a lot of what we can do, 
Department of Labor, is working, going to be working with 
States and territories to be able to look at what investments 
are needed in those different areas.
    We are using the funds that--through the American Rescue 
Plan to tackle the most acute problems that the systems have 
been facing for a long time. There are kind of four key 
priorities, which I will touch upon: one is sending teams to 
States to provide intensive technical assistance that is first 
and foremost, really finding out, because every State system is 
a little different on how they operate, and their computer 
systems are completely different. We are going to provide 
States with direct assistance and experts, to learn about the 
challenges, and to begin to help immediately on what we need to 
do. So that is one space.
    Second is a focus on ID verification, and looking in that 
area. A third is modernizing technology, probably one of the 
biggest things that we have an issue with is technology, and 
States are running on incredibly antiquated systems that they 
have had for 30, 40, 50 years; and then a direct grant to 
States to help them solve the challenges that they have in the 
system.
    I mean, reforming the united system will do a lot. Number 
one, as you mentioned at the very beginning, at the beginning 
of the pandemic people had problems accessing the benefit. They 
couldn't get in. They were waiting, and they were waiting on 
Zoom, they were waiting in the line, they were waiting and they 
couldn't get through.
    So creating a platform, a system, when somebody needs 
unemployment, they can either sign up online, or get a phone 
call. They can get in; number one.
    Number two; it is also the fraud piece of it. Lots of--
there was lots of organized crime and fraud with the UI system 
where millions and billions of dollars were taken that should 
have gone to people. Again, that will address the fraud.
    So we are going to have a comprehensive approach moving 
forward. We are being very, very, focused on how we administer 
this program, and how we move forward.
    Senator Baldwin. Okay. And if you can follow up with some 
more information about the formula changes that are being 
undertaken, that would be great.
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. I will get back to you. Thank you.
    Senator Murray. Thank you very much.

          BUDGET INCREASES FOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

    Mr. Secretary, the budget request includes significant 
increases in funding across the workforce development program, 
and like COVID itself, the economic impacts of the pandemic 
issue now have fallen disproportionally on the most vulnerable, 
including women, workers with low incomes, workers of color; so 
the investments in this budget would help our economic 
recovery, but also address changing workforce needs that were 
apparent actually long before COVID; such as the transition to 
clean energy, and the development of other in-demand industries 
and sectors.
    Can you talk to us about why the increases in workforce 
development programs are so important right now, and 
specifically what this budget does to address inequities in our 
workforce programs?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. Let me try and do a better job than 
the first time I was asked the question. Most people here today 
that have asked me a question have discussed either, the 
underemployment of people, or the lack of ability to get into a 
better paying job. What the pandemic--we have known this before 
the pandemic--but what the pandemic has really shown is that we 
are in a crossroad in our country, and we have an opportunity 
to create a platform for people to get into the middle-class.
    President Biden's ``Build Back Better'' plan, not the plan, 
but build back better, the words ``build back better'' when he 
talked about in the very beginning before there were any plans 
associated with that, was about creating opportunities and 
pathways into the middle-class, that people wouldn't have to 
live in poverty, people wouldn't have to worry about 
unemployment, people wouldn't have to worry about not having 
healthcare, and child's care, daycare, education, all of that.
    And what our workforce investments are--what we are asking 
for in this budget, and what we want to do with our workforce 
investments in the Department of Labor, in this budget, is to 
continue to advance what the President's agenda is, what we all 
want to do moving forward. And so for every dollar that we 
spend, with all due respect to one of the Senators today, for 
every dollar that we spent in workforce development, it is an 
investment in the future of America's workforce. And it is an 
opportunity.
    Ranking Member Blunt mentioned new emerging tech--new 
emerging industries, those industries right now, a lot of them, 
are just for college graduates. They are going into cities like 
Boston, and they are grabbing up college graduates, but they 
have more opportunities than they have people to work in those 
jobs. And when I--when you talk to those CEOs, and the people 
that create those companies, what they say is that we can train 
the workforces to work in those industries. We don't need to 
have a college degree, or a Ph.D, or a law degree.
    So we have a unique opportunity right now. So the 
investments that I am asking this committee to support, and I 
am going to be asking the Full Senate and Congress to support, 
are investments we are making in the future of American 
workers.
    We don't want the same-old, same-old Department of Labor, 
where we are going to be giving grants to States and States 
will be taking the money and maybe doing something with it. 
What we want to do is make sure that these investments are 
going in the right places so we can continue the opportunity to 
get our--your constituencies, my constituents into good-paying 
jobs.
    That is the opportunity in front of us at this particular 
moment in time. And I think that nobody wants to go back to the 
old way. I think it is important for us, we continue to make 
investments in American people for those jobs.

                          COMBATING WAGE THEFT

    Senator Murray. Okay. There are workers around the country 
right now, as you well know, trying to support their families, 
make ends meet, but they are being denied the unacceptable--or 
the unacceptably low Federal minimum wage, overtime pay, or 
both. And it is clear more needs to be done to ensure workers 
received the wages that they actually earn. And it is the Wage 
and Hour Division's job, as you know, to investigate these 
cases and recover back wages and damages on their behalf. Can 
you talk to us about how your Department would use the $30 
million increase that you have requested for Wage and Hour, to 
address wage theft or increased back pay recovery, particularly 
for our vulnerable workers?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. First and foremost I want to--again, 
I wanted to just thank you for the American Rescue Plan because 
we have made some investments there as well in Wage and Hour, 
and we are building back up where we were a previous--to 
previous levels. The investments that we want to invest there, 
again it goes back to thinking about the Department of Labor in 
a different way, as far as, the way I view the Department of 
Labor is we represent workers in the morning, in the afternoon, 
and at night.
    And we represent workers in all different levels, whether 
it is security on the job site, safe retirement, and safe 
working conditions. So what we want to do in Wage and Hour is 
make sure that we truly make an opportunity for people that are 
being shortchanged or not getting their wages that they earn 
and deserve, that we have the proper opportunity for 
investigation to go in and investigate any cases out there, so 
we are able to follow up, and get people's back wages.
    If you look at the Department of Labor's website, every day 
we have another case where we are able to recoup benefits of 
people that lost their money.
    Senator Murray. Thank you.
    Senator Blunt.
    Senator Blunt. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

   ALLEVIATING LICENSING RESTRICTIONS FOR MILITARY WORKERS AND THEIR 
                                SPOUSES

    The President on Friday released an executive order that 
encourages the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to ban 
unnecessary occupational licensing restrictions. I have been 
particularly involved in that as it related to returning 
veterans who bring skills back with them, or veteran spouses or 
military spouses who are going from one State to the next. What 
are you doing? And what do you think we can do to encourage 
more cross-State collaboration in licensing, and to eliminate 
needless barriers for licensing, particularly for those people 
who in some way have either been in the military, or have 
spouses in the military?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. I don't have a direct answer for you 
to that question, but my past understanding of being in the 
legislature, or in the City of Boston as the mayor, it is a 
concern because people would come to our city and they would 
want to work in a certain industry, and the license was not 
recognized in the City of Boston.
    And there was an ability at the State level to get a 
waiver, but it is something that I don't have enough 
information on, and I will look into it. But I definitely think 
that, particularly military families, as military families they 
are not in--I have a cousin that is in the Coast Guard. In the 
last 10 years he has spent time in San Diego, up in Portland, 
Maine, he has been all over the country because he gets shifted 
from base to base every 3 years.
    Senator Blunt. Right.
    Secretary Walsh. So again, you know, if he had a career 
that, a side career that had a license, he needed to get that. 
So let me--I will work on that with you. I don't have the 
direct answer for you on that.
    Senator Blunt. Let us work on that. I think the executive 
order clearly heads in the right direction, but let us work on 
what we can do now. That is largely a State and a local 
determination. Up until this point many of the States, 
including Missouri, are moving in the direction of making it 
much easier. We just, I think our first military spouse that 
got an immediate license when she came to this State, was a 
lawyer, who, within a few days of moving to Missouri with her 
husband who was at Fort Leonard Wood was practicing law. And 
the more of that sort of thing, whether it is a lawyer, or a 
beautician, or an electrician, or----
    Secretary Walsh. A teacher.

                         INCREASE IN H-2B VISAS

    Senator Blunt [continuing]. A commercial truck driver, 
whatever those licenses are, I want to work with you on that.
    In another area, I was pleased to see the Department, in 
conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, announce 
the availability of an additional 22,000 H-2B visas, provided 
for in the 2021 Omnibus Bill. You know, these H-2B visas are, a 
lot of them in hospitality, and landscaping, in timber.
    In our State, I see those generally as jobs that actually 
protect the other jobs that are there, coming in, filling a 
part-time gap that allows the full-time Missouri resident 
employees to have a job that they wouldn't have, if the hotel 
couldn't be open, or that they wouldn't have if all of the 
landscaping work that needs to be done at a given time, 
couldn't be done.
    I don't want a detailed answer from you here today, but I 
would like you to commit to working with this subcommittee to 
guarantee that the program has sufficient returning workers to 
meet the seasonal needs of our small businesses, and our local 
industries. And fishing would be one of those industries in 
coastal areas. Senator Mikulski and I used to work closely on 
this particular issue.
    Would you be willing to continue to work with us on this, 
Secretary?
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. There is no question about that. And 
not only that, I think that this program also benefits the 
people that are coming here, working and taking back home, the 
revenue back home to their families. And I think that that also 
is a kind of a win-win for all sides. So I certainly will 
continue to work with you on that.

           FUNDING FOR THE APPALACHIAN AND DELTA COMMISSIONS

    Senator Blunt. Another area I mentioned in my opening 
comments was that your budget request included a $35 million 
set aside to serve workers in the Appalachian and Lower 
Mississippi Delta regions, that we began funding in 2018. I was 
the Chairman of the committee at the time, and Senator Murray 
was the ranking member, and that funding has created, and will 
create employment opportunities by providing reemployment and 
training assistance in areas where they are needed.
    Can you speak to the success of the grants in this area, 
these regional commissions, like the Appalachian Regional 
Commission, and the Delta Regional Commission?
    Secretary Walsh. Certainly. I mean, there is no question 
that these grants are beneficial to those areas of the country 
and, you know, I hear, the feedback I get from the Department 
of Labor, from the workforce development side of it, is that a 
lot of these different areas want increased grants, and 
opportunity to access to grants. So it is beneficial. And that 
is why the additional revenue that I am looking for in some of 
this workforce development and grant money will allow us the 
opportunity to make more investments in those areas.
    Senator Blunt. Thank you, Secretary.
    Chair, I think that I will have some more questions for the 
record. But I believe those are, at this point, at least all 
the questions I have for the hearing today.
    Senator Murray. Very good.
    Senator Braun.

                    OSHA ENFORCEMENT BUDGET INCREASE

    Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    And good to see you, Mr. Secretary, enjoyed our 
conversations in the past. And, you know, I come from the 
business world, and especially small business, and I have been 
able to see our business grow over the years, and interface 
with all the things you have to do with government. And I have 
always felt an inherent responsibility to do things right, keep 
your employees safe, that that is part and parcel of growing an 
enterprise.
    I noticed where there is a request for $350 million 
increase in enforcement funding, and would be curious, I tried 
to get the information what that is on top of already, and is 
it related to. I know maybe during the Trump administration, 
which I welcomed, a lot of easing up on certain stuff that 
maybe was in overdrive, still acknowledging that many things 
need to be in place to keep a safe environment, to keep a safe 
workplace.
    Has there been an uptick in OSHA-related cases that would 
warrant that kind of increase that would be targeted towards 
enforcement?
    Secretary Walsh. That is a great question. The problem we 
have with OSHA is that we have seen an increase in cases, and 
we have also seen a decrease in OSHA inspectors. So I guess the 
answer is: that we are seeing increased potential problems, and 
we have fewer people to go out and investigate those problems. 
So we have a lot of our cases that are going kind of, I guess, 
unchecked, if you will.
    Again, as I said earlier, before you came in Senator, this, 
I would like to get OSHA to a point where it is not just going 
out and seen as a ``gotcha'' organization. I mentioned, when I 
was a younger person, I worked on construction, and OSHA would 
come out to the job site, and not because they are out there 
because of an accident, they are out there to make sure that 
there was proper safety procedures in place in construction, 
which is dangerous, as you know.
    I would like to get OSHA back where we are doing a lot more 
collaboration of working with businesses to make sure we create 
work--safe work sites across America, rather than having to 
respond to a tragedy. And we are not there yet. So the increase 
that we are looking for is to build back the OSHA Department, 
and build back the Department of Labor to pre--you know, the 
last 5 years we are down, the lowest amount of inspectors, I 
believe, in the history since the beginning of the Department 
of Labor, we are at the lowest number right now.
    Senator Braun. So what I would like, and you can get that 
to our office, would be: what the number of enforcement issues 
have been from 5 years ago to the present, what the funding 
levels were each year, to make sure it might get related to 
that in some fashion.

         OSHA ENFORCEMENT IN LARGE BUSINESS VS. SMALL BUSINESS

    And then also I would want to bring up the distinction 
between large business and small business. And NFIB (National 
Federation of Independent Business Inc.) has been out there 
with so many stats that have shown that small businesses have 
been decimated, challenged with COVID, some of the things they 
had to do there that was on top of what they have to normally 
do to move forward and prosper. And I have also been an 
observer there. The smaller your business is, normally, the 
more intimate that relationship is with your employees.
    So again, I would like to know whether the Department 
currently differentiates between how it looks at enforcement 
among big businesses versus small businesses. And to see if 
there is a distinction in how you carry out those functions.
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. Let me get back to you on that one. I 
don't have the answer for you.
    Senator Braun. Yes.
    Secretary Walsh. But I understand here what you are saying. 
And when you talk about small businesses, you are not 
necessarily talking about the three-person mom-and-pop store, 
you are talking about the 200-person store and----
    Senator Braun. I would give it 500 and fewer.
    Secretary Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Braun. And it is that----
    Secretary Walsh. So let me get back to you on that.
    Senator Braun. Yes.
    Secretary Walsh. Because I understand, I recognize the fact 
that there is a big difference between a small business and a 
corporation.
    Senator Braun. Especially 50 and under.
    Secretary Walsh. Yes.
    Senator Braun. But let us take the common definition, and 
whatever is being done in the future, I would want to make sure 
it is based upon the need to do it, number one, especially in 
the context of scarce resources. So much of what we are doing 
today and not just after the Biden administration took over, 
because we do it on borrowed money on anything that we do 
enhance in a budget. And I think that will come into question 
in the long run as well.
    So if you could get back to my office on those two 
particular pieces of information, I would appreciate it.
    Secretary Walsh. I definitely will.
    And I was at the Indy 500 the other day, I went around the 
track, it was pretty amazing.
    Senator Braun. Yes. And that is a kind of, I guess, a big 
version of a small business.
    Secretary Walsh. Yes. It certainly is.
    Senator Braun. Right in my home State.
    Secretary Walsh. It certainly is. It was interesting. It 
was fun.
    Senator Braun. Yes. Okay. Thank you.
    Secretary Walsh. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Murray. Thank you very much.
    That will end our hearing today, Mr. Secretary; and our 
hearings on President Biden's Budget Proposal for fiscal year 
2022.
    I want to thank all of our fellow committee members for 
their participation.
    Secretary Walsh, thank you for your very thoughtful 
answers. I look forward to continuing to work together with you 
to fight for workers, and build a stronger, fair economy for 
everyone.

                     ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS

    For any Senators who wish to ask additional questions, 
questions for the record will be due Friday, July 23 at 5 p.m. 
The hearing record will also remain open until then for members 
who wish to submit additional materials for the record.
    [The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but 
were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the 
hearing:]
              Questions Submitted to Hon. Martin J. Walsh
              Questions Submitted by Senator Patty Murray
                 whistleblower complaints and staffing
    Question. I'd like to follow-up on my question about OSHA's 
whistleblower program. Last year's Inspector General report described 
the significant increase in complaints and insufficient staff to 
investigate those complaints during the pandemic.
    Please describe the impact of complaints not being timely and 
effectively investigated and the steps planned and being taken to 
address this issue.
    Answer. Over the past several years, OSHA has experienced a 
significant increase in new whistleblower complaints being filed, while 
the level of staffing has remained steady. This, coupled with new 
whistleblower statutes added to the agency's growing portfolio, 
including statutes unrelated to worker safety and health, has resulted 
in a significant increase in the inventory of outstanding 
investigations, with many going on for extended periods of time 
(overage/backlog cases). These factors have created a lag time in 
completing investigations and making agency determinations based on the 
merits of the complainants' allegations. With the onset of the 
coronavirus pandemic (with more than 5,500 COVID-19-related 
whistleblower complaints filed so far), the additional increase in new 
filings and subsequent backlog inventory have limited the agency's 
ability to complete investigations in a timely manner. If OSHA does not 
have sufficient resources to meet quality and efficiency standards for 
its whistleblower investigations, and is unable to review all 
complaints alleging workplace retaliation, the agency cannot properly 
protect employees' rights to engage in protected activity and prevent 
retaliation.
    OSHA has taken many steps to address the challenge of achieving a 
reasonable balance between an investigation's timeliness and quality in 
order to handle its whistleblower inventory more efficiently and 
effectively. First, the agency instituted a pilot program whereby the 
agency conducted two rounds of assignments of complaints across 
regional boundaries, allowing for regions with a lesser workload to 
assist regions with a higher workload, focusing on establishing a more 
reasonable workload balance nationwide. OSHA is actively exploring 
other avenues to address backlogged inventory, both nationally and 
regionally. Second, the agency is overhauling the Whistleblower 
Investigations Manual (WIM) to streamline procedures without 
compromising case quality. OSHA instituted a new Pilots Directive that 
allows for innovative ideas and suggestions to be `tested' to see if 
added efficiency is gained and successful pilots are incorporated into 
the WIM and made national policy. Third, OSHA developed an 
investigative checklist to ensure that key investigative steps are 
followed, establishing clear and effective case monitoring during the 
final stages of an investigation, and thus ensuring that the quality of 
the investigation is maintained. Finally, OSHA is actively hiring 
additional whistleblower staff to assist not only in addressing the 
inventory of backlogged cases but also the total inventory of cases, by 
promptly processing and investigating new complaints so they don't 
become overaged. The agency's fiscal year 2022 budget request also 
includes a requested increase 63 FTE and $5.3 million to provide 
additional whistleblower staff to meet the workload demands.
    OSHA will also continue to engage its stakeholders with meetings 
throughout the year. These meetings provide a forum for the public to 
offer suggestions and comments on ways the agency can improve the 
whistleblower program. This will allow OSHA an opportunity to go beyond 
the protection of individual whistleblowers by increasing outreach 
efforts through the Whistleblower Outreach Plan in an effort to educate 
employers about their responsibilities and employees on their rights 
afforded under the statutes OSHA enforces. The agency will focus its 
outreach efforts on industries with the highest, as well as the fewest 
number of complaints filed, whistleblower protection provisions of the 
newest statutes enacted, and vulnerable populations least aware of 
worker protections while also continuing to promote the ``Recommended 
Practices for Anti-Retaliation Programs'' guidance for employers. This 
document outlines the steps recommended for employers to establish a 
workplace where employees feel comfortable raising concerns, without 
fear of retaliation. In turn, the employer benefits from improved 
employee morale and productivity, as well as the likelihood of fewer 
whistleblower complaints being filed by its workers.
    Question. How would the American Rescue Plan Act funds, additional 
funds requested in the fiscal year 2022 budget and policy changes 
address a recommendations made by the Office of Inspector General to 
more equitably distribute whistleblower complaints amongst 
investigators, and provide consistent enforcement of whistleblower 
rights among the regions.
    Answer. OSHA will use the funding received under the American 
Rescue Plan Act to address COVID-19 related whistleblower complaints. 
OSHA published the COVID-19 National Emphasis Program, which 
prioritizes investigating employers that retaliate against workers for 
complaints about unsafe or unhealthy conditions, or for exercising 
other rights protected by Federal law. OSHA plans to spend $13,079,000 
to support 32 FTE in the Whistleblower budget activity, including 25 
investigators over the course of the three-year supplemental. Funding 
would also support seven national and regional whistleblower staff to 
address evolving policy issues, and provide required high level review 
of the growing number COVID-19 retaliation claims received by the 
agency, with more than 5,500 COVID-19-related whistleblower complaints 
filed so far.
    In fiscal year 2022, OSHA is requesting $24,999,000 and 185 FTE, 
which includes a program increase $4,100,000 and 50 FTE for 
whistleblower investigators to effectively enforce 25 whistleblower 
statutes, including the recently added Criminal Antitrust Anti-
Retaliation Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act. In addition to 
investigators, OSHA is requesting a program increase of $1,243,000 and 
13 FTE to support the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program, 
policy development and review, and appropriate management support for 
the Whistleblower Protection Program (WPP). As part of the effort to 
build a stronger whistleblower program and have the necessary level of 
resources to support the significant number of whistleblower statutes 
the agency has been mandated to enforce, OSHA will make sure that every 
worker, especially those in vulnerable and underserved communities, 
knows about their rights and what to do if they believe their safety 
and health is not being protected. The agency is committed to ensuring 
that every worker is protected and feels empowered to raise concerns 
when they feel their workplaces are unsafe.
    The additional investigators requested in fiscal year 2022 will be 
distributed throughout the agency's regional offices with a focus on 
preventing an increase in the backlog of complaint investigations while 
also reducing the overall inventory of pending investigations. The 
requested resources will help OSHA keep up with the high demand, and 
ensure that workers' concerns are properly and thoroughly processed and 
responded to as expeditiously as possible.
    OSHA has taken many steps to address this challenge of achieving a 
reasonable balance between an investigation's timeliness and quality in 
order to handle its whistleblower inventory more efficiently and 
effectively. First, the agency instituted a pilot program whereby the 
agency conducted two rounds of assignments of complaints across 
regional boundaries, allowing for regions with a lesser workload to 
assist regions with a higher workload, again, focusing on establishing 
a more reasonable workload balance nationwide. OSHA is actively 
exploring other avenues to address backlogged inventory, both 
nationally and individually by Region. Second, the agency is 
overhauling the Whistleblower Investigations Manual (WIM) to streamline 
procedures without compromising case quality. OSHA has instituted a new 
Pilots Directive that allows for innovative ideas and suggestions to be 
`tested' to see if added efficiency is gained--those successful pilots 
are incorporated into the WIM and made national policy. Third, OSHA 
developed an investigative checklist to ensure that key investigative 
steps are followed, establishing clear and effective case monitoring 
during the final stages of an investigation, and thus ensuring that the 
quality of the investigation is maintained. Lastly, the agency is 
actively hiring additional staff to assist not only in addressing the 
inventory of backlogged cases but also the total inventory of cases, by 
promptly processing and investigating new complaints so they don't 
become overaged.
    In addition, with new fully trained staff in place, along with new 
staff requested in the fiscal year 2022 Budget Request, OSHA will 
continue to streamline its processes by developing alternative 
procedures through piloted programs and strategies that are evaluated, 
found to be effective, and implemented nationwide. Specific focus will 
continue to be placed on backlog reduction strategies to reduce the 
inventory of overaged cases. Additionally, OSHA will continue its 
efforts to expand the use of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) 
Program, which has proven to be an effective strategy to efficiently 
process complaints/cases in a timely manner and with positive results. 
With the delegation of two additional whistleblower laws in fiscal year 
2021, the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) and the Criminal Antitrust 
Anti-Retaliation Act (CAARA), OSHA plans to conduct training on the 
investigative processes concerning these new laws for its staff in 
fiscal year 2022, as done with the Taxpayer First Act (TFA) in fiscal 
year 2020. OSHA also plans to develop an Intranet-based Whistleblower 
Investigator (WBI) Resource Page for whistleblower personnel that will 
include technical assistance and answer a myriad of questions presented 
by the field, including those related to COVID-19, which is constantly 
evolving. This will be accessible to all Regions, ensuring nationwide 
consistency. All of the initiatives will be developed and implemented 
to assist the agency in addressing the recommendations made by the 
Office of the Inspector General.
                        davis bacon enforcement
    Question. Mr. Secretary, construction workers across this nation 
rely on the Department's Wage and Hour Division to enforce their right 
to prevailing wages on federally assisted construction projects. As a 
former construction worker, you know as well as anyone that 
construction is hard, dangerous work. These protections ensure the 
Federal Government is creating good jobs with fair pay and bringing 
countless economic benefits to local communities. The workers and 
communities who build our bridges, highways, and other critical 
infrastructure deserve the protections and the benefits prevailing wage 
provides.
    Mr. Secretary--how would your Department use the funds requested 
for the Wage and Hour Division to better enforce the Davis-Bacon Act, 
particularly with respect to working with other Federal agencies to 
ensure compliance?
    Answer. The Davis Bacon Act protects construction workers' rights 
to receive the local prevailing wage and leverages the purchasing power 
of the Federal Government to support local contractors, local workers, 
and local economies. The Department is currently engaged in a 
comprehensive review of its Davis Bacon program including outreach, 
education, compliance assistance in partnerships with contracting 
agencies and enforcement. Additional enforcement resources will allow 
the Wage and Hour Division to put more investigators into the field and 
onto construction sites to make sure workers are getting the wages they 
have earned on Davis Bacon projects.
                    ilab monitoring and enforcement
    Question. Mr. Secretary, my home state of Washington is one of the 
most trade dependent economies in the United States. That's one of the 
reasons I support trade deals with strong labor and environmental 
protections. So, I was pleased to see the budget proposes $124 million, 
an increase of more than $27 million, for the International Labor 
Affairs Bureau. This includes significant new investments for ILAB to 
expand trade-related monitoring and enforcement of labor provisions in 
our trade programs and new resources to investigate the use of forced 
and child labor in global supply chains.
    I know you have dedicated resources for work on our trade agreement 
with Mexico and Canada. However, with 150 international trading 
partners under existing free trade agreements or trade preferences, 
your budget request won't stretch far enough to conduct monitoring and 
enforcement with all of our trading partners.
    How will you prioritize countries for monitoring and enforcement 
activities?
    Answer. DOL is committed to monitoring and enforcing the labor 
provisions in all of our trade agreements and preference programs. Over 
the last year, in addition to creating a new division dedicated to 
enforcing the labor provisions of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade 
Agreement, our Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) within the 
Bureau of International Labor Affairs has increased the staffing level 
and resources devoted to enforcing labor provisions in the other trade 
agreements and trade programs as well. This has enabled us to intensify 
our engagement with countries with the greatest need. For example, so 
far in 2021, the Department has dramatically increased its work 
allocated to our trade agreement with Central America (CAFTA-DR), 
enabling us to integrate labor enforcement into the important work 
being led by the White House on Central America. Likewise, with the 
preference programs, we are continuing to monitor all countries 
benefiting from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the 
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) through the GSP triennial 
assessment and the annual AGOA review. Based on these processes, our 
team prioritizes and engages with key countries in an ongoing manner. 
Both the GSP and AGOA processes consider information from a broad array 
of sources, including U.S. government reporting, international and 
national labor rights organizations, and public comment mechanisms 
included in the preference programs. Our team shares the results of its 
fact-finding, along with recommendations for priority countries, with 
the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC). Subsequent discussions with 
interagency partners further shape OTLA's identification of priority 
countries and inform ongoing strategies for engagement to promote 
progress towards meeting the worker rights eligibility criteria.
    Question. And, how will you partner with the State Department and 
Office of the Trade Representative to ensure the most robust 
enforcement possible of labor provisions in our trade programs?
    Answer. DOL works closely with the Department of State and the 
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in our goal for strong 
enforcement of labor provisions in our trade agreements and trade 
preference programs. DOL engages with key countries through bilateral 
work and is in constant communication with our interagency partners, 
trade partner country stakeholders, and the International Labor 
Organization to maximize our effectiveness in labor enforcement. In 
addition, DOL works with State and USTR in a variety of formal 
mechanisms, such as the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC), labor and 
trade-related working groups such as the CAFTA-DR working groups, and 
Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs). For example, DOL's 
Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) collaborates with USTR's labor 
office to develop and deliver talking points on labor priorities in 
connection with TIFAs between the U.S. and parties to the TIFA. OTLA 
also convenes regular calls with USTR and State to discuss and share 
updates on priority labor issues, and ensures USTR and State's 
participation on relevant labor-related country briefings.
                              child labor
    Question. According to the latest report on child labor produced by 
the International Labour Organization and UNICEF, the number of 
children in child labor around the world dropped from 246 million in 
2000 to 152 million in 2016. Unfortunately, this 16-year downward trend 
has been reversed over the past 4 years, increasing to 160 million 
children worldwide in 2020 with nearly half of these children engaged 
in hazardous work.
    Please describe how funds currently available to the International 
Labor Affairs Bureau will be used to contribute to a reversal of this 
increase in child labor.
    Answer. Reversing the upward trend in child labor, as reported in 
the latest ILO and UNICEF global estimates, will require a multi-
faceted approach. A range of factors have contributed to the 
significant increase in child labor noted in some parts of the world, 
particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. ILAB is increasing its focus on a 
number of key areas where there is a great need and where we can have a 
significant impact. This includes increased focus on global supply 
chains; promoting greater access to social protection, training, and 
education opportunities for vulnerable children and families; 
confronting gender and racial inequity; and strengthening worker voice 
and workers' rights.
    ILAB's Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking is 
currently overseeing 46 projects with activities in over 40 countries. 
These projects are addressing root causes of child labor and forced 
labor through research, awareness raising, education, improved 
livelihoods, strengthening labor laws and enforcement, and by 
increasing the capacity of governments and other stakeholders to scale 
up and sustain effective practices for preventing and reducing these 
abusive labor practices. ILAB has also worked with these existing 
grantees to address urgent needs resulting from the global pandemic. 
ILAB has allocated project resources to increase vulnerable groups' 
access to information about the virus, address food insecurity, support 
remote education and training, and provide masks and hygiene resources 
to reduce exposure of vulnerable children and workers. ILAB is also 
deeply engaged in addressing child labor and forced labor in Sub-
Saharan Africa, with over $40 million in active programming in the 
region, including more than $18 million in new programming awarded in 
2020 addressing child labor in key supply chains such as cobalt, cocoa, 
and mica. These projects include a focus on issues of gender equity and 
the need for enhanced monitoring and remediation. With fiscal year 2021 
funds, ILAB is also currently in the process of funding new projects 
that will address some of the key gaps identified in the ILO-UNICEF 
report. For example:
  --In Malaysia, ILAB is funding a $5 million project to combat forced 
        labor and child labor by increasing advocacy by workers and 
        civil society in the production of palm oil and garments, 
        worker voice in the implementation of a social compliance 
        systems, and workers access to remedies in these sectors.
  --In El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, a $7 million ILAB-funded 
        project will build civil society and workers organization 
        capacity to address child and forced labor and other 
        unacceptable conditions of work, promote greater gender and 
        racial equity, and address the needs of some of the most 
        vulnerable populations in these countries, including persons of 
        African descent and indigenous communities.
    Moreover, as part of our efforts to achieve a larger and more 
sustainable reduction in child labor and forced labor, ILAB will 
actively engage with governments, the private sector, worker 
organizations, civil society actors, other donor governments, and 
international organizations to promote the replication of effective 
practices. ILAB will call on governments to mainstream child and forced 
labor elimination strategies into broader social initiatives as a way 
to take to scale strategies that can help to reduce the vulnerability 
of children, families, and workers to abusive labor practices. ILAB 
will also continue to use its flagship reports on child labor and 
forced labor to urge governments to take specific action to reduce 
these abusive labor practices.
    Question. How would resources requested in the fiscal year 2022 
budget build on and learn from prior investments?
    Answer. From more than 25 years of experience funding international 
child labor projects and contributing to significant strides in the 
fight against child labor, we have learned that our most successful and 
impactful initiatives are those that adopt a holistic approach, based 
on a broader rights-based ecosystem that places workers and vulnerable 
communities at the center. We have also learned that it is critical to 
create the right incentives for governments and businesses to take 
actions to address child labor and forced labor, particularly in global 
supply chains.
    In fiscal year 2022, ILAB will focus its programming on addressing 
the persistence of abusive labor practices in supply chains, including 
through the funding of research to trace goods through supply chains 
and targeted action to increase workers' voice in the monitoring of 
labor rights abuses. Rigorous research and reporting can help us hold 
both governments and corporations accountable for goods produced by 
forced labor and child labor throughout the supply chain. We will also 
support projects that help address decent work gaps, as child labor 
tends to persist where adult workers cannot exercise their rights at 
the workplace, especially the rights of freedom of association and 
collective bargaining. Another critical element of ILAB's approach will 
be to promote good practices and the expansion of social protection 
schemes that build social safety nets for vulnerable communities where 
labor abuses are most prevalent (e.g., in rural areas, in agricultural 
sectors). ILAB will also increase support for workers in informal 
sectors, where vulnerability to labor exploitation is more pronounced, 
as noted in the new ILO-UNICEF global child labor estimates, including 
through support for informal worker organizations. ILAB's increased 
focus in these areas will be particularly important in addressing the 
significant increase in child labor in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as 
the persistence of child labor in other parts of the world. Finally, 
ILAB will partner with other donors and organizations to leverage our 
resources and experience and support our goal for the replication and 
scaling up of good practices to achieve the broader impact needed.
    ILAB will continue to use evidence to inform action, drawing upon 
our own research and reporting on forced and child labor as well as 
lessons learned from past and current projects. ILAB's research serves 
as an essential knowledge base for ILAB's technical cooperation 
projects, helping ILAB focus its technical assistance in areas where it 
is most needed and where it can have the greatest impact. ILAB also 
relies on external evaluations of our projects, which systematically 
assess the relative effectiveness of different approaches or 
combination of approaches. ILAB uses good practices, identified through 
project experience and project evaluations, as a way to leverage 
learning to promote greater impact in the countries where we work. The 
following are just a few examples of the impact of ILAB's strategic 
approach:
  --In Uzbekistan, our strategy of consistent, multi-year diplomatic 
        engagement coupled with programming on a broad labor rights/
        decent work agenda helped achieve a radical reduction in the 
        country's use of forced labor in the cotton sector;
  --In Honduras, we have used a multidisciplinary approach--research on 
        labor issues, monitoring, and technical assistance and 
        cooperation--to holistically and sustainably advance labor 
        rights, including child labor, freedom of association, 
        collective bargaining, minimum wages, hours of work, and 
        occupational safety and health (OSH). With support from an 
        ILAB's project, three Honduran cooperatives that export coffee 
        to the United States implemented a sustainable social 
        compliance system to reduce the prevalence of child labor in 
        their supply chain.
  --In Mexico, we have focused research and technical assistance 
        efforts in the agriculture sector and on goods where there is 
        high risk of child labor, forced labor, and other labor 
        violations. ILAB has used strategic engagement to empower 
        workers and civil society organizations to advocate for 
        increased access to education and social protection services 
        for children at risk of child labor, their families, and 
        migrant workers.
    Question. What are the specific plans to address the worst forms of 
child labor in the cocoa supply chain in West Africa and build on prior 
investments made toward this objective?
    Answer. The recent release of the ILAB-funded, NORC (formerly the 
National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago) report 
on child labor in cocoa-growing areas of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana 
underscores the significant challenges remaining in the sector. ILAB 
recognizes that moving toward large-scale reduction of child labor in 
the cocoa supply chain will require securing a commitment to broader 
action by the two West African governments and the International 
Chocolate and Cocoa Industry, including to improve labor monitoring, 
better regulate the sector, and expand remediation efforts. Current 
ILAB programming is supporting efforts to build the capacity of cocoa 
cooperatives to enhance child labor monitoring in the cocoa supply 
chain and facilitate enforcement of child labor laws. ILAB is also 
funding programming to help law enforcement, private sector due 
diligence monitors, social service and civil society organizations, and 
workers themselves to prevent, detect, and eliminate forced labor and 
labor trafficking in supply chains.
    During the most recent meeting of the Child Labor Cocoa 
Coordinating Group (CLCCG)--a group established in 2010 under the 
Declaration and Framework-- in May 2021, the Governments of Cote 
d'Ivoire and Ghana, the International Chocolate and Cocoa Industry and 
ILAB agreed on the need to continue to coordinate on joint efforts to 
reduce child labor in the cocoa sector. ILAB is currently engaged in 
dialogue with the two governments and industry on ways to (1) expand 
this partnership to include other donor governments (e.g., the E.U.) 
and organizations; (2) promote more active engagement with worker 
organizations and civil society actors; (3) expand the scope of efforts 
to include a greater focus on forced labor and human trafficking and 
the advancement of decent work; (4) take good practices to scale and 
increase support to children and families in more remote areas where 
NORC research found the most significant increase in child labor; and 
(5) increase transparency and develop and report more regularly on 
indicators of progress.
    ILAB will also continue to report on child labor and forced labor 
in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana in its three flagship reports--the Findings 
on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, the List of Goods Produced by Child 
Labor or Forced Labor, and the List of Products Produced by Forced or 
Indentured Child Labor. In addition, ILAB continues to engage in active 
dialogue with other U.S. government agencies, such as the State 
Department, USAID, USDA, MCC, and DHS/CBP on efforts to combat child 
and forced labor in the cocoa sector and potential opportunities for 
enhancing interagency coordination and collaboration.
                           ofccp enforcement
    Question. Mr. Secretary, the Department of Labor plays a unique and 
vital role in Federal contracting policy through the Office of Federal 
Contract Compliance Programs to protect workers' rights on jobs created 
by Federal contracting. These critical protections ensure the Federal 
Government is creating a fair and safe workplace when it does business 
with the private-sector. And I'm pleased to see that the Biden 
Administration has placed such a substantial emphasis on these 
protections, including a guarantee of a $15 an hour minimum wage.
    Mr. Secretary--how would your Department use the funds requested 
for OFCCP to vigorously enforce anti-discrimination, safety, pay, and 
other important protections for workers on Federal contracts?
    Answer. OFCCP would use the $140,732,000 in funds requested for 
fiscal year 2022 to rebuild its workforce, strengthen its enforcement 
to remove systemic barriers to equal opportunity, advance workplace 
equity, increase contractor accountability, and invest in its 
technological infrastructure. An investment of critically needed 
resources will enable OFCCP to play a powerful role in advancing 
President Biden's commitment to equity by addressing employment 
inequities that have denied opportunities to vulnerable workers.
Rebuilding Workforce
    The fiscal year 2022 OFCCP funding request is $140,732,000 and 639 
FTE. This includes a program increase in the amount of $34,756,000 and 
188 FTE to rebuild OFCCP's workforce. Over the past 4 years, OFCCP's 
staffing levels have dropped significantly. In fiscal year 2020, OFCCP 
operated with a staffing level of 452 full-time equivalents (FTE) 
compared to 755 in fiscal year 2011.
Strengthening Enforcement
    Specifically, the agency will focus on identifying ways to 
strategically allocate our limited resources on comprehensive 
compliance evaluations that identify and remedy systemic issues 
including in hiring and pay, especially as our economy begins to 
rebuild. Our approach has often been data driven to identify 
disparities, but OFCCP is interested in developing strategic approaches 
to identify issues that do not lend themselves to the same kinds of 
statistical analysis, such as discrimination against workers with 
disabilities and LGBTQ+ workers.
    OFCCP will also focus on reinvigorating its compliance program for 
Federal construction contractors and subcontractors and federally 
assisted construction contractors and subcontractors. This effort will 
be instrumental for the Department to ensure equal employment 
opportunity for good jobs in the construction industry. OFCCP plans to 
launch an outreach and education campaign to advance equity in 
construction contractor workplaces and to educate workers of their 
rights under the mandates enforced by OFCCP.
    On its regulatory agenda, OFCCP listed its intention to modernize 
its supply and service regulations. OFCCP is interested in updating its 
requirements to align them with the realities of today's workforce and 
how employers operate. The agency is considering how it can streamline 
its processes and reduce unnecessary burdens on contractors while 
ensuring OFCCP can comprehensively address indicators of discrimination 
across all its authorities.
Workplace Equity Initiative
    The funding request would support OFCCP developing a comprehensive 
initiative to advance all forms of equity at work. President Biden has 
made a historic commitment to advancing equity, prioritizing it as a 
key pillar of his Administration. OFCCP has a critical opportunity to 
work with a broad coalition of stakeholders in the pursuit of a common 
goal--to eliminate discrimination in the workplace and proactively 
advance equality of opportunity for all workers, including women, 
people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, veterans, and 
people belonging to multiple protected classes.
    The purpose of this initiative is to identify promising practices, 
evidenced-based research, and innovative initiatives that can lead to 
more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces that increase equity 
in employment opportunities. In particular, the initiative will focus 
on examining employment practices that have been effective in closing 
pay gaps, increasing the recruitment and hiring of underrepresented 
workers, and facilitating the promotion of underrepresented workers 
into senior-level and executive positions.
Technology Modernization
    In fiscal year 2022, OFCCP will continue to prioritize expediting 
the modernization of its technology to promote greater employer 
compliance while maximizing the efficiency of agency staff. This 
includes completing OFCCP's Compliance Management System (CMS) 
development and deploying the Notification Construction Award Portal 
(NCAP), which allows Federal procurement officers, States, and 
construction contractors and subcontractors to electronically notify 
OFCCP of constructions awards valued at $10,000 or more. This IT 
modernization effort centralizes the notification process in the 
national office, increasing field efficiencies by relieving staff from 
having to manage contract award notifications
    Question. Please describe your hiring plans for the proposed 
investments in OFCCP included in your budget request.
    Answer. This funding request specifically supports the hiring, 
retention, and training of a highly qualified and diverse workforce to 
support OFCCP in advancing its mission through enforcement, outreach 
and education, stakeholder engagement, and compliance assistance while 
emphasizing efficiency, productivity, and accountability throughout the 
organization. The support for additional staff will enable OFCCP to 
strengthen its capacity to conduct compliance evaluations, and identify 
and resolve instances of systemic discrimination in hiring and pay.
    OFCCP is actively hiring to fill critical vacancies the agency lost 
over the course of several years, especially compliance officers. OFCCP 
is strengthening its internal capacity to support the hiring surge by 
filling the vacant HR Branch Chief position and hiring additional 
management analysts to support the agency's hiring and employee 
engagement needs. To expedite the hiring process, OFCCP is utilizing 
standardized position descriptions, single vacancy announcements for 
multiple positions at various locations, and an array of hiring 
authorities, including the Recent Graduate authority for entry level 
positions. In addition, OFCCP encourages its employees to share 
announcements through their professional and social networks. OFCCP is 
also working with OHR to reach a diverse talent pool for its vacancy 
announcements.
    OFCCP is developing several new training courses and resources for 
its compliance officers. With the recent OMB approval of the 
construction scheduling letter and the upcoming release of the 
construction scheduling list, OFCCP will ensure that its compliance 
officers are fully trained to handle construction compliance 
evaluations in the most efficient and effective manner. This training 
is scheduled to commence prior to the release of the scheduling list.
    OFCCP is also developing training for new compliance officers. The 
training will cover the foundational topics a new compliance officer 
must know in order to successfully start performing their job, such as 
relevant legal authorities, policies, enforcement authorities, 
compliance evaluations, complaint processing, and compliance 
assistance. This training will be ongoing for all cohorts of new 
compliance officers as the agency continues to hire.
    The training OFCCP provides to its compliance officers allows them 
to communicate agency standards and processes through compliance 
assistance and apply those standards and processes during compliance 
evaluations and complaint investigations. A uniform training program 
ensures consistency in training across the regional offices, which is 
critical in following OFCCP's regulations, processes, and procedures 
and carrying out the agency's mission. OFCCP will continue to 
prioritize investing in compliance officer training as the agency 
rebuilds and hires.
                         osha farmworker safety
    Question. Under a longstanding appropriations rider of more than 40 
years, farms with fewer than 10 employees at all times during the prior 
year and no temporary labor camp within the previous 12 months are 
exempt from enforcement of all rules and requirements of the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act. Yet, according to the National 
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, agriculture ranks as one 
of the most dangerous industries, with farmers at a very high risk for 
fatal or non-fatal injuries. Any worksite fatality is unacceptable and 
every step must be taken to avoid such tragic loss of life.
    How would the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 
use Federal funds to improve farmworker safety if Congress removed this 
rider in the fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill for the Department of 
Labor? Please describe compliance assistance it would undertake, as 
well as how farms would be factored into planned enforcement 
activities, including any emphasis programs or directives.
    Answer. The existing appropriations rider has precluded OSHA from 
conducting enforcement activities at a farming operation if it: (1) 
employs 10 or fewer non-family member employees currently and all times 
during the preceding twelve months and (2) has not had an active 
temporary labor camp during the preceding twelve months. If Congress 
removes the rider, OSHA can respond to imminent danger situations at 
currently exempt farming operations and remove employees from those 
dangers. The agency would also be able to respond to employee 
complaints regarding workplace safety and health hazards, and 
investigate fatalities (such as from grain engulfment) and severe 
injuries. Lastly, OSHA would include small farming operations in 
programmed or planned inspections, such as national, regional, and 
local emphasis programs, that are aimed at specific high-hazard 
industries.
    While the appropriations rider has significant implications for 
OSHA's enforcement activity, it should first be noted that it has not 
prevented the agency from developing and distributing workplace safety 
and health resources for agricultural settings, including those where 
OSHA is unable to conduct enforcement. For example, OSHA maintains an 
Agricultural Operations Safety and Health Topics Page with information 
about hazards related to grain bins and silos, hazard communication of 
chemicals, noise, musculoskeletal injuries, heat, and others. OSHA also 
has a plethora of publications in both English and Spanish that are 
relevant to agricultural operations that may be printed from the 
agency's website directly or ordered free of charge from our 
Publications Office.
    The agency also conducts significant outreach to the agricultural 
industry as a whole, and engages with agricultural industry 
stakeholders whose target audiences include small agricultural 
workplaces and family-operated farms. For example, following a 
significant increase in fatal grain engulfments between fiscal year 
2015 and fiscal year 2016, OSHA's Regions 5, 6, 7, and 8 launched a 
``Stand-Up for Grain Engulfment Prevention'' event in fiscal year 2017. 
That same year, OSHA signed an Alliance with the National Grain and 
Feed Association, which helped to expand the Grain Stand-Up. Two 
additional organizations, the Grain Elevator and Processing Society 
(GEAPS) and Grain Handling Safety Coalition (GHSC), have since joined 
the Alliance and lent their resources to expanding this initiative. 
GHSC, in particular, has played a key role in ensuring the Grain Stand-
Up reaches smaller growers/producers over which OSHA does not have 
jurisdiction.
    If the rider were removed, and funds became available, OSHA could 
greatly expand its outreach to smaller agricultural employers and 
workers. Staff could pursue new relationships with Federal and state 
farm associations, and proactively establish alliances for the express 
purpose of conducting outreach, developing educational materials, and 
providing workplace safety and health training opportunities to smaller 
farm owners, operators, and employees. Removal of the rider would also 
enable OSHA to expand its On-Site Consultation Program to provide no-
cost workplace safety and health services to smaller agricultural 
operations who were previously not eligible for these services. 
Information collected during OSHA's inspections (e.g., regarding types 
and location of fatalities in smaller farm operations) could also be 
used to strengthen, and more effectively target, outreach and 
compliance assistance.
    Question. How would OSHA use Federal funds to improve farmworker 
safety if Congress were instead to modify the rider by allowing the 
fiscal year 2022 appropriation to be used only to investigate 
fatalities on such small farms and provide associated compliance 
assistance necessary to decrease the likelihood of a similar injury or 
fatality?
    Answer. Farming operations experience workplace fatalities from a 
variety of hazards, including from grain engulfment, falls from 
structures, entanglement in grain moving machinery, and electrocution. 
Researchers with the Agricultural Safety and Health Program of Purdue 
University publish a report yearly, showing trends in the number of 
grain entrapments and associated fatalities. Because small farming 
operations are exempt from OSHA enforcement activities, OSHA cannot 
investigate such incidents and determine the root causes to prevent 
recurrence of such incidents. If Congress modifies the rider, OSHA can 
inspect and thoroughly investigate the fatalities, and provide 
necessary abatement methods and hazard recognition training to 
employers engaged in small farming operations.
    We assume that the provision of the direct compliance assistance 
would be limited to the employers involved in the fatalities 
investigated, and focused on decreasing the likelihood of a similar 
injury or fatality at that facility. In this case, the agency would 
continue the outreach it already engages in (noted above) but could not 
meaningfully expand proactive outreach and compliance assistance to 
smaller farm operations. In many instances, when OSHA responds to a 
fatality in an agricultural operation and determines that it has no 
enforcement jurisdiction (e.g., where an incident is voluntarily 
reported), the responding staff will nevertheless advise them that 
there is important safety and health information on the OSHA website 
that could help them to decrease the likelihood of a similar injury or 
fatality. However, the agency could enhance this effort by using the 
findings gathered through any resulting investigations to augment 
existing compliance assistance materials and share them broadly through 
its outreach efforts. The agency may also be able to engage with the 
individual employers through the On-site Consultation program; this 
would need to be evaluated at the time the rider is issued.
                  multilingual worker protection staff
    Question. The missions of worker protection agencies of the 
Department of Labor include coverage of and assistance to all workers, 
including those who speak languages other than English.
    Please provide current counts of the number of multilingual staff 
for the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration (OSHA) in total and by region.
    Answer. OSHA has a total of 111 staff who are multilingual. The 
breakout by region is shown in the table below.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      OSHA Multilingual Staff 2021
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Region                               Staff
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            1                                    4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            2                                    4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            3                                    8
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            4                                   14
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            5                                   38
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            6                                   14
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            7                                   16
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            8                                    0
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            9                                    7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           10                                    4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
              National Office                                    2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Total                                  111
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    These data were provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary 
for Administration and Management and includes positions that may 
require a foreign language capability.
    In total, WHD has 573 employees who are multilingual and speak 21 
different languages.
    By Region, the Northeast Region has 136 multilingual staff, the 
Midwest Region has 87 multilingual staff, the Southeast Region has 107 
multilingual staff, the Southwest Region has 117 multilingual staff, 
and the Western Region has 126 multilingual staff.
    Question. How will the Department use resources in the current 
fiscal year and requested for fiscal year 2022 to recruit and hire 
multilingual, qualified candidates for roles as investigators, 
inspectors and other critical positions where language barriers could 
prevent an agency from fulfilling its statutory mission? How will the 
Department assess such language gaps and plan to meet its language 
needs in carrying out the missions of its agencies?
    Answer. OSHA plans to recruit and hire multilingual qualified 
candidates for investigators, inspectors and other positions by working 
with organizations such as Historically Black Colleges and 
Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, the Asian American Network 
and other organizations so that the agency's workforce has the 
multilingual capabilities that reflects the communities that OSHA 
serves. By reaching the most hazardous worksites and facilities, the 
agency not only helps secure safe and healthy workplaces and reduce 
workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths, but also protects at-risk 
workers in marginalized communities, who are less likely to have the 
protections and training to work safely in high-hazard workplaces.
    The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) utilizes targeted recruitment 
strategies to attract a diverse pool of highly qualified candidates for 
WHD positions. WHD routinely includes language requirements when hiring 
to ensure that investigators can successfully communicate with workers 
and employers about their rights and responsibilities under the law. 
Currently, WHD has more than 570 multilingual staff.
    In fiscal year 2022 WHD will continue to assess hiring needs 
through a data-driven approach that will help to identify gaps in 
services and resource allocation to particular communities. WHD is 
implementing plans to increase recruitment and outreach to Minority 
Serving Institutions and community based organizations to continue to 
reach diverse applicants and ensure a pipeline of investigators who 
reflect the communities they serve. Finally, WHD is opening positions 
in remote, low-wage, underserved communities nationwide and increasing 
flexibility in telework to serve these areas.
    Question. Please describe how the WHD and OSHA will work with 
stakeholders, including community-based organizations in reaching 
worker populations such as those with language access barriers and 
other factors that may contribute to a decreased likelihood of filing 
of a complaint for a violation of labor law protections.
    Answer. OSHA remains committed to working with and engaging its 
whistleblower stakeholders. The agency has been conducting two 
stakeholder meetings per year, some targeting specific industries, 
seeking input and suggestions from them on a myriad of issues, such as 
how to provide better customer service and how to conduct better 
outreach to the public. The agency also listens to their concerns 
regarding how the coronavirus pandemic has affected their workplaces. 
The agency reviews each and every comment and suggestion from these 
meetings and has implemented a number of them.
    As a result of the most recent stakeholder meeting in May 2021, 
OSHA is reaching out to migrant worker groups who provided comments, to 
more fully understand their concerns, and to work with them on enhanced 
ways to reach out to the people they represent. In addition, the 
agency's whistleblower website, www.whistleblowers.gov, contains many 
outreach documents that provide information to workers who may have 
been retaliated against for engaging in protected activity. Much of the 
information is available in English and Spanish.
    The agency is committed to not only inform workers of their rights, 
but also to remind employers of their responsibilities under these 
laws. Moreover, OSHA is actively promoting its Recommended Practices 
for Anti-Retaliation Programs guidance document, which focuses on 
assisting employers in creating an effective anti-retaliation program 
in their workplaces, where workers feel comfortable reporting concerns 
without fear of retaliation, and without the need to file a 
whistleblower complaint in the first place.
    OSHA continues to prioritize outreach to vulnerable worker 
populations. For example, OSHA translated its educational and outreach 
materials into Spanish \1\ and more than 30 other languages.\2\ These 
resources are printable from OSHA's website and print copies may be 
shipped at no cost upon request. Several focus specifically on 
workplace rights \3\ and OSHA created a video on filing a complaint 
that is available in both English \4\ and Spanish,\5\ which is shared 
along with its publications through the agency's outreach efforts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/odep/odep20200429-0.
    \2\ https://www.osha.gov/publications/bylanguage.
    \3\ https://www.osha.gov/publications/bytopic/workers'-rights-
outreach.
    \4\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=k70Ln7gRWDE.
    \5\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=zgv-Fuqx3K4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    OSHA's Labor Liaisons \6\ maintain communication with organized and 
unorganized workers, Committees on Occupational Health and Safety, 
worker centers and coalitions, helping them navigate OSHA's 
organizational structure and complaint procedures, and assisting them 
in developing and updating health and safety programs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ https://www.osha.gov/workers/liasons.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The agency maintains regular communication with worker advocacy 
organizations such as the National Council for Occupational Safety and 
Health (National COSH), to ensure that safety concerns workers have 
about their jobs are heard and addressed. On June 23, 2021, Acting 
Assistant Secretary Jim Frederick participated in a bilingual town hall 
meeting where he responded directly to questions from farm, poultry 
plant, nursing home and other workers. Topics included the urgent need 
to protect workers from heat exposure and the COVID-19 Emergency 
Temporary Standard for healthcare. The recording is available in 
English here \7\ and in Spanish here.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ https://drive.google.com/file/d/
1HFikHihuIMbB69LGgdNsRsVkWCINtOXG/view.
    \8\ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gbM7sdTTonaNEGaMP-
PVO3Itdpf3uoH4/view.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    OSHA has numerous regional and area office alliances with 
Consulates \9\ of Mexico and other Latin American countries through 
which the agency shares information in English and Spanish about 
workplace safety and health hazards and workers' rights, including use 
of the OSHA complaint process. OSHA's Region 5 Regional Office also has 
an Alliance with the Consulate of the Philippines in Chicago.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ https://www.osha.gov/alliances/byemphasis#consulate-alliances.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    OSHA Compliance Assistance Specialists participate in regional task 
forces and committees established to protect migrant farmworkers in 
both the midwest and southeastern United States. Each August, OSHA and 
WHD collaborate in supporting Labor Rights Week, a joint initiative 
between the governments of the United States and Mexico to increase 
awareness in the Mexican and Latino communities about the rights of 
workers, including immigrant workers.
    WHD is currently engaged in the Essential Workers, Essential 
Protections initiative, which includes collaborating with stakeholders 
nationwide to train them in protections for the most vulnerable, at-
risk worker populations as we emerge from the pandemic. Efforts to date 
include conducting hundreds of educational webinars, reaching more than 
26,000 participants; training advocates on how to file complaints; 
producing and continuing to air television and radio public service 
announcements in English and Spanish; and producing and placing 
workers' rights posters in local stores to reach marginalized 
populations. A nationwide series of listening sessions is now underway 
to hear directly from stakeholders in contact with these workers how we 
can better reach them. These efforts are designed to strengthen 
relationships with community based organizations who are trusted 
resources for the most vulnerable workers and can refer workers, file 
third-party complaints, and amplify WHD's enforcement efforts.
                            subminimum wage
    Question. The budget requests $42.7 million, an increase of $3.7 
for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). The budget notes 
a priority for ODEP to advise Federal agencies and assist states and 
employers in transitioning workers away from sub-minimum wage 
employment currently authorized under 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards 
Act to competitive, integrated employment. My home state of Washington 
recently enacted legislation ending a similar authority for issuing 
certificates to pay workers with a disability less than the state 
minimum wage generally as of July 31, 2023.
    Please identify the Federal agencies involved and describe the 
planned advisements that ODEP has for this and next year.
    Answer. ODEP works with multiple Federal agencies to advance 
competitive integrated employment (CIE) in order to reduce reliance on 
Section 14(c) certificates. CIE is employment that pays at least the 
Federal minimum wage (or state minimum wage when higher) and allows an 
employee with a disability to interact with people without disabilities 
to the same extent able-bodied employees interact with one another. The 
main Federal agencies ODEP collaborates with include:
  --AbilityOne
  --Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Federal Contract Compliance 
        Programs (OFCCP)
  --DOL, Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
  --DOL, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
  --DOL, Veterans' Employment and Training Services (VETS)
  --DOL, Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
  --Department of Education (ED), National Institute on Disability 
        Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)
  --ED, Office of Career Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE)
  --ED, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS)
  --ED, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
  --ED, Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)
  --Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for 
        Community Living (ACL)
  --HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
  --HHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 
        (SAMHSA)
  --Social Security Administration (SSA)
  --Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration 
        (VHA)
  --VA, Veterans Readiness and Employment (VRE)
    ODEP planned activities and advisements for this year and next year 
to promote CIE: In fiscal year 2021, ODEP is investing significant 
effort \10\ to advance national and state-level policy promoting CIE to 
reduce reliance on Section 14(c) certificates. ODEP maintains a list of 
state ``Employment First'' policies and initiatives aimed at phasing-
out Section 14(c). The list is readily available to share with Federal 
agencies, state partners and other stakeholders on request. ODEP 
maintains a learning library of webinars and resources focused 
specifically on advancing CIE and has worked directly in over 27 states 
to align state policy, funding and service strategies to incentivize 
integrated over segregated employment. ODEP remains a resource for 
Federal agencies and state/local systems on use of best practices for 
achieving CIE, such as supported and customized employment, and 
reasonable accommodations. In designing activities to advance CIE and 
eliminate Section 14(c) employment, ODEP organized the recommendations 
of the Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive, Integrated 
Employment for Individuals with Disabilities (ACICIEID) into 10 
critical areas. These 10 areas are needed for employment service 
providers and systems to transform their systems from segregated to 
competitive integrated business models and provide the overarching 
framework for ODEP's work. Based on this framework, ODEP created a 
Transformation Guide for states to assist in organizing the multiple 
aspects of transformation needed across policy, funding and practice to 
achieve CIE.\11\ Specific ODEP activities and advisements for fiscal 
year 2021-2022 include:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/program-areas/integrated-
employment.
    \11\ http://drivedisabilityemployment.org/employment-first-
resources/e1st-state-transformation-guide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --National Expansion for Employment Opportunities Network (NEON): 
        ODEP's NEON project assists provider agencies to increase CIE 
        outcomes and thus reduce reliance on Section 14(c) employment. 
        In fiscal year 2020, NEON selected and worked with five 
        national provider organizations (NPOs): ACCESS, the American 
        Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), the 
        Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE), the 
        Arc US and SourceAmerica. ODEP helped the NPOs create national 
        strategic plans for their employment provider networks to 
        transition away from Section 14(c) strategies and increase CIE 
        outcomes. Through NEON, ODEP also supported 19 local provider 
        organizations (LPOs) transition to CIE in fiscal year 2020. In 
        fiscal year 2021, NEON is assisting 48 providers in 19 states, 
        including Washington state. ODEP is also working through NEON 
        to create a National Plan to Increase CIE within the provider 
        community (anticipated for release in late 2021). In addition, 
        ODEP manages a monthly Community of Practice bringing national 
        experts, promising practices and real-life examples of provider 
        transformation to the over 2,700 participants from every state. 
        In fiscal year 2022, NEON will support up to 75 LPOs with 
        transition to CIE, and will provide support and technical 
        assistance to implement the NEON National Plan to Increase 
        CIE.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/odep/odep20200429-0.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --Advancing State Policy Integration for Recovery and Employment 
        (ASPIRE): Established in fiscal year 2021, ODEP's ASPIRE 
        initiative provides technical assistance to seven states to 
        help them develop and align policies, funding and service 
        strategies to increase CIE for people with mental health 
        conditions. Each state is required to involve key systems that 
        provide employment service and support including: Vocational 
        Rehabilitation, Mental/Behavioral Health, Medicaid and 
        Workforce Development. ASPIRE's goal is to coordinate policy, 
        funding and service strategies to increase availability of 
        evidence-based supported employment opportunities for people 
        with mental health conditions in the state. A technical working 
        group (TWG) composed of national mental health stakeholder 
        organizations, mental health national experts and intermediary 
        associations of state and local government agencies provide 
        ongoing information and assistance to ASPIRE states. In 
        addition, a supported employment learning community meets 
        monthly to bring cutting-edge information on key issues in 
        supported employment implementation to ASPIRE states. In fiscal 
        year 2022, ODEP will expand the number of states included in 
        ASPIRE, and will utilize its State Exchange on Employment and 
        Disability (SEED) to increase state policy alignment across 
        systems to increase CIE for people with mental health 
        conditions.\13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/initiatives/aspire.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --ODEP's work with VA and DOL VETS on CIE for Veterans with 
        Disabilities: In fiscal year 2021, ODEP partnered with the VA's 
        VRE and VHA and DOL's VETS to develop and release two videos to 
        raise awareness about customized employment as an effective 
        strategy to help veterans with disabilities move from sheltered 
        employment or unemployment into CIE. Released in February 2021, 
        the videos are available at: Customized Employment Works for 
        Veterans: A Job That I Love \14\ and Customized Employment 
        Works for Veterans: A Win-Win Strategy.\15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xIsekJpeyiw.
    \15\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=5CFjKwJtXqc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --ODEP work on Rate Rebalancing to Incentivize CIE: In May 2021, ODEP 
        released a comprehensive policy guide on state rate 
        reimbursement restructuring titled ``Value-Based Payment 
        Methodologies to Advance Competitive Integrated Employment: A 
        Mix of Inspiring Examples from Across the Country''. Guidance 
        on rate reimbursement restructuring is critical to increasing 
        CIE for people with significant disabilities. Many existing 
        rate structures are based on the assumption that some people 
        with disabilities are incapable of work, rather than on an 
        Employment First framework that assumes all people are capable 
        of work if given the necessary supports, accommodations and 
        work environment. ODEP developed three webinars on rate 
        restructuring in which relevant state agencies (Medicaid, 
        Vocational Rehabilitation, Mental/Behavioral Health) and 
        providers discuss how adjusting service rates enabled them to 
        incentivize CIE over segregated work models. This is important 
        because some state systems may reimburse providers higher 
        amounts for segregated outcomes. These systems could instead 
        elect to include services necessary for CIE in their list of 
        covered services and incentivize their use through higher 
        reimbursement rates. The webinars providing examples from 
        multiple states and multiple different systems include: (1) 
        Value, Outcome and Performance-Based Payment Methodologies to 
        Advance Competitive Integrated Employment in State Medicaid 
        Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Systems and Managed Care 
        LTSS Systems; (2) Supporting Employment Service Providers to 
        Succeed and Prosper by Partnering to Advance Competitive 
        Integrated Employment: Applying Value, Outcome and Performance-
        Based Payment Methodologies; and (3) Advancing Competitive 
        Integrated Employment: Value, Outcome and Performance-Based 
        Payment Methodologies in State Vocational Rehabilitation and 
        Behavioral Health Systems.
  --Financial Literacy and Benefits Planning through the Lifespan: 
        Financial Literacy Toolkit: ODEP also worked with DOL's EBSA to 
        develop a toolkit for youth and adults with disabilities to 
        assist with their finances as they consider employment, 
        retention and advancement. It also shows them how they can 
        build savings. This toolkit provides valuable information for 
        all phases of employment, including consideration of the impact 
        on benefits from working as people with disabilities move from 
        sheltered settings to CIE. It provides information in essential 
        areas such as work incentives, Achieving a Better Life 
        Experience (ABLE) accounts, and other areas of financial 
        literacy essential for people with disabilities. For example, 
        one important resource is the new fact sheet on the Medicaid 
        buy-in, developed by ODEP in collaboration with ACL and CMS 
        (see Medicaid Buy-In Q&A Medicaid ``Buy-In'' Q&A 
        (dol.gov)).\16\ ODEP will continue to develop new resources in 
        this area and add them quarterly. On July 27, ODEP and EBSA 
        hosted a webinar, Secure Your Financial Future: A Toolkit for 
        Individuals with Disabilities,\17\ to launch this new financial 
        literacy toolkit.\18\ I provided welcoming remarks for the 
        webinar.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/odep/topics/
medicaidbuyinqaf.pdf.
    \17\ http://leadcenter.org/webinars.
    \18\ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/secure-your-financial-
future.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Workforce 
        Development System: ODEP efforts to expand access to CIE 
        includes leveraging the services and connections available 
        through the American Job Centers (AJC) system operated under 
        WIOA. AJCs can register to become Employment Networks (ENs) 
        under the Ticket to Work (TTW) program. ENs are reimbursed for 
        employment services on a milestone basis for successfully 
        assisting people with disabilities into CIE employment. 
        Consequently, ODEP worked to expand the impact of the TTW/EN 
        program by connecting providers of CIE employment services to 
        ENs. The goal was to leverage additional support in achieving 
        CIE for people with disabilities who are eligible Social 
        Security recipients under TTW. To assist in this effort, on May 
        2021, DOL released a Ticket to Work: Operating a Workforce EN 
        Planning Guide and Workbook to promote the benefits of 
        operating as a workforce EN and to enhance awareness of 
        available resources to help in this process, including guidance 
        and promising practices. ODEP, ETA and SSA developed this 
        technical guide with input from 19 workforce systems currently 
        operating as ENs. The planning guide and workbook assist state 
        and local area workforce leadership in the process of becoming 
        and operating as a workforce EN. It includes a set of 
        activities (e.g., checklists, discussion questions and 
        exercises) to help walk through the process to make an informed 
        decision, and serve as an operational resource for existing 
        workforce ENs. ODEP also held a webinar on May 26, 2021, 
        Practices in Workforce Employment Network Operation--New 
        Technical Guidance,\19\ which provided highlights from the 
        technical guide, promoted the advantages this opportunity 
        provides to local workforce systems and shared the experiences 
        of three current workforce systems from the workforce EN 
        operators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ https://www.workforcegps.org/events/2021/03/23/13/16/
Practices-in-Workforce-Employment-Network-Operation-New-Technical-
Guidance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --Advisement to Federal State and Local Governments, Providers and 
        Individuals with Disabilities on Current Federal Investments to 
        Advance CIE: In July 2021, in recognition of the 31st 
        anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ODEP 
        released a new fact sheet, ``Recent Funding Opportunities to 
        Expand Access to Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) for 
        Individuals with Disabilities'', developed in collaboration 
        with the HHS' CMS, ACL, SAMHSA; ED's RSA and OSEP; and SSA. The 
        fact sheet highlights new funding and flexibilities which 
        provide significant opportunities to increase access to CIE for 
        youth and adults with disabilities. The increased funding and 
        flexibilities are provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief 
        and Economic Security Act (CARES), the American Rescue Plan Act 
        of 2021 (ARP), the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental 
        Appropriations Act (CRRSA), the Further Consolidated 
        Appropriations Act of 2020 (FCAA), and through the work of 
        multiple Federal agencies providing services to individuals 
        with disabilities. The CIE fact sheet is located on the ODEP 
        web page at: Recent Funding Opportunities to Expand Access to 
        Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) for Individuals with 
        Disabilities.\20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\ https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ODEP/pdf/
508_odep_cie_07152021.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  --Disability Innovation Fund: ED's RSA and ODEP are discussing RSA's 
        2020 and 2021 Disability Innovation Fund, which currently has 
        approximately $110 million in fiscal year 2020 available 
        funding, resulting from unused Federal vocational 
        rehabilitation funding returned by states. Congress directed 
        RSA to consult with DOL regarding the use of fiscal year 2021 
        funds. For the fiscal year 2021 funds, Congress stipulated that 
        the funds be used to award competitive grants to improve 
        opportunities for CIE for individuals with disabilities. ODEP 
        is working with WHD, RSA, ACL and CMS to design the next set of 
        grants.
    Question. How does ODEP plan to assist states and employers in such 
transitions?
    Answer. ODEP remains committed to helping states and employers 
transition from segregated Section 14(c) employment to CIE outcomes. 
ODEP's most critical activities include NEON, ASPIRE, and a new 
collaboration between ODEP's SEED initiative with ASPIRE and NEON.
  --National Expansion for Employment Opportunities Network (NEON): As 
        described above, ODEP's NEON project assists provider agencies 
        to increase CIE outcomes and thus reduce reliance on Section 
        14(c) employment. In fiscal year 2022, NEON will increase the 
        number of providers developing and implementing transformation 
        plans and assist states in the critical task of rebalancing/
        aligning their service funding in support of CIE. ODEP is also 
        developing multiple NEON tools for release. These include, but 
        are not limited to: an Employment First statewide strategic 
        planning manual to assist states in organizing their statewide 
        strategic planning efforts to effectively engage stakeholders 
        and implement Employment First systems change and a state self-
        assessment tool for increasing CIE to assist states in 
        evaluating current policies, practices and infrastructures in 
        each of the Ten Critical Areas to Increase Competitive 
        Integrated Employment. The 10 sections of the assessment tool 
        are based on the recommendations of the final report of the 
        Advisory Committee on Increasing Competitive Integrated 
        Employment for Individuals with Disabilities. Additional focus 
        in NEON fiscal year 2022 activities will assist providers in 
        implementing the NEON National Plan to Increase CIE (expected 
        release late 2021).
  --Advancing State Policy Integration for Recovery and Employment 
        (ASPIRE): As described above, ODEP's ASPIRE initiative is 
        assisting states and providers with aligning policy, funding 
        and service strategies across systems This is needed to expand 
        access to evidence-based supported employment throughout 
        participating states. In fiscal year 2022, ODEP will expand the 
        number of states included in ASPIRE, and will collaborate with 
        ODEP's SEED initiative to increase state policy alignment 
        across systems in other states to increase CIE for people with 
        mental health conditions.
  --State Exchange on Employment and Disability/ASPIRE/NEON 
        partnership: ODEP's SEED works through state intermediary 
        organizations such as the National Conference of State 
        Legislatures (NCSL), the National Governors Association (NGA), 
        and the Council of State Governments (CSG) to assist state 
        legislatures and governors in developing more inclusive 
        workforce policies that promote disability employment. Since 
        transitioning away from subminimum wage is a priority for DOL 
        and an increasing priority for states, SEED and its 
        intermediaries will actively promote legislative and 
        administrative policy options for consideration by all of the 
        states, as well as share examples of recently passed or enacted 
        legislation. In fiscal year 2022, SEED and its intermediaries, 
        including NGA, will work with ODEP's ASPIRE and NEON 
        initiatives to establish a policy collaborative that will focus 
        on assisting those states supporting CIE and the phase-out of 
        Section 14(c). States with more mature CIE policy in place will 
        participate as CIE leaders to assist states with less developed 
        CIE policy, and subject matter experts will work directly with 
        participating states to develop CIE transformation plans.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/state-policy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                bls move
    Question. The last two Department of Labor Appropriations Acts have 
appropriated a total of $40 million requested for the move of the 
headquarters of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The Congressional 
Budget Justifications for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 both identified 
this amount as the share of total project costs that BLS would 
contribute to the move, with the General Services Administration (GSA) 
paying for the remainder of construction and real property costs of 
nearly $50 million. The fiscal year 2022 BLS budget requests $28.5 
million for a portion of these real property costs and indicates the 
remaining costs would be initially financed by the GSA and repaid by 
BLS over time after the move is complete.
    Why has GSA backed out of paying its share of project costs?
    Answer. The fiscal year 2020 Budget, released in March 2019, 
announced that the BLS headquarters would move to the Suitland Federal 
Center. At the time, based on a high-level assessment of the project, 
the Budget estimated a total project cost of $89 million. The personal 
property costs of $40 million were assigned to BLS, and GSA was 
assigned the real property costs at $49 million. These estimates were 
done in advance of a detailed building assessment study which expanded 
the scope of the renovation project resulting in a new cost estimate 
and a detailed assignment of costs between BLS and GSA. The fiscal year 
2022 BLS budget request for $28.5 million reflects this revised cost 
estimate and an updated determination that BLS would fund tenant 
improvement costs, the costs to be borne by the agency consistent with 
the publicly posted GSA pricing guide, through a combination of 
appropriated dollars (paid up front) and a tenant improvement allowance 
(repaid over time through the rent stream). GSA's fiscal year 2022 
budget also reflects increased renovation costs with a request of $20 
million in fiscal year 2022. GSA continues to fund all renovation costs 
consistent with the pricing guide while BLS is funding the tenant 
related costs consistent with projects in GSA owned facilities.
    Question. What actions has DOL taken to secure the GSA contribution 
that DOL stated in prior Congressional Budget Justifications GSA would 
provide?
    Answer. Throughout the project, DOL has worked closely with GSA to 
refine cost estimates and clarify funding mechanisms. This has involved 
numerous and regular meetings with GSA executives within the National 
Capital Region, in consultation with the Office of Management and 
Budget.
    Question. Please describe how the $28.5 million requested for costs 
that GSA was going to cover could instead be used to strengthen BLS 
programs for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, 
productivity and other critical information for understanding the 
economy of the United States? What about the additional $23.8 million 
in costs that would need to be repaid in the future?
    Answer. As mentioned above, the fiscal year 2022 BLS budget request 
for $28.5 million reflects the revised cost estimate to realize the 
move with the associated reduced footprint and the long-term rent 
savings for the BLS National Office. The Department strongly supports 
the move, as it will produce considerable savings and efficiencies that 
will contribute to BLS' achievement of its mission. If the BLS 
appropriation for fiscal year 2022 instead directed the $28.5 million 
in additional funding for base programs, the BLS could fund work on 
additional statistical program improvements that have been of interest 
to Congress, such as improving the Job Openings and Labor Turnover 
Survey (JOLTS) and Consumer Expenditure (CE) program poverty 
measurement. However, without this funding, the BLS Suitland move would 
be interrupted and the project timeline would be prolonged. 
Additionally, it is critical for work to proceed in a timely fashion as 
the $40 million appropriated to date for the move expires September 
2024. Once the BLS National Office is located at Suitland, rental 
savings are expected, which could be used to cover the tenant 
improvement costs to be repaid over time and future program 
improvements.
    The $23.8 million in estimated costs to be paid to GSA in the 
future are intended to take place over the course of several years in 
the form of a tenant improvement allowance. As such, the payments will 
be part of the BLS rent bill at the Suitland Federal Center (SFC) and, 
at that level, will reduce the expected rent savings at the SFC by 
approximately $2.5 million per year.
                       whd and osha foia requests
    Question. With over 1,700 Freedom of Information Act requests 
backlogged at the Wage and Hour Division and more than 800 backlogged 
at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as of the second 
quarter of fiscal year 2021, it's clear more needs to be done to timely 
process these requests.
    Please identify the funding and staffing level dedicated to this 
work at each of these agencies in the current fiscal year and the 
amounts and staffing level in the fiscal year 2022 request.
    Answer. OSHA's FOIA program is decentralized, with designated staff 
performing FOIA work largely as an additional duty in the national 
office and field offices across the country, and does not have a 
designated budget line item. The funding and staffing for OSHA's FOIA 
work is calculated based on a survey on the number of staff involved 
and amount of time spent working on the program. In fiscal year 2020, 
eight FTE worked full-time on FOIA. Staff working on FOIA as an 
additional duty accounted for the equivalent of 54 FTE, for a total of 
62 FTE working on the FOIA program at a cost of $6.4 million.
    In fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division had nine FTE at an 
approximate cost of $1.1 million performing work related to the Freedom 
of Information Act. In fiscal year 2022, the Wage and Hour Division 
expects staffing levels to be 11 FTE for approximately $1.3 million to 
perform this work.
    Question. What steps are these agencies taking and planning to 
timely process FOIA requests?
    Answer. OSHA acknowledges that there is room for improvement in the 
FOIA program and is working to address the backlog of requests and to 
improve the timeliness of responses to new requests. OSHA processes 
approximately 9,000 FOIA requests every fiscal year. This accounts for 
approximately 60 percent of all FOIA requests that come into the 
Department of Labor. OSHA's FOIA program is decentralized and consists 
mainly of staff working on FOIA requests as an additional duty. OSHA's 
Office of Communications (OOC) coordinates the agency's FOIA program 
and routinely coordinates with staff working on FOIA throughout the 
country to address any issues, share information, and provide necessary 
training. OOC continuously looks for ways to improve the effectiveness 
and efficiency of the FOIA program. For example, OOC has conducted two 
pilots to evaluate potential changes to the program's structure in 
order to streamline and improve overall efficiency, consistency and 
quality of the agency's FOIA process. The agency is evaluating the 
results of the pilots and is considering next steps.
    During fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division has reduced its 
FOIA back log from 530 outstanding requests at the end of fiscal year 
2020 to 285 as of July 30, 2021. WHD has accomplished this by 
recruiting and retaining FOIA leadership and staff as well as 
leveraging technological tools to speed processing requested records 
within WHD.
                        ebsa consolidated budget
    Question. The budget request for the Employee Benefit 
Administration (EBSA) requests a consolidated employee benefits 
security programs budget activity in place of separate budget 
activities for enforcement and participant assistance, policy and 
compliance assistance, and administration.
    How would this new structure better enable EBSA to achieve its 
statutory mission?
    Answer. EBSA seeks to aggregate and consolidate program budget 
activities for enforcement and participant assistance, policy and 
compliance assistance, and program oversight.
    By restructuring these three budget activities into a single 
activity for Employee Benefits Security Programs, EBSA can simplify 
agency performance reporting and streamline agency performance and 
operating plan development and implementation.
    Question. How would EBSA continue to provide transparency and 
oversight of its spending for each of the eliminated budget activities?
    Answer. EBSA believes that restructuring its budget activities will 
facilitate the allocation and redistribution of resources from lesser 
performing and lower priority strategies/programs to better performing 
and higher priority strategies/programs. The restructured budget 
activities will create a responsive organization that facilitates 
results-based management. Additionally, the restructured budget 
eliminates artificial lines between activities, all of which are aimed 
at a single outcome--employee benefits security. While this 
restructuring would promote the more efficient allocation of resources, 
it would not have any negative impact on EBSA's ability and 
responsibility to report responsibly to Congress on how it expends 
appropriated funds or on the agency's resulting performance.
                    research and evaluation funding
    Question. The budget proposes new evaluation funding flexibility 
for the Chief Evaluation Officer and Bureau of Labor Statistics at the 
Department of Labor, as well as for certain offices within the 
Department of Health and Human Services.
    Please describe how each of the new authorities requested would 
better advance research, evaluation and statistical purposes at the 
Department of Labor.
    Answer. High-quality evaluations, research, and statistical surveys 
are essential to building evidence about what works, why, and for whom. 
They are also inherently complicated, dynamic activities, with 
uncertainty about the timing and amount of work required to design, 
implement, and complete the studies. Further, we often want to know 
about the outcomes for workers both in the short- and longer-term. This 
usually requires information collections spanning five or more years 
beyond the particular intervention or program under study. The proposal 
allows flexibility to strategically plan evaluations over time by 
extending the obligation period to 5 years, rather than constraining 
obligation within 1-2 years (as current authorities for BLS or the 
Chief Evaluation Office allow). In addition, the currently available 
procurement vehicles lack the flexibility needed to match the dynamic 
nature of these evidence-building projects. Some studies provide high 
quality information useful across DOL sub-agencies or across Federal 
agencies; the proposed authority to use a single Treasury account for 
such activities, when multiple originating appropriations are used, 
enables efficiencies for awarding contracts to evaluate DOL programs 
when portions of funding from several DOL accounts are needed to 
sufficiently fund the project, or when cosponsoring research across 
Federal agencies. The proposed flexibilities enable DOL to maximize the 
use of evaluation resources, reduce burden to the public, and mitigate 
duplication of Federal efforts.
    Further, evaluation and research projects often encounter 
unexpected circumstances due to their dynamic nature. The proposed 
authority would permit unexpended funds to be repurposed for another 
research, evaluation, or statistical project, which is often not 
currently possible because of the time-limited and inflexible nature of 
these funds. This would allow the funds to be used efficiently for 
their original intent. In order to streamline these procurement 
processes, improve efficiency, and make better use of existing 
evaluation resources the Budget proposes to provide the Department of 
Labor with expanded flexibilities to spend funds over a longer period 
of time through the ``Evaluation Funding Flexibility'' outlined in 
General Provision, Section 521. This request is part of a provision 
which includes the Departmental Program Evaluation activity in the 
Departmental Management appropriation and the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics; as well as the Department of Health and Human Services' 
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Office for 
Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children 
and Families. These flexibilities will allow agencies to meet the 
collective aim of efficient government investment in evidence-building 
with embedded adaptability to reflect changing circumstances on the 
ground.
                        wcf unobligated balances
    Question.The budget proposes to increase the transfer authority 
from unobligated balances available to the Secretary in fiscal year 
2022 to the Working Capital Fund (WCF) from $18,000,000 to $36,000,000. 
The budget also proposes to create a multi-year funding authority for 
building space optimization within the WCF.
    Please identify the additional investments that could be supported 
by the increased transfer authority and describe the cost avoidance and 
risk reduction expected to be achieved through these additional 
projects.
    Answer. The Department will use these funds to modernize a host of 
legacy agency applications. DOL's 27 agencies have developed and 
maintained distinct, customized systems and applications to meet the 
unique requirements of their respective missions, but many of these 
systems and applications are outdated and quite cumbersome by modern 
standards. These legacy applications are costly to maintain, 
inefficient for both Federal staff and the public to use, and are less 
secure than modernized alternatives.
    The Department is well prepared to modernize these systems thanks 
to investments in the centralized IT platform made through the IT 
Modernization appropriation. By investing in and promoting DOL's 
centralized IT platform, the Department has established common 
foundational components that are being leveraged across the Department 
to ensure scalability, reliability, innovative development and minimum 
time to deployment. DOL's platform and standardized process to 
consolidate disparate and outdated systems, enables data sharing and 
component re-use--allowing DOL to be forward-focused and on the 
forefront of innovation with capabilities such as data analytics, case 
management, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and Robotic 
Process Automation. In addition to access to this standardized process 
and best practices, agencies have access to optimized infrastructure in 
a hyper-converged, hybrid-cloud data center environment and 
technologies that facilitate design of an overall improved user 
experience to allow employees to focus on mission work instead of 
technology. The cloud-based platform has helped achieve DOL-wide 
operational efficiencies in support of mission-driven IT applications 
resulting in consolidated resources, eliminated redundancies, 
accelerated modernization, and enhanced security.
    While DOL has made significant progress in investing in the IT 
platform, there is still an extensive list of legacy systems requiring 
modernization overhauls. By applying a set of common criteria, DOL 
prioritized legacy systems for modernization. DOL has been working to 
address the top 50 systems and is making progress in this multi-year 
effort. Based on DOL's FITARA's score, DOL has a proven track record of 
making the right investment decisions to streamline technologies and 
garner efficiencies for its IT, but budget limitations impede progress. 
Consolidating, integrating, and updating DOL's legacy systems improves 
DOL's security posture with capabilities such as standardized PIV-based 
application access, multi-factor authentication, Continuous Diagnostics 
& Mitigation (CDM) for cyber incident detection and response, and real-
time vulnerability and threat monitoring. Investing in information 
technology provides significant public-impacting benefits in many 
policy areas, including mine safety, visa processing, grants 
management, and retirement benefits assurance, among many others. This 
authority will enable DOL to modernize systems to ease public access to 
DOL services, improve accessibility for users with disabilities, 
mitigate security issues due to legacy technologies, and reduce the 
increasing costs of supporting incompatible and obsolete technologies. 
Each effort will improve reliability and accessibility for the public 
to the Department's programs for employment, worker safety and health, 
and benefits.
    The investments that can benefit by the increased budget authority 
include (but are not limited to):
  --OLMS--Electronic Labor Organization Reporting System (e.LORS) 
        Investment: OCIO has identified e.LORS as one of the highest 
        priority systems in the Department for modernization due to 
        inherent risks associated with this outdated legacy technology 
        which has no vendor support nor is it supportable by DOL's 
        cloud-based enterprise platform infrastructure. Modernization 
        is projected to provide initial annual cost savings of 
        approximately $600,000 the year following initial deployment. 
        After the system is fully deployed, OLMS expects to experience 
        a 15 percent savings in annual IT cost due to a reduction in 
        costs for maintenance of the new system versus the old.
  --OSHA--Information Management System Investment: The data 
        modernization and Transparency Initiative will help with the 
        Agency's ability to store data, retrieve it in the most 
        applicable form for operational use, and provide it in the most 
        user-friendly format for the public. Internally, easier 
        accessibility, paired with standardized data output from the 
        OSHA systems, will result in more efficient searches and better 
        ability for staff to analyze the data to lead to swifter 
        decisionmaking. Improvements in data retrieval and analysis 
        could also provide OSHA staff with insight into the types of 
        violations they might find at a facility, or enable a 
        compliance assistance specialist to provide best practices to 
        abate hazards most likely to be found at the worksite. These 
        efficiencies will lead to improved performance and cost savings 
        will be realized in the higher utilization by OSHA data 
        stakeholders of standardized reports with reliable information.
  --WHD--Wage Determination System Investment: Modernizing the agency's 
        technology infrastructure is critical to WHD's success and a 
        key factor in mitigating risk across the agency. With the 
        recent implementation of the Electronic Case File (ECF), WHD is 
        realizing the ways in which streamlined business processes and 
        more agile technology can revolutionize and bring value to the 
        agency's work. In doing so, WHD improves its abilities to be 
        good stewards of taxpayer money and to provide the best 
        possible service and results to those the agency is here to 
        serve. Cost savings will be achieved in the following areas: 
        (1) a shift to the cloud will minimize the need for WHD to pay 
        for expensive O&M resources, which will yield an estimated 
        savings of $3 million per year; (2) elimination of paper record 
        keeping costs associated with case files storage and 
        administration once ECF is fully rolled out, will yield an 
        estimated savings of $500,000 per year which equates to 
        1,557,000 pages transferred between offices and to record 
        centers per year; and (3) automated ingestion of data through 
        the new WDS customer portal will yield a reduced need for 
        contractor support on data entry and processing of paper 
        records and provide an estimated savings of $300,000 per year 
        in actual contract costs. This represents total costs impacts 
        of $4 million per year, which can be readily redirected towards 
        mission-critical enforcement staff and activities.
  --OFCCP--Case Management System Investment: The Affirmative Action 
        Verification Initiative (AAVI) is modernization need that would 
        allow OFCCP to ingest and process its administrative data in a 
        more uniform digital format. It will also allow staff to 
        retrieve and store data in a central repository that will 
        improve operations and enforcement by driving efficiency and 
        increasing the number and depth of analytical assessments 
        performed by the scheduling, policy, and enforcement branches. 
        Once development is completed, the ongoing costs will be 
        operations & maintenance, and a fraction of the help desk 
        service. The total operating cost is anticipated to be reduced 
        by approximately 65 percent, assuming no further development 
        efforts.
    Question. How will the Department assure that unobligated balances 
for the WCF are only generated from unexpected balances rather than the 
delay of spending on the original purpose of the Congressional 
appropriation?
    Answer. The Department has a robust program to ensure that 
unobligated balances are only generated from unexpected balances. The 
Office of the Chief Financial Officer meets regularly with agencies to 
review budget execution data and, in coordination with the Performance 
Management Center, tracks the percent of discretionary appropriations 
canceled after the five-year period of obligation authority has 
expired. The results are reported in the Congressional Budget 
Justification. In fiscal year 2020, the Department targeted 1.9 percent 
in canceled appropriations and outperformed this target with a 
cancellation rate of only 1.6 percent.
                  learning agendas and evaluation plan
    Question. The ``Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 
2018'' includes key provisions related to developing a multi-year 
learning agenda, evaluation plan, improving coordination of data 
government at the Department, and improving accessibility of labor 
data. The Department has indicated it plans to release an updated 
learning agenda and Capacity Assessment for Research, Evaluation, 
Statistics, and Analysis in February 2022.
    Please describe stakeholder consultations that have occurred or 
will occur during the development of these plans.
    Answer. The Department has engaged with a wide range of 
stakeholders external to DOL to understand evidence production, use, 
and future needs. For example, given the critical role of the 
Department in supporting the public workforce system across the 
country, DOL targeted early engagement with the workforce development 
field. From November 2020 to April 2021, the Department sponsored 
unstructured group discussions and individual conversations with 104 
individuals representing 53 organizations spanning the U.S. workforce 
development system. The objectives of the meetings were to encourage 
participants to discuss what research, information, or evidence would 
be most useful to them to improve the services they provide, and to 
identify future research topics related to employment programs and 
services and the future of work.
    In addition to this broad-based engagement, the Department convened 
an 11-member panel of highly qualified experts in the workforce 
development field, including representatives from workforce boards, 
academics, nonprofit organizations that partner with or study the 
workforce system, and labor unions. The panel provided DOL with 
targeted input on high-priority research topics related to WIOA 
programs and services that could build on the current evidence base, 
fill key knowledge gaps, and could be potentially suitable for rigorous 
evaluation. A summary of the findings from these engagements will be 
available on the Department's Chief Evaluation Office website later 
this year.
    DOL has also sought input on our evidence-building agenda from 
Congressional stakeholders. On July 29, 2021, DOL's Office of 
Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs sponsored a Congressional 
outreach session, which included a high-level briefing on the 
Department's strategic and evidence-building planning approach. 
Further, it allowed Congressional aides from both appropriations and 
authorizations committees to ask questions and to provide direct 
comments and reactions on the Department's activities.
    Looking to the future, the Department will gain insights from 
additional activities. For example, the responses to the equity RFI 
issued by OMB on May 5, 2021 will be helpful to all Federal agencies, 
including the Department, in evidence-building plans.\22\ Further, the 
Department will engage in further targeted stakeholder feedback, to 
support ongoing evidence development and dissemination activity. As 
evidence building evolves to meet emerging needs, the Department 
anticipates refining activities based on future stakeholder inputs. DOL 
is especially interested in ensuring perspectives from a diverse array 
of stakeholders who represent the communities our programs serve.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\ The full text on the OMB RFI, Methods and Leading Practices 
for Advancing Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through 
Government, can be found here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-
2021-05-05/pdf/2021-09109.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Question. What has the Department learned from its prior 
evaluations and how has the information been used in decisionmaking and 
its programs, policies and operations? How will it inform future 
decisions on programs, policies and operations?
    Answer. The Department has learned a great deal from its 
evaluations, data analytics efforts, surveys, and other rigorous 
research projects to help improve our work on specific programs and 
topics, and also to better understand how to best help specific 
populations, especially populations facing barriers to full 
participation and inclusion in the labor market. Specifically, the 
Department has used the results from its evaluations and rigorous 
research to expand and scale proven training strategies, to better 
target enforcement and worker protection activities, to identify 
underrepresented populations for tailored outreach, and even to improve 
internal employee engagement, among other outcomes.
    As decision-makers develop policies and programs to support workers 
with job training and other employment supports, they have used the 
results of evaluations to effectively target future investments. One 
important example comes from evaluations of the Registered 
Apprenticeships (RA) program. DOL funded a large-scale impact study of 
RAs across 10 states, which was published in 2012. That study found 
that RA participants had substantially higher short- and long-run 
earnings than did non-participants and that the broader benefits of the 
RA program for apprentices, government agencies, and society greatly 
outweighed program costs. RA participants earned an average of $5,839 
more than similar nonparticipants. Further, the completers of RA 
programs earn over $300,000 more in salary and benefits during their 
careers than similarly situated individuals who do not complete such 
programs. This study is regularly cited by researchers, program 
administrators, and policymakers as evidence for the return on 
investment to RAs.
    In part on the basis of those findings, both Congress and the 
Department have pursued expansions of the RA program. In partnership 
with the Department's Employment and Training Administration, the Chief 
Evaluation Office is now actively evaluating these new investments in 
the RA program, including studying efforts to expand apprenticeships to 
underrepresented populations, as well as assessing the effectiveness of 
expanding apprenticeships into high-growth and high-paying industries, 
such as information technology.
    Another important area of ongoing evidence-to-practice is related 
to building the capacity of the nation's community colleges' education-
to-employment pipeline to meet 21st century demands. Based on the 
results of a national evaluation of the DOL capacity-building grant 
program, Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career 
Training (TAACCCT), the Department identified a range of promising 
practices for future adoption including accelerated learning/career 
pathways, persistence and completion strategies, and learning-based 
connections to employment. The national evaluation generated these and 
a wealth of other findings based primarily on a synthesis of 71 
evaluation reports completed by grantees' third-party evaluators. 
Evidence-based practices and insights from these studies' findings are 
being applied to the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants 
(SCCTG) Round 2 Funding Opportunity Announcement and future DOL 
investments.
    The Department has also helped states and local areas in their 
efforts to build strong evaluation capacity, such as with the 
Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program. 
Beyond funding and broadly disseminating findings from the largest 
evaluation of the RESEA predecessor program, Reemployment and 
Eligibility Assessment (REA) program, the Department has developed a 
suite of resources to support states in implementing and leveraging 
insights from the evidence base, as they build, pilot, and evaluate new 
RESEA program components. The Department has provided evaluation 
technical assistance resources, including webinars and other tools and 
templates to help states understand, build, and use evidence.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\ The Department has developed a number of dedicated web-based 
resources for states, including https://clear.dol.gov/reemployment-
services-and-eligibility-assessments-resea and https://
rc.workforcegps.org/resources/2016/10/03/06/29/RESEA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Other research efforts with notable impact on Departmental 
operations include the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) surveys of 
workers and businesses. Fielded in 1995, 2000, 2012, and 2018, these 
large-scale nationally representative surveys represent a primary 
source of credible information about workers' leave needs, patterns of 
usage, reasons for leave, awareness of leave benefits, among many other 
factors. In addition, the size of the survey sample permits 
disaggregation and analysis by geography and a variety of demographic 
groups. The results of these surveys have helped the Department improve 
and target educational campaigns on Federal leave worker protections, 
as well as to provide technical assistance to businesses with 
administration of this benefit as part of compliance and enforcement 
efforts. The surveys have also been very important to Federal, state, 
and local policymakers interested in understanding gaps in worker leave 
needs and designing potential leave program proposals.
    Question. What are the Department's plans for increasing the 
investment in evaluation and evidence-building activities authorized by 
the annual evaluation transfer provided in the Department of Labor 
Appropriations Acts which significantly decreased from more than 
$22,000,000 in fiscal year 2016 to $2,000,000 in fiscal year 2020?
    Answer. The Department is committed to supporting a robust research 
and evaluation portfolio, including the capacity to develop and deploy 
evidence across agency management activities. Doing so is consistent 
with this Administration's priorities, as reflected in the President's 
Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government through Scientific 
Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking and through the Office of 
Management and Budget's guidance to Federal agencies on the 
implementation of the Evidence Act (OMB M-21-27). Bolstering the 
Department of Labor's research and evaluation activities is reflected 
in our fiscal year 2022-2026 strategic plan, which includes a 
management goal to ``strengthen the Department's commitment and 
capacity for evidence-based decisionmaking.''
                                 ______
                                 
                Questions Submitted by Senator Jack Reed
                       wioa and public libraries
    Question. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and Public 
Libraries.--Public libraries are critical but often under-resourced 
partners in the workforce development system supported under the 
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. As the nation continues to 
recover from the COVID-19 emergency, libraries will play a critical 
role in helping people access benefits and get back to work.
    What are the Department's plans to build and strengthen 
partnerships between the one-stop system and public libraries and 
ensure that public libraries have the resources necessary to provide 
these workforce development services?
    Answer. States have used WIOA funding for partnerships with public 
libraries to conduct digital and financial literacy education 
activities; educate library staff about available in-person and virtual 
employment and workforce development resources; provide resume writing, 
interview preparation, and other adult education programs; use the 
libraries' space to provide career assistance and host job fairs; and 
share workforce and labor market information. As an example, 
California's Library Workforce Partnership Initiative (LWPI) recently 
announced a funding opportunity for ten California public libraries to 
partner with local Workforce Development Boards to build staff skills 
and knowledge about workforce development and enhance workforce 
development efforts in their communities. Local Boards in California 
will work with public libraries, and together they will promote 
employment, career development, and skill-building for job seekers.
    The Department has partnered with the Institute of Museum and 
Library Services (IMLS) for several years and continues to collaborate 
with libraries since the passage of the Workforce Innovation and 
Opportunity Act. This collaboration has included webinars to ensure 
both libraries and the workforce development system know about the 
assets and services they each have available to support jobseekers. The 
Department published guidance to the workforce system reiterating the 
importance of library partnerships and continues to make the workforce 
system aware of the resources available in libraries to support 
workforce development (See Training and Employment Notice 35-15, 
``Encouraging Collaborations between the Workforce Investment System 
and Public Libraries to Meet Career and Employment Needs'').
    Other ongoing collaborative work with IMLS includes the Performance 
Partnership Pilot (P3) authorized in 2014, in which pilot sites can 
test innovative strategies to achieve significant improvements in 
education, employment, and other key outcomes for disconnected youth. 
P3 gives the Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services 
(HHS), and Justice (DOJ), the Corporation for National and Community 
Service (CNCS), and IMLS authority to waive Federal statutory and 
regulatory requirements that inhibit access to assistance and effective 
service delivery for disconnected youth provided certain conditions and 
requirements are met.
    Public libraries play an integral role and are a crucial resource 
in communities for job seekers. The Department will continue working 
with libraries and promoting libraries as key partners in the workforce 
system.
                                 ______
                                 
            Questions Submitted by Senator Joe Manchin, III
                          black lung benefits
    Question. Black lung is a terrible disease caused by inhaling coal 
dust and mainly affects coal miners. After years of dedication to 
providing our nation with energy, America's coal miners continue to 
face the devastation of black lung disease. We are seeing more and more 
cases of black lung--particularly in younger miners who have spent less 
time working in the mines. Today, more than 25,000 coal miners and 
their dependents rely on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to pay 
for critical medical treatments and basic expenses. The Black Lung 
Disability Trust Fund is financed primarily by an excise tax on coal 
produced and sold domestically. In both 2019 and 2020, Congress passed 
1 year extensions to ensure revenue streams for the Trust Fund did not 
plummet. Current rates are set to expire on December 31, 2021, putting 
an indebted Trust Fund in a precarious financial situation.
    How can we ensure these benefits are protected and that our coal 
miners continue to get the help they need?
    Answer. President Biden has consistently expressed his 
understanding of the harms to individuals and communities impacted by 
black lung disease. He has also expressed his belief that coal mine 
companies must be responsible for the occupational harms incurred by 
their workers.
    When the Government Accountability Office evaluated options for 
improving the Trust Fund's financial condition in May 2018, it examined 
different options and noted that permanently increasing the excise tax 
on coal to at least $1.38 per ton for underground-mined coal and $0.69 
for surface-mined coal (25 percent higher than the current rates), 
could keep the Trust Fund solvent through 2050. The Administration is 
committed to ensuring coal miners continue to receive their benefits in 
any case, and without a legal change, the Trust Fund will continue to 
borrow from Treasury in order to finance the benefits. Without 
increased funding, the GAO estimated that the Trust Fund will 
accumulate $15 billion of debt by 2050. That debt would be shouldered 
by taxpayers instead of the responsible coal mine companies. The 
Administration is eager to work with Congress to protect these critical 
benefits and ensure that the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund is 
solvent.
                            silica dust rule
    Question. The extraction, refining, and transportation of coal 
generates significant amounts of coal dust, which contains silica. 
While coal dust is hazardous to miners' health on its own, silica is 
classed as a carcinogen and is substantially more dangerous. Excessive 
exposure to silica has been linked to black lung, silicosis, and the 
most lethal type of black lung, progressive massive fibrosis (PMF). The 
U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General (OIG) produced 
an audit report last year critical of the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration's (MSHA) inadequate efforts to safeguard coal miners 
from crystalline silica exposure. The Inspector General's report found 
that MSHA needs to update its regulations to: (1) Lower the legal 
exposure limit to silica, (2) Improve the ability of the agency to 
issue citations and fines for excess exposure to silica, and (3) 
Increase sampling protocols where were found to be too infrequent to 
protect miners adequately. These findings are extremely troubling--
especially while we continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
    How far along is the agency in creating a silica dust standard for 
underground coal mines?
    Answer. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for MSHA's Respirable 
Crystalline Silica standard is scheduled for January 2022. MSHA is in 
the process of developing the proposed rule including the preamble and 
supporting documentation. Under Section 101 (a) of the Federal Mine and 
Safety and Health Act of 1977, the proposal must go through the notice 
and comment process, which includes solicitation of comments from 
stakeholders. This allows the public opportunity to submit both written 
comments and to present testimony at public hearings, if requested. The 
substance of the final rule would take into consideration the comments 
and testimony received during the rulemaking process.
    Question. When do you anticipate releasing a new rule?
    Answer. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for MSHA's Respirable 
Crystalline Silica standard is scheduled for January 2022.
                    miners and covid-19 protections
    Question. In March 2021, the Mine Safety and Health Administration 
issued Federal guidance for mine operators, but fell short of issuing 
an enforceable standard that would apply to mines and miners. Last 
month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an 
Emergency Temporary Standard for healthcare workers, which set 
requirements to protect workers from contracting COVID-19 in healthcare 
settings. I introduced a bipartisan bill in February, the COVID-19 Mine 
Worker Protection Act, which would require you as the Secretary of 
Labor to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to requires mine 
operators to protect their workers from COVID-19. This would include 
development and implementation of a comprehensive infectious disease 
exposure control plan, provide PPE to miners, and a framework for 
documenting data. Mining is a dangerous business, we in West Virginia 
know this all too well. But we should take all appropriate steps to 
ensure miners are protected against COVID-19, something we know is 
continuing to spread in our country.
    Secretary Walsh, can you provide an update on what are you doing to 
protect miners from COVID-19 exposure in and around mining sites?
    Answer. On March 10, 2021, the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration issued worker safety guidance to help mine operators and 
mine workers implement a coronavirus protection program and better 
identify risks that could lead to exposure. ``Protecting Miners: MSHA 
Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19'' provides 
updated guidance and recommendations, and outlines existing safety and 
health standards. The guidance details key measures for limiting the 
coronavirus's spread, including ensuring infected or potentially 
infected miners are not in the workplace, implementing and following 
physical distancing protocols and using surgical masks or cloth face 
coverings. It also provides guidance on use of personal protective 
equipment, improving ventilation, good hygiene and routine cleaning. 
MSHA announced the guidance to more than 450 stakeholders during a 
quarterly meeting and answered questions from the mining community.
    Question. Will you work with me on this proposal to protect miners 
from COVID-19 exposure?
    Answer. We need to take all appropriate steps to ensure miners are 
protected from COVID-19. The state of the pandemic is in constant flux 
and MSHA will follow the science. If it becomes necessary, we will 
issue an Emergency Temporary Standard for COVID-19 for the mining 
industry.
                    addiction and returning to work
    Question. As the opioid epidemic continues to take its toll, there 
are more and more men and women who face severely limited job 
opportunities after serving their time for crimes committed as a result 
of addiction. To help fix this problem, I reintroduced a bill called 
the Clean Start Act that seeks to help former addicts with criminal 
records seal those records if they complete a comprehensive addiction 
treatment program and show that they have turned their lives around. 
West Virginia has now enacted its own version of the Clean Start Act.
    What are some of the key ways the Department of Labor can help in 
getting those struggling with addiction to get back to work?
    Answer. The public workforce system complements health, law 
enforcement, and social service agencies to address the impact of 
opioid addiction and other substance use disorders. Since 2018, the 
Department has issued three grant opportunities addressing the 
workforce impacts of opioid addiction and other substance use 
disorders. Under these programs, grantees provide reemployment services 
for individuals impacted by the crisis; train individuals to transition 
into professions that can impact the crisis, such as alternative pain 
management, mental health treatment, and addiction treatment; and 
create temporary employment opportunities for peer recovery counselors 
and other positions that have a direct impact on the crisis. States and 
eligible applicants can continue to apply for National Health Emergency 
(NHE) Dislocated Worker Grants (DWGs) at www.grants.gov. ETA encourages 
State Workforce Agencies, local Workforce Development Boards, outlying 
areas, and tribal organizations to develop comprehensive partnerships 
to creatively align and deliver career, training, and supportive 
services that will best serve workers impacted by substance use 
disorders and opioid addiction. The services that the public workforce 
system offers complement evidence-based treatment for substance use 
disorders.
    DWG grantees use two main approaches to strengthen enrollment and 
services for individuals with substance use disorders: bringing 
individuals into the American Job Center for tailored services, and 
bringing American Job Center services to providers of behavioral health 
services. DWG grantees have also reported that courts and justice-
related agencies are strong partners. These may include juvenile and 
family courts, drug courts, as well as prison and probation offices. 
The workforce system can connect individuals who have been involved in 
the juvenile and/or adult justice system to Reentry Employment 
Opportunities grant programs (where available) to receive services and 
resources. These partnerships help to bridge the gap between recovery 
services and employment and self-sufficiency.
    For further information, ETA issued Training and Employment Notice 
2-21, Serving Individuals and Communities Impacted by Opioid Addiction 
and Other Substance Use Disorders, July 23, 2021. This is in addition 
to a series of virtual programs in 2021 to train professionals in the 
workforce system on serving individuals impacted by substance use 
disorder.
    Question. What programs and initiatives, in your experience, will 
be most effective in assisting former offenders rejoin the workforce?
    Answer. The Department's Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) 
program, which includes current reentry grants Reentry Projects, 
Pathway Home, and Young Adult Reentry Partnerships, align with 
evidence-based practices that result in people involved in the justice 
system getting employment. Our grant programs include flexibility to 
support the individualized needs of participants. Supportive services 
such as transportation, housing, mental health and substance abuse 
counseling, and assistance with gaining identification necessary for 
employment are crucial to initial and long-term stable employment for 
this population. Without these basic supports, it is hard for 
participants to succeed in training that leads to better employment 
outcomes. People connected to the justice system also need mentors, 
especially mentors with similar lived experiences, who can support them 
through the transition from incarceration to reenter the community. The 
use of Work Opportunity Tax Credits and the Federal Bonding Program can 
also increase employers' hiring of previously incarcerated individuals.
    Moreover, connecting participants to work that is legally available 
to them after release is imperative. Sometimes local or state licensure 
laws present barriers to employment. The Department is currently 
developing a tool that will help individuals re-entering their 
communities learn how license/certification laws align with their 
employment goals. The tool will be available on https://
www.careeronestop.org/.
    The Department has used existing evidence to support current 
initiatives, building off the Linking Employment Activities Pre-Release 
(LEAP) implementation study to develop the 2020 and 2021 Pathway Home 
grants. The LEAP pilots provided pre-release services through jail-
based American Job Centers and linked participants to post-release 
services. The study documented effective approaches to serving 
individuals in jails. The Pathway Home grants further test the 
identified concepts and link participants in jails and prisons to the 
workforce system while still incarcerated. Additionally, the 
participants maintain the same case manager pre- and post-release for 
seamless reentry into the community. Federal Bonding is also an 
important tool to help justice-involved individuals overcome existing 
prejudice and stigma that may prevent potential employers from hiring 
them due to perceived risks.
    The Reentry Projects and Pathway Home initiatives are currently 
being rigorously evaluated, which will further support the evidence 
base for connecting people involved with the justice system to gainful 
employment. Learnings from these projects will inform future grant 
models for continuous improvement and refinement of reentry employment 
projects.
              unemployment insurance and returning to work
    Question. Mr. Secretary, it's no question that the COVID-19 
pandemic has had a tremendous impact on our country since the start of 
2020. Among many actions that were taken to respond to its effects, I 
was proud to work with my colleagues here in Congress to provide 
Americans with unprecedented relief in the form of unemployment 
insurance benefit programs, which has been a needed source of income 
for many West Virginians and Americans during these trying times. 
However, we are noticing that in some states and localities, despite 
our economy steadily returning to full, pre-pandemic capacity, 
unemployment rates still remain high. This trend is, of course, 
concerning, especially given the fact that the U.S. economy is adding 
jobs at rates seen before the COVID-19 pandemic set in. My 
understanding is that this combination of still elevated unemployment 
and elevated job growth has led many states, including my state of West 
Virginia, to end the pandemic unemployment assistance program before 
its expiration on September 4, 2021. Like many of my colleagues, I want 
to ensure that folks in my state and our country can return to work and 
can do so safely. I remain willing to work with anyone and through any 
means to do so.
    Do you believe that the enhanced unemployment insurance programs 
Congress has implemented have contributed to the inability of some 
employers to fill employment vacancies?
    Answer. I am not aware of evidence that enhanced unemployment 
insurance programs have contributed to the inability of some employers 
to fill employment vacancies. The President has said: ``I think people 
who claim Americans won't work, even if they find a good and fair 
opportunity, underestimate the American people. So we'll insist that 
the law is followed with respect to benefits. But we're not going to 
turn our backs on our fellow Americans.'' And I agree.
    Question. What can we do in Congress to support the economy and our 
returning workforce as we return to pre-pandemic output levels and 
activity?
    Answer. The COVID-19 pandemic created widespread economic 
disruption and further highlighted pre-existing deficiencies in the 
availability of opportunities for all Americans to find good-paying, 
safe employment. While existing WIOA funding amounts to states are set 
by a statutory formula, the fiscal year 2022 Budget reflects the 
Department's continued commitment to help American workers and job 
seekers, particularly those from disadvantaged communities, get back on 
their feet, access job training, and find pathways to high-quality jobs 
that can support a middle-class life. The fiscal year 2022 Budget 
requests $3.7 billion for WIOA programs, a $203 million increase over 
the fiscal year 2021 funding. The Budget includes increases of 
approximately $37 million for the Adult Program, $94 million for the 
Dislocated Worker Formula Program, $100 million for Dislocated Worker 
Grants (DWG), and $43 million for the Youth Program. This request will 
make employment services and training available to more dislocated 
workers, low-income adults, and disadvantaged youth who have been hurt 
by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The fiscal year 2022 Budget also includes the American Jobs Plan, 
an investment that will create millions of high-quality jobs and 
rebuild our country's infrastructure. This includes investments in 
American workers--providing people with the skills they need to 
succeed, strengthening the pathways to success, and ensuring that the 
jobs that are created are high quality. Structural racism and 
persistent economic inequities have undermined opportunity for millions 
of workers, and these investments will prioritize underserved 
communities and communities negatively impacted by the transforming 
economy. The United States currently spends just one-fifth of the 
average that other advanced economies spend on workforce and labor 
market programs.
    The Department included legislative proposals to implement the 
American Jobs Plan, totaling $81.5 billion over 10 years, to address 
these multiple challenges. This investment in proven workforce 
development models includes:
  --Creating and expanding sector-based training programs;
  --Providing comprehensive support for dislocated workers to enable 
        their participation in high-quality training programs;
  --Expanding Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship 
        opportunities;
  --Building community colleges' capacity to deliver high-quality job 
        training programs;
  --Expanding access to evidence-based intensive, staff-assisted career 
        services;
  --Providing subsidized jobs to workers with barriers to employment;
  --Expanding workforce development services for justice-involved 
        individuals; and
  --Phasing out the subminimum wage provided to workers with 
        disabilities while expanding their access to competitive, 
        integrated employment opportunities.
    The Administration also has requested $100 million in the next 
fiscal year to enable states to overcome the loss of legacy industries 
or persistent employment challenges and work towards a clean energy 
economy, helping to ensure steady employment opportunities into the 
future.
    Question. Are there any lessons to be learned with how our 
unemployment systems have responded over the last year to better 
prepare them if faced with another economic crisis in the future?
    Answer. The Unemployment Insurance system has served as a critical 
lifeline over the last year, helping nearly 53 million workers stay 
afloat during the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis infusing 
over $800 billion into the economy--staving off an even deeper 
recession. At the same time, this crisis only further exposed 
longstanding challenges in the UI program. While states mobilized 
quickly to implement new crucial pandemic unemployment programs, they 
were hamstrung by outdated technology and a lack of resources that made 
them vulnerable to fraud from international crime rings. State 
administrative funding was at a historic low. Recent policy changes in 
state law are designed to make it more difficult to access UI. These 
challenges made it difficult for states to quickly and equitably 
deliver benefits to unemployed workers. Even as economic conditions 
continue to improve, states face significant backlogs that have delayed 
benefits to workers, and they have struggled to address fraud 
perpetrated by sophisticated crime rings that persist in using new 
techniques to attack UI systems.
    The Department welcomes the $2 billion that Congress provided in 
the American Rescue Plan Act and agrees that UI technology and 
infrastructure modernization are urgently needed. State systems must 
operate on a high-quality technology infrastructure that enables them 
to administer their UI programs equitably and efficiently, so all 
eligible unemployed workers have timely and meaningful access to this 
vital benefit. The Administration is fully engaged in developing 
detailed plans to achieve the goals and purposes set in the American 
Rescue Plan Act and will keep Congress informed of those plans and 
progress on the implementation of this important project.
    The Department has engaged with states on this topic. The 
Department conducted an initial webinar with state UI agencies on June 
22, 2021, to share some of the current plans and approach on pursuing 
UI information technology modernization. The webinar also solicited 
states for engagement and partnership in these activities. Since then, 
seven states have begun working with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) 
and the U.S. Digital Service in research partnerships designed to help 
fill in research gaps and provide input on the current and future 
stages of UI modernization. Also, there have been follow-up virtual 
office hours offered to states for further conversations on this topic.
    All states should benefit from the funding provided in the American 
Rescue Plan Act. As a state modernizes its IT system, there may be 
opportunities to take advantage of the central, modular, open 
technology solutions developed through this DOL/state partnership. DOL 
is also deploying teams of experts, initially to six states, on a 
voluntary basis to help identify process improvements that can speed 
benefit delivery, address equity, and fight fraud (i.e., Tiger Teams). 
The Tiger Teams can provide support, including funding, as states like 
West Virginia look at business processes through a fraud-fighting and 
equity lens in the course of modernization. Additionally, DOL is making 
grants to states available to promote equity and fight fraud. These 
grants will be designed to help states improve worker access to the UI 
system, while helping states make system improvements that will 
safeguard them against fraud.
                                 ______
                                 
                Questions Submitted by Senator Roy Blunt
             apprenticeships and nontraditional industries
    Question. As Chairman of the Subcommittee in fiscal year 2016, I 
began funding for the Apprenticeship program. I note that while the 
Administration is requesting an increase of $100 million for the 
program, the Department is no longer pursuing Industry Recognized 
Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs)--which would allow third-party entities 
to apply for awards without being registered by the Department of 
Labor. The previous Administration argued that IRAPs are intended to 
supplement the current system, not replace or weaken it. IRAPs would 
also allow non-traditional apprenticeship programs to thrive alongside 
of the more traditional apprenticeships.
    During a period when our nation is recovering from the 
unprecedented strain of COVID-19 on our workforce, it is paramount that 
we provide the most opportunities to get our country back to work.
    How will you work with non-traditional industries to bring them 
into the Apprenticeship program?
    Answer. The Department supports industry-driven and employer-led 
innovation in the Registered Apprenticeship System, a key strategy to 
increase the representation of non-traditional industries in Registered 
Apprenticeship. In fact, expanding Registered Apprenticeship into non-
traditional industries has been a Departmental priority for the past 10 
years, and we've seen incredible growth due to numerous investments and 
promotional activities. Since 2015, the number of Registered 
Apprenticeships in non-traditional industries (non-construction) has 
grown by over 43 percent.\24\
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    \24\ https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/about/
statistics/2020.
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    Industry designs and operates Registered Apprenticeship programs. 
The Department works in partnership with industry to provide technical 
assistance to support and ensure programs meet minimum quality 
standards for apprentice safety, welfare, and equal opportunity. This 
approach ensures that Registered Apprenticeship programs are employer-
led, industry-driven, of high quality, responsive to the changing needs 
of employers, and capable of producing highly skilled workers that can 
compete in a highly-competitive global economy.
    Over the past 6 years, the Department has made significant 
investments to support apprenticeship and work-based learning in non-
traditional industries. Investments include recent awards to support 
state-led expansion, equity and innovation grants, innovative 
approaches to developing consistent standards in non-traditional 
occupations through competency-based occupational frameworks, as well 
as the establishment of new Registered Apprenticeship (RA) Technical 
Assistance (TA) Centers of Excellence. This includes a dedicated RA TA 
Center to support the development of Registered Apprenticeship Program 
frameworks (competency-based, hybrid, and other innovative models), 
national standards including those that include industry-recognized 
credentials, and supporting industry in meeting Registered 
Apprenticeship Program design and development requirements in 
compliance with 29 C.F.R. Part 29, Subpart A.
    The Department has also supported employer-led innovation in 
Registered Apprenticeship through the following mechanisms:
  --Industry Intermediaries: Since 2016, DOL has funded industry 
        associations, also referred to as ``industry intermediaries'' 
        to develop National Apprenticeship Programs to meet critical 
        industry needs and lead the expansion of Registered 
        Apprenticeship across a wide range of industries. The most 
        recent round of industry intermediary awards included a focus 
        on expanding registered apprenticeship into non-traditional 
        industries.
  --Growth of National Programs: To better support national employers 
        and industry-led efforts, the Department has enabled 
        significant growth in the number of organizations that have 
        registered as National Apprenticeship Programs. This growth has 
        nearly doubled over the past several years. Between January 
        2019 and May 2021, the Department registered approximately 70 
        National Apprenticeship Programs. These National Apprenticeship 
        Programs allow employers to quickly and easily adopt industry 
        vetted and Departmental-approved Registered Apprenticeship 
        programs into their organization through a simple employer 
        acceptance agreement, reducing paperwork and program 
        duplication.
    Question. What resources are needed to ensure that all 
opportunities for apprenticeships are considered at the Department?
    Answer. Dedicated resources for Registered Apprenticeship are 
critical to expand the program. I urge Congress to enact the 
President's Budget and the American Jobs Plan. Within the fiscal year 
2022 President's Budget, the Administration proposes increasing 
apprenticeship funding by $100 million, for a total of $285 million. 
The Department will prioritize investments that expand the 
apprenticeship model to new sectors and occupations and increase access 
for historically underrepresented groups, including people of color, 
women, individuals with disabilities, and justice-involved individuals. 
The American Jobs Plan provides another opportunity for Congress to 
ensure support for apprenticeship. The Administration proposes 
investing $10 billion over 10 years to create between one and two 
million new Registered Apprenticeship slots.
                               green jobs
    Question. The budget request includes an increase of $100 million 
within the Dislocated Worker National Reserve for a new initiative that 
will target investments for training and employment opportunities in 
communities for new industries, including those supporting ''green 
jobs''.
    Additionally, the budget request includes an increase of $20 
million for a new competitive grant program to prepare eligible 
veterans, transitioning service members, and their spouses for careers 
in ``green jobs.'' This new competitive grant program is proposed to be 
housed within Training and Employment Services, as opposed to within 
the Veterans' Employment and Training Service program.
    I'm concerned with the notion that the Federal Government is 
dictating the future of our workforce by tying training dollars to 
``green jobs.'' Specifically, the new Power initiative will impose 
significant restrictions on local economies to focus only on green 
jobs, and not necessarily jobs their local economy may need. The 
Department already spends millions of dollars to train workers for jobs 
that are needed in local communities because of the partnership with 
state and local workforce boards. Therefore, why is the Federal 
Government simultaneously determining what industries can prosper in 
local economies through this new initiative?
    Answer. The $100,000,000 requested is part of a new Interagency 
Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic 
Revitalization. The Working Group is not an attempt by the Federal 
Government to determine which industries can prosper. Rather, it is an 
initiative that will complement other targeted Federal investments to 
assist workers and transform local economies in communities 
transitioning into new, sustainable industries, including those 
supporting new or sustainable energy sources. This targeted program 
will help energy industry workers who have been adversely impacted by 
changes in the economy prepare for jobs in demand in states and local 
communities that choose to apply. The initiative will build on the 
success of the original POWER initiative and expand beyond the coal 
industry. It will address changes in the energy economy, and other 
legacy industries, through strategic planning, partnership development, 
and reskilling and reemployment activities aligned with longer-term 
economic transformation efforts. It will support community-led 
workforce transition, layoff aversion, job creation, and other 
strategic initiatives designed to ensure economic prosperity for 
workers and job seekers in the coal, oil, gas, and other industries in 
decline.
    Question. I'm encouraged to see an increase for veterans' programs 
in the budget request. Many service members leave the military with 
significant training that can translate to the civilian workforce, and 
it should be a priority to ensure that our veterans have the resources 
necessary to transition to civilian life. Our workforce system should 
be flexible to allow these workers to succeed. However, I'm concerned 
about the proposal for a new, $20 million program to train our nation's 
heroes for ``clean energy'' jobs, only. I do not think we should tie 
our training dollars to specific jobs, especially jobs for our 
veterans, nor should the Federal Government be in the position to pick 
winners and losers in the economy. Why does the Department think that 
it can better dictate workforce opportunities for our transitioning 
service men and women, as opposed to our local economies and the local 
job creators that truly understand the workforce needs of our 
communities?
    Answer. The Veterans' Clean Energy Training Program will be a new 
competitive grant program to prepare eligible veterans, Transitioning 
Service Members (TSMs), and their spouses for careers in the clean 
energy sectors of the energy industry. This program does not dictate 
workforce opportunities but, instead, allows states and local 
communities, based on their local workforce needs and in partnership 
with local businesses, to help veterans prepare for jobs that are in 
demand. Clean energy job opportunities are expected to grow between now 
and 2029. Certain occupations are expected to grow rapidly in the next 
several years or have large numbers of job openings. A skilled 
workforce is foundational to achieving the President's goal of having 
100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035 while creating a more 
resilient energy grid, lowering energy bills for middle-class 
Americans, and improving air quality and public health outcomes. The 
Department's Employment and Training Administration will develop and 
implement the program collaboratively with the Department's Veterans' 
Employment and Training Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs 
to identify appropriate state, Federal, and industry partners to 
deliver the education, training, and job placement of program 
participants.
    Grantees will use effective outreach, media, and engagement to 
recruit a diverse cohort of participants for job training. Grantees 
will use robust, comprehensive work-based learning strategies, such as 
On-the-Job Training, customized training, Incumbent Worker Training, 
Registered Apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship programs that matriculate 
to Registered Apprenticeship programs and paid work and internships. 
Other allowable approaches will include classroom, including 
competency-based, and technology-based training strategies, culminating 
in the attainment of an appropriate industry-recognized certificate or 
credential.
    Grantees will also provide technical assistance to this network of 
employers to successfully employ and retain veterans, TSMs, and 
military spouses. In addition, grantees will provide participants with 
supportive services, such as transportation and childcare, to enable 
them to participate in activities authorized under the program.
    The program will engage a wide array of employers, large and small, 
including Veteran-Owned Small Businesses and Service Disabled Veteran 
Owned Small Businesses in the adoption and deployment of training and 
work-based learning. These will be public-private partnerships engaging 
employers across clean energy sectors, which will help empower local 
communities and ensure that we are training workers for occupations 
that are in demand.
    The program will develop new or expand existing successful industry 
sector partnerships and build off of lessons learned from the 
Department of Energy's Solar Ready Vets program. These partnerships of 
multiple employers, educational institutions, economic development 
agencies, workforce development entities, and community-based 
organizations will identify and collaboratively meet the workforce 
needs of the growing clean energy sector within a given labor market, 
incorporating career pathway strategies by aligning education and 
training programs with industry needs.
                          joint employer rule
    Question. In June 2021, DOL sent its proposed rescission of the 
previous Administration's Joint Employer rule to the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs for final rule. I am concerned that 
the Department is moving to rescind the previous Administration's Joint 
Employer rule and potentially issue another new rule. This 
Administration's steps will further burden small and local businesses, 
who are the economic drivers of our economy. As our nation recovers 
from COVID-19, we need to be encouraging job growth and job creation, 
not stifling it with further regulations and complicated, ambiguous 
standards.
    What are the Department's substantive plans and timeframe with 
respect to this rulemaking?
    Answer. The Department issued a final rule rescinding the previous 
Administration's Joint Employer rule on July 30, 2021. The rescission 
will be effective October 5, 2021.
                 covid-19 emergency temporary standard
    Question. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 
published an emergency temporary standard (ETS) relating to COVID-19 
protections in the workplace. The requirements of the ETS apply to 
``all settings where any employee provides healthcare services or 
healthcare support services.'' I am concerned that there's ambiguity 
regarding who and what are exempt from the emergency rule. While retail 
pharmacies have a blanket exemption, walk-in medical clinics, doctor's 
offices, dental practices, and other ``non-hospital ambulatory care 
settings'' may qualify for exemptions depending on their screening 
policies and the type of care performed. To qualify for an exemption, 
the employer must limit the number of entrances to a facility and have 
a screening process where people are checked at the entrance or outside 
of the facility. ``Screening'' is defined as ``asking questions to 
determine whether a person is COVID-19 positive or has symptoms of 
COVID-19.'' Testing is optional.
    Workplaces and employers that are not exempt from this emergency 
rule must develop and implement a COVID-19 plan; provide and ensure the 
wear of facemasks for employees; provide respirators and other Personal 
Protective Equipment to employees; ensure social distancing when 
possible; install physical barriers where social distancing cannot take 
place; and clean and disinfect all workplace areas in accordance with 
CDC guidelines.
    While I appreciate that hospitals and nursing homes must comply 
with the provisions of this emergency temporary standard, as those are 
the settings in which there's an increased risk of coming into contact 
with an infected person, I am worried that there's too much ambiguity 
as to who and what are exempt outside of those facilities. Further, the 
provisions of this emergency standard place a burden on the employer, 
and I'm concerned that certain workplaces that could be exempt from 
these provisions may not realize it. Can you detail what settings are 
exempt from this standard, and will these settings be subject to an 
OSHA inspection?
    Answer. The COVID-19 ETS applies to employers in settings where any 
employee provides healthcare services or healthcare support services. 
This includes: Employees in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted 
living facilities; emergency responders; home healthcare workers; and 
employees in ambulatory care facilities. The focus of the ETS is on 
protecting healthcare workers in settings where suspected or confirmed 
COVID-19 patients are treated. Thus, the standard targets healthcare 
settings where OSHA has found the elevated risk associated with care of 
persons with confirmed and suspected COVID-19, and associated 
activities, constitute a grave danger. Accordingly, it exempts out 
settings where this elevated risk does not exist.
    Paragraph (a)(2) of the standard serves to limit the applicability 
of the ETS and provides that the ETS does not apply to the following: 
(i) The provision of first aid by an employee who is not a licensed 
healthcare provider; (ii) the dispensing of prescriptions by 
pharmacists in retail settings; (iii) non-hospital ambulatory care 
settings where all non-employees are screened prior to entry and people 
with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not permitted to enter those 
settings; (iv) well-defined hospital ambulatory care settings where all 
employees are fully vaccinated and all non-employees are screened prior 
to entry and people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not 
permitted to enter those settings; (v) home healthcare settings where 
all employees are fully vaccinated and all non-employees are screened 
prior to entry and people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not 
present; (vi) healthcare support services not performed in a healthcare 
setting (e.g., off-site laundry, off-site medical billing); or (vii) 
telehealth services performed outside of a setting where direct patient 
care occurs.
    The agency has developed numerous compliance assistance materials 
to help employers understand and apply the ETS to their workplace. 
These materials can be found at the OSHA website.\25\ In particular, 
the agency has developed a flow chart to help employers determine 
whether and how their workplace is covered by the COVID-19 Healthcare 
ETS. The flow chart is available on the website.\26\ The agency has 
also provided responses to many Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), 
several of which address scope issues.\27\
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    \25\ https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets.
    \26\ https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/
OSHA4125.pdf.
    \27\ https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets/faqs.
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    Employers that are covered by the ETS can consult the Inspection 
Procedures for the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard \28\ 
compliance directive for information about inspection procedures and 
enforcement policies for the ETS. It should be noted that upon opening 
a COVID-19 related inspection where the ETS could potentially apply, 
the agency's enforcement personnel are specifically directed to 
determine if any of the exemptions outlined in sections 29 CFR 
Sec. 1910.502(a) apply to the whole facility or to well-defined 
portions to ensure that the ETS is not inappropriately applied to an 
employer who may be exempt.
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    \28\ https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/
directives/DIR_2021-02_CPL_02.pdf.
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    Employers not covered by the ETS can consult the Updated Interim 
Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) \29\ 
for more information about how OSHA is handling COVID-19-related 
complaints, referrals, and severe illness reports in these workplaces. 
All employers can also consult the Revised National Emphasis Program--
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) \30\ for more information about how 
OSHA is targeting specific high-hazard industries or activities where 
COVID-19 hazards are present in its enforcement activities.
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    \29\ https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2021-
07-07.
    \30\ https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/
directives/DIR_2021-03_CPL_03.pdf.
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                      restoration of dol staffing
    Question. The fiscal year 2022 budget request includes an increase 
of $1.7 billion over the fiscal year 2021 level for the Department. 
Included in that increase is an increase of an additional 1,949 full-
time equivalents (FTE) for the Department, increasing total FTE levels 
from 14,906 to 16,855. The vast majority of the increases are within 
Worker Protection components, which will ultimately increase the number 
of enforcement actions against businesses.
    The budget includes an additional 1,949 full-time equivalents for 
the Department. 362 of those are for OSHA alone, increasing the number 
of employees by over 13 percent. Most of those personnel won't focus on 
training individuals to renter the workforce, which is arguably the 
most important part of the Department's mission, especially as we 
recover from the unprecedented strain on our economy from COVID-19. Why 
is the Department not prioritizing training programs over increasing 
Federal bureaucracy?
    Answer. In addition to a much-needed restoration of staffing levels 
in Worker Protection activities, the fiscal year 2022 Budget renews 
DOL's commitment to help American workers and job seekers, particularly 
those from disadvantaged communities, get back on their feet, access 
job training, and find pathways to high-quality jobs that can support a 
middle-class life. Significant investments in training include:
  --Apprenticeship: The Budget requests $285 million, a $100 million 
        increase above the fiscal year 2021 enacted level, to expand 
        Registered Apprenticeship (RA) opportunities while increasing 
        access for historically underrepresented groups, including 
        people of color and women, and diversifying the industry 
        sectors involved.
  --Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act State Grants: The fiscal 
        year 2022 Budget also requests $3.7 billion, a $203 million 
        increase over the fiscal year 2021 enacted level, for Workforce 
        Innovation and Opportunity Act State Grants. This request will 
        make employment services and training available to more 
        dislocated workers, low-income adults, and disadvantaged youth 
        hurt by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
  --Training displaced coal workers: The Budget requests a $100 million 
        investment for DOL's role in the new multi-agency POWER+ 
        Initiative, aimed at reskilling and reemploying displaced coal 
        workers in Appalachian communities. This request would 
        complement other targeted Federal investments in POWER+ to 
        assist workers and transform local economies in communities 
        transitioning away from fossil fuel production.
  --Veterans: The VETS Budget prepares America's veterans, service 
        members, and their spouses for meaningful careers, provides 
        them with employment resources and expertise, protects their 
        employment rights, and promotes their employment opportunities. 
        The Budget provides funding for the Veterans' Employment and 
        Training Service's (VETS) core programs, which help improve 
        skills and provide employment opportunities for veterans across 
        the country. The request also provides the Employment and 
        Training Administration (ETA) $20 million for a new program, 
        developed in collaboration with VETS and the Department of 
        Veterans Affairs, focused on helping veterans shift to careers 
        in clean energy, which would help combat climate change while 
        preparing veterans for good-paying jobs.
              cares act and american rescue plan spending
    Question. The Department of Labor received $385 million in 
discretionary and mandatory supplemental funds through the CARES Act 
that was passed in March 2020 and more than $2.2 billion in mandatory 
funds through the American Rescue Plan (reconciliation bill) that was 
passed in March 2021.
    As of June 30th, a little more than $270 million has been obligated 
and only $91 million has been drawn-down from the $385 million provided 
in CARES. Further, of the $2.2 billion provided in the American Rescue 
Plan, less than $25 million has been obligated and only $5.6 million 
has been drawn-down. What is the delay in spending this funding and how 
long will it take you to expend these dollars?
    Answer. The CARES Act appropriated to the Department with $345.0 
million for National Dislocated Worker Grants (DWGs) and $15.0 million 
for the Departmental Management account to prevent, prepare for, and 
respond to coronavirus, including enforcing worker protection laws and 
regulations. In addition, the CARES Act appropriated $25.0 million to 
the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for oversight of the unemployment 
provisions enacted in the CARES Act.
    The Department issued guidance to States explaining how to apply 
for Disaster Recovery DWGs and Economic Recovery DWGs. The Department 
accepts applications on a rolling basis. Based on the anticipated large 
volume of funding requests across the nation, the Department approved 
reduced initial funding amounts to address the critical community needs 
in areas hardest impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency. The 
amount initially provided was 33 percent of the grant amount requested 
or a set initial award amount correlated to a severity rating. The 
Department typically funds DWG awards on an incremental basis, although 
on rare occasions, it may award funds in full or in larger-than-typical 
increments, depending on factors such as the severity of the disaster 
and the viability of a proposed project.
    The Department has awarded nearly $398 million in Disaster Recovery 
and Economic Recovery DWGs related to COVID-19. Of this total, 
approximately $143 million was obligated from the Program Year 2019 
appropriation; the remainder was obligated from the supplemental funds 
appropriated under the CARES Act. ETA determines the amount to award 
for subsequent funding opportunities on a recipient's justification for 
the additional funds and continued demonstrated need, as evidenced by 
productive performance, enrollments and expenditures. ETA has 
traditionally considered requests for subsequent funding opportunities 
when expenditures have reached approximately 70 percent of the total 
DWG funds awarded to date. ETA works closely with states in determining 
their needs and identifying when additional resources may be warranted.
    Of the $15.0 million appropriated to the Departmental Management 
account, $1.0 million was transferred to OIG, as required. OIG's funds 
are available without fiscal year limitation. The remaining $14.0 
million was allocated between the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration ($5.5 million); the Employment and Training 
Administration's Program Administration account ($4.0 million); the 
Wage and Hour Division ($2.5 million); the Employee Benefits Security 
Administration ($1.0 million); and the Office of the Solicitor ($1.0 
million). These funds are available for obligation until September 30, 
2022.
    As of July 31, 2021, the Department has obligated approximately 
$11.0 million and $9.9 million has been expended. The Department will 
obligate the remaining $4.0 million over the remainder of fiscal year 
2021 and fiscal year 2022 and expend the funds shortly thereafter.
    Of OIG's $25.0 million CARES Act appropriation, as of July 31, 
2021, OIG has obligated approximately $9.5 million and expended 
approximately $5.1 million. These funds are available for obligation 
until expended. The OIG indicated that it has allocated its CARES Act 
appropriation to support audits and investigations related to the 
expansion of the UI program during the pandemic, to include the hiring 
of more than 50 criminal investigators to combat unprecedented levels 
of fraud in the program. The OIG's funding will cover activities, 
salaries, and benefits through the end of fiscal year 2022.
    The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) appropriated $2.0 billion to 
detect and prevent fraud, promote equitable access, and ensure the 
timely payment of benefits with respect to the unemployment 
compensation program, $8.0 million to carry out Federal activities 
related to the administration of unemployment compensation programs, 
and $200.0 million to carry out COVID-19 related worker protection 
activities.
    The unemployment insurance (UI) system provided a critical lifeline 
for millions of workers during the pandemic. The pandemic also exposed 
longstanding challenges in the UI system. The funds appropriated under 
ARPA are critical to helping states address the most acute challenges 
they have faced this past year. The Department will be using the funds 
to tackle these acute problems facing the system in the short-term 
while also working to address long-term challenges. The Department is 
currently focusing on four key areas: sending multidisciplinary teams 
to states to provide intensive technical assistance; a comprehensive 
approach to implementing identify verification; modernizing technology; 
and directing grants to states to help solve some of these challenges 
immediately. Regarding the worker protection funding, the Department 
has set up a website \31\ that outlines the planned use of funds for 
the worker protection activities and a quarterly status of obligations.
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    \31\ https://www.dol.gov/general/american-rescue-plan/worker-
protection-supplemental-appropriation.
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        unemployment insurance and consumer finance applications
    Question. In your testimony, you stated that you have two key goals 
for unemployment insurance: decreasing fraud and increasing access to 
benefits. You mentioned that the Department will have a four-pronged 
approach to bolstering unemployment insurance, including modernizing 
technology.
    What are your thoughts on utilizing consumer finance applications 
to assist states in modernizing their unemployment insurance systems 
and preventing fraud?
    Answer. The pandemic has only underscored states' desperate need 
for technological support and improvements. Many state systems are 
operating on outdated technology, which made it difficult for them to 
rapidly respond to changes in law and economic conditions. Part of our 
plan for the $2 billion appropriated under the American Rescue Plan Act 
is to address this problem by centrally developing open, modular 
technology solutions that states may adopt as part of ongoing 
modernization and improvement efforts. Shared IT solutions will be 
designed to integrate with state systems and will focus on the needs 
that are shared across states, while supporting states to implement and 
continue operating state specific elements. DOL's vision is to provide 
software to support end-to-end administration of UI, including benefit 
delivery, employer tools, and appeals. As part of this effort, DOL will 
consider all possible IT solutions that will assist states in 
modernizing their systems and preventing fraud, including consumer 
finance applications. DOL will work with the IT staff in the States to 
develop and execute a plan that builds resilience in the UI systems 
across the country.
                                 ______
                                 
          Questions Submitted by Senator Shelley Moore Capito
                   funding for west virginia grantees
    Question. The Employment and Training Administration, an agency 
within your Department, is the leading agency responsible for providing 
job training and workforce development. My home state of West Virginia 
has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation, and yet we 
receive a minimal amount of ETA grant funding to retrain workers in 
emerging industries as we unfortunately shift away from a coal-
dominated economy.
    Why is it that we are missing out on this funding and how will you 
ensure that states like West Virginia, which have a clear need for 
investment in our workforce development, are adequately supported?
    Answer. The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) provides 
grant awards to eligible entities to carry out a public purpose for the 
direct benefit or use of the United States Government. Many of these 
programs are funded through formula grants whereby the law specifies or 
allows ETA to determine the formula to distribute funding to the 
recipients. These grants include funding under Title I of the Workforce 
Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Unemployment Insurance 
Administrative Awards, Foreign Labor, Employment Service, and Trade 
Adjustment Assistance grants to states and territories. The allocation 
formula and funding allotments for these programs are published in ETA 
guidance and are made available publicly.\32\
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    \32\ https://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/all_advisories.cfm.
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    In addition to formula-funded programs, some legislation provides 
discretionary funding for the Department to improve operations, 
performance, or knowledge. These competitive grants are typically 
awarded to eligible entities to create or expand innovative workforce 
development programs for workers and employers. The Department develops 
grant competitions and formally issues Funding Opportunity 
Announcements (FOAs) that convey the application requirements and 
evaluation considerations. These FOAs are published on the Grants.gov 
website and provide prospective applicants with the framework for 
preparing a grant application. The Department will often host a webinar 
or other event to discuss new FOAs for prospective applicants during 
the open period. A Technical Review Panel, composed of Federal staff 
and other workforce development experts, evaluates FOA applications. 
Reviewers evaluate and score applications based solely upon the 
evaluation criteria in the published FOA. The ranked application scores 
serve as the primary basis for the Department's selection of funding 
applications.
    During fiscal year 2020, ETA awarded more than $83.33 million in 
grant funding to West Virginia, including $78.67 million for formula 
programs and an additional $4.66 million in discretionary grants. These 
awards included two grants under the Workforce Opportunities for Rural 
Communities (WORC) program that enables communities within the 
Appalachian and Delta regions that have been hard-hit by economic 
transition, with slow recovery, to develop local and regional workforce 
development solutions that align with economic development strategies. 
ETA anticipates making a third round of WORC awards this Fall.
    Question. On that same note, I was disappointed to learn two 
YouthBuild programs weren't selected for continued funding. I'd love to 
learn more about why, this program has helped so many young adults get 
back on track for a career.
    Answer. The Department issues the YouthBuild Funding Opportunity 
Announcement (FOA) each year. This FOA is a competition open to both 
previously-funded applicants and entities that never received an award. 
Since this is a competitive process, not all applicants are selected 
for funding. Of the 130 applications reviewed this year, due to limited 
funds available, only 68 were selected. All applicants are contacted 
with the results of the competition and provided guidance on how to 
receive evaluative feedback related to their application. This feedback 
often helps applicants submit a more competitive application in the 
future.
                                 ______
                                 
               Questions Submitted by Senator Mike Braun
                dol freedom of information act requests
    Question. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), codified at 5 
U.S.C. Sec. 552, provides public access to certain Federal agency 
information.
    Please provide the Committee with the Department of Labor's (DOL) 
budget request specifically for continued administration of and 
compliance with FOIA requests.
    Answer. The DOL's FOIA processing is a decentralized operation such 
that each of the Agency's components account for their own expected 
FOIA processing costs within their individual budget requests. In the 
Agency's last annual FOIA report, completed for fiscal year 2020, DOL 
reported a total of 120.5 Equivalent Full-Time FOIA Employees and spent 
$19,103,622 in FOIA related processing costs for the DOL's 23 
decentralized FOIA components,
    While DOL's President's Budget for fiscal year 2022 does not 
include a specific request for the aggregate cost of FOIA processing 
and administration, DOL is able to identify certain items included 
within its budget request that relate specifically to FOIA processing 
and administration. First, for fiscal year 2022, the DOL has projected 
a cost of $1,170,000 for its Office of Information Services (OIS), 
which supports the statutorily mandated functions of the Department's 
Chief FOIA Officer (currently the Solicitor) in carrying out 
Department-level responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act. 
5 U.S.C. Sec. 552. In addition, DOL's Office of the Chief Information 
Officer (OCIO) has projected fiscal year 2022 FOIAXpress System cost to 
be $1,121,576, to include $891,210 for FOIA System Costs (Licensing and 
Hosting), $155,366 for FOIA.
    Question. Pertaining to the January 1, 2021 to July 15, 2021 
timeframe, please also provide:
      1. An update on the volume of FOIA requests;
      2. The average time the agency took to fulfill such and the 
        volume of FOIA requests outstanding; and
      3. How many requests the agency has utilized a statutory 
        exemption to deny fulfillment of a FOIA request.
    Answer.
      1. An update on the volume of FOIA requests

 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Number of Initial FOIA Requests Received.............      7,632
Total Number of Initial FOIA Requests Processed............     8,442
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Total Number of Initial FOIA Requests Processed'' includes requests
  received prior to  January 1, 2021.

      2. The average time the agency took to fulfill such and the 
        volume of FOIA requests outstanding:

 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Number of Days to Process (Simple Queue)...........       45.8
Average Number of Days to Process (Complex Queue)..........       72.2
Average Number of Days to Process (Expedited Queue)........       79.1
Total Number of Pending Requests (outstanding) request.....      2,296
Total Number of Backlogged Requests (20 workdays or older).     1,503
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ``Simple Queue'' is based on low volume and/or simplicity of records
  requested and ``Complex Queue'' is based on high volume and/or
  complexity of records requested.

      3. How many requests the agency has utilized a statutory 
        exemption to deny fulfillment of a FOIA request: 2
    Question. Please also provide a comparison of such FOIA volume and 
related fulfillment to calendar year 2020.
    Answer.
      1. An update on the volume of FOIA requests

 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Number of Initial FOIA Requests Received.............     15,820
Total Number of Initial FOIA Requests Processed............     15,645
------------------------------------------------------------------------

      2. The average time the agency took to fulfill such and the 
        volume of FOIA requests outstanding:

 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average Number of Days to Process (Simple Queue)...........         39
Average Number of Days to Process (Complex Queue)..........       53.3
Average Number of Days to Process (Expedited Queue)........       18.8
Total Number of Pending Requests (outstanding).............      2,589
Total Number of Backlogged Requests (20 workdays or older).      1,714
------------------------------------------------------------------------

      3. How many requests the agency has utilized a statutory 
        exemption to deny fulfillment of a FOIA request: 0
            payroll audit independent determination program
    Question. In the Trump Administration, the Department of Labor's 
Wage and Hour Division (WHD) saw both record-breaking enforcement 
numbers, and record-breaking outreach efforts. Despite these incredible 
outcomes for workers, the Biden Administration ended a voluntary 
compliance program called PAID (Payroll Audit Independent 
Determination). Will you commit to reviewing and reestablishing the 
PAID program?
    Answer. The Department ended the Payroll Audit Independent 
Determination (PAID) program in January 2021. Between 2018 and 2021, 
approximately 70 employers participated in the PAID program. The 
Department continues to provide outreach and education resources for 
employers. Employers may continue to contact any of our 200 Wage and 
Hour Division offices to confidentially discuss their compliance 
questions, or to self-report violations they would like to resolve.
                              teleworking
    Question. How many of DOL's approximately 15,279 Full Time 
Equivalent (FTE) person workforce in Washington, D.C. is currently 
teleworking either (1) part-time or (2) full-time?
    Answer. Based on data from the end of July 2021, 99.1 percent of 
DOL and PGBC employees are teleworking either on a part-time or full-
time basis.
    Question. For part-time staff, what proportion of their time is 
spent teleworking, on average?
    Answer. Pre-pandemic, part-time employees spent 21 percent of their 
time teleworking. During the maximum telework posture, part-time 
employees spent 92 percent of their time teleworking.
    Question. What has such teleworking done to decrease commuting and 
parking reimbursements, energy consumption, and other expenditures 
compared to years prior to the pandemic?
    Answer. Transit subsidy costs have decreased and these funds have 
been reinvested by agencies in their program activities. There have 
been some savings in energy consumption related to the reduction in on-
premises staff. To comply with safety recommendations from the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention in response to the COVID-19 
pandemic, however, the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning system 
is now run 24 hours a day to increase ventilation in the building. This 
has increased energy usage overall from prior years.
                          secretary's calendar
    Question. Previous administrations posted the calendars of their 
agency head for public inspection. As of July 23, 2021, there is no 
calendar information available to the public to understand your daily 
efforts on the public's behalf.
    Will you commit to begin sharing your calendar information with the 
public on the DOL website? Can you provide a date on which your 
calendar detailing the first several months of your tenure will be 
published publicly?
    Answer. No later than September 29, 2021, Secretary Walsh's 
calendar will be available at https://www.dol.gov/general/foia/
readroom.\33\ This will include the Secretary's calendar dating back to 
March 23, 2021 through July 31, 2021. Moving forward the calendars will 
be updated on a monthly basis.
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    \33\ https://www.dol.gov/general/foia/readroom.
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       unemployment insurance and third-party income verification
    Question. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) has brought 
Unemployment Insurance (UI) eligibility to a significant number of 
``gig'' or 1099 workers. These workers often face the greatest lag 
between income loss and access to benefits.
    Some have suggested using consumer finance applications (apps) to 
reduce processing overhead, decrease fraud, and enable automation 
resulting in streamlined access to benefits.
    Do you believe that states should use available funds to modernize 
UI systems and prevent fraud by creating partnerships with such 
consumer finance apps?
    Answer. The pandemic has only underscored states' desperate need 
for technological support and improvements. Many state systems are 
operating on outdated technology, which made it difficult for them to 
rapidly respond to changes in law and economic conditions. Part of our 
plan for the $2 billion appropriated under the American Rescue Plan Act 
is to address this problem by centrally developing open, modular 
technology solutions that states may adopt as part of ongoing 
modernization and improvement efforts. Shared IT solutions will be 
designed to integrate with state systems and will focus on the needs 
that are shared across states, while supporting states to implement and 
continue operating state specific elements. DOL's vision is to provide 
software to support end-to-end administration of UI, including benefit 
delivery, employer tools, and appeals. As part of this effort, DOL will 
consider all possible IT solutions that will assist states in 
modernizing their systems and preventing fraud, including consumer 
finance applications. DOL will work with the IT staff in the States to 
develop and execute a plan that builds resilience in the UI systems 
across the country.
    Question. Is the Department of Labor considering issuing guidance 
in regard to the ability of the states to use third-party income 
verification technology to accurately verify 1099 and gig worker income 
distribution?
    Answer. Within the scope of the temporary Pandemic Unemployment 
Assistance (PUA) program authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 
Economic Security (CARES) Act, as amended, DOL has advised states 
through webinars and individual technical assistance requests regarding 
the use of third parties when obtaining documentation to verify 1099 
income distribution for purposes of eligibility. Because the Department 
has already provided information to states on using third parties to 
verify income for PUA claimants and the program will end shortly, the 
Department does not plan on issuing guidance on using third party 
income verification technology.
                                 ______
                                 
            Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
                unemployment insurance it modernization
    Question. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the cracks in the 
foundation of many critical support systems across all levels of 
government, including the unemployment insurance system. After 15 very 
long months, Vermont is finally back to its pre-pandemic unemployment 
levels of 2.6 percent. The State has reinstated its work search 
requirements, and plans to allocate Federal unemployment benefits 
through the summer.
    In April, your Department contacted the Vermont Department of Labor 
requesting that they re-process thousands of Federal unemployment 
benefit claims. During this difficult and unprecedented time, the state 
was trying to get money out the door to people in need as fast as they 
could. I, along with the rest of the Vermont congressional delegation, 
wrote you in late April about the need for flexibility when it came to 
the reprocessing of unemployment insurance claims given to claimants 
for the ``able and available'' eligibility criteria.
    While the response from your Department recognized the strain under 
which state UI programs are operating, and stated that you will 
continue to provide the state with technical assistance to fulfill the 
Department's request, the Vermont delegation did not receive a response 
to our inquiry until last week, on July 7. I appreciate your 
Department's willingness to work with the state, but this was a long-
delayed response. I hope the Department will keep me and my staff 
updated on this issue, as the state is doing, and in the future, I hope 
the responses to my office will be received in a timelier manner.
    One issue highlighted by the pandemic is how many smaller, rural 
states including Vermont lack adequate, modern unemployment insurance 
technology. While trying to process thousands of new unemployment 
claims, the Vermont Department of Labor, for example, had to work with 
a 50-year-old computer mainframe that repeatedly froze and crashed the 
system at the beginning of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. I 
appreciate your Department's request for $100 million to bolster state 
Department of Labor's IT systems to administer unemployment, which is 
on top of the $2 billion committed in the American Rescue Plan for the 
same purpose.
    How will your Department work to ensure that departments of labor 
with older unemployment insurance IT systems, such as Vermont's 50-
year-old mainframe, are prioritized when administering UI modernization 
funding?
    Answer. The Department welcomes the $2 billion that Congress 
provided in the American Rescue Plan Act and agrees that UI technology 
and infrastructure modernization is urgently needed. It is critical 
that state systems operate on a high-quality technology infrastructure 
that enables them to administer their UI programs equitably and 
efficiently, so all eligible unemployed workers have timely and 
meaningful access to this vital benefit. Formulating large scale 
spending plans across the UI system, which is comprised of 53 different 
programs operated by the states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 
and the U.S. Virgin Islands, requires multiple complex considerations. 
The Administration is fully engaged in developing detailed plans to 
achieve the goals and purposes set in the American Rescue Plan Act and 
will keep Congress informed of those plans and progress on the 
implementation of this important project.
    The Department has engaged with states on this topic. The 
Department conducted an initial webinar with state UI agencies on June 
22, 2021, to share some of the current plans and approach on pursuing 
UI information technology modernization. The webinar also solicited 
states for engagement and partnership in these activities. Since then, 
seven states have begun working with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) 
and the U.S. Digital Service in research partnerships designed to help 
fill in research gaps and provide input on the current and future 
stages of UI modernization. Also, there have been follow-up virtual 
office hours offered to states for further conversations on this topic.
    All states should benefit from the funding provided in the American 
Rescue Plan Act. As a state modernizes its IT system, there may be 
opportunities to take advantage of the central, modular, open 
technology solutions developed through this DOL/state partnership. DOL 
is also deploying teams of experts, initially to six states, on a 
voluntary basis to help identify process improvements that can speed 
benefit delivery, address equity, and fight fraud (i.e., Tiger Teams). 
The Tiger Teams can provide support, including funding, as states like 
Vermont look at business processes through a fraud-fighting and equity 
lens in the course of modernization. Additionally, DOL is making grants 
to states available to promote equity and fight fraud. These grants 
will be designed to help states improve worker access to the UI system, 
while helping states make system improvements that will safeguard them 
against fraud.
                          workforce shortages
    Question. Even as Vermont's unemployment rate has fallen back to 
pre-pandemic levels, workforce shortages remain and no sector has been 
spared. Businesses in smaller, more rural states like Vermont, have 
struggled for decades to address skilled workforce shortages--whether 
it is in the healthcare, education, child care, or manufacturing 
industry. Your Department's budget requests $3.7 billion, a 6 percent 
increase, for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and Wagner 
Peyser state formula grants to make employment services and training 
available to dislocated workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
    How will your Department work to ensure that the DOL's workforce 
development help dislocated workers in rural states like Vermont that 
currently lack the services available to provide workers with the 
skills necessary to re-enter the post-pandemic economy?
    Answer. The Department is working to ensure that all American 
workers and job seekers, including those in Vermont, have access to the 
services needed to make them ready for good jobs with family-sustaining 
wages. The COVID-19 pandemic created widespread economic disruption and 
further highlighted pre-existing deficiencies in the availability of 
opportunities for all Americans to find good-paying, safe employment. 
While WIOA funding allotments to states are set by a statutory formula, 
the fiscal year 2022 Budget reflects the Department's continued 
commitment to help American workers and job seekers, particularly those 
from disadvantaged communities, get back on their feet, access job 
training, and find pathways to high-quality jobs that can support a 
middle-class life. The fiscal year 2022 Budget requests $3.7 billion 
for WIOA programs, a $203 million increase over the fiscal year 2021 
funding. The Budget includes increases of approximately $37 million for 
the Adult Program, $94 million for the Dislocated Worker Formula 
Program, $100 million for Dislocated Worker Grants (DWG), and $43 
million for the Youth Program. This request will make employment 
services and training available to more dislocated workers, low-income 
adults, and disadvantaged youth who have been hurt by the economic 
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The fiscal year 2022 Budget also includes the American Jobs Plan, 
an investment that will create millions of high-quality jobs and 
rebuild our country's infrastructure. This includes investments in 
American workers--providing people with the skills they need to 
succeed, strengthening the pathways to success, and ensuring that the 
jobs that are created are high quality. Structural racism and 
persistent economic inequities have undermined opportunity for millions 
of workers, and these investments will prioritize underserved 
communities and communities negatively impacted by the transforming 
economy. The United States currently spends just one-fifth of the 
average that other advanced economies spend on workforce and labor 
market programs.
    The Department included legislative proposals to implement the 
American Jobs Plan, totaling $81.5 billion over 10 years, to address 
these multiple challenges. This investment in proven workforce 
development models includes:
  --Creating and expanding sector-based training programs;
  --Providing comprehensive support for dislocated workers to enable 
        their participation in high-quality training programs;
  --Expanding Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship 
        opportunities;
  --Building community colleges' capacity to deliver high-quality job 
        training programs;
  --Expanding access to evidence-based intensive, staff-assisted career 
        services;
  --Providing subsidized jobs to workers with barriers to employment;
  --Expanding workforce development services for justice-involved 
        individuals; and
  --Phasing out the subminimum wage provided to workers with 
        disabilities while expanding their access to competitive, 
        integrated employment opportunities.
    There are several current funding sources that may be able to 
support rural communities in addressing workforce transition.
    First, each state may reserve up to 15 percent of their WIOA 
funding for statewide activities and an additional 25 percent of the 
Dislocated Worker formula allotment for Rapid Response activities. Both 
statewide and Rapid Response activities can be focused on prioritizing 
business engagement activities and layoff aversion efforts. Business 
engagement helps to develop long-term relationships with the business 
community. It enables the public workforce system to partner with 
businesses to play a more significant part in understanding their 
workforce needs, both currently and in the future. Statewide resources, 
or other WIOA resources, can then be used to train workers in the 
specific skills these businesses need.
    Second, state or local workforce areas may request additional 
funding from the Department through the National Dislocated Worker 
Grant (DWG) program when qualifying events occur, including large 
layoffs or a number of smaller layoffs that add up to a larger impact. 
DWG funds supplement the regular WIOA formula resources and allow 
states to provide critical workforce services to more unemployed 
workers than would otherwise be the case.
    Lastly, the Department funds several other grant programs that may 
benefit rural states and communities across the country. For example, 
on June 28, 2021, the Department announced the Comprehensive and 
Accessible Reemployment through Equitable Employment Recovery (CAREER) 
DWG. CAREER DWGs are designed to fund strategies and activities to help 
reemploy dislocated workers most affected by the economic and 
employment fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, those 
from historically marginalized communities or groups and those who have 
been unemployed for an extended period or who have exhausted UI or 
other Pandemic Unemployment Insurance programs.
    Another example is the competitive H-1B Rural Healthcare grants. In 
January 2021, the Department awarded $40 million in funding to rural 
communities through partnerships of public and private entities to 
address rural healthcare workforce shortages across the country. This 
investment is addressing a very specific need that was exacerbated 
during the pandemic. It aims to increase the number of individuals 
training in healthcare occupations that directly impact patient care 
and alleviate healthcare workforce shortages by creating sustainable 
employment and training programs in healthcare occupations serving 
rural populations.
    The Administration also has requested $100 million in the next 
fiscal year to enable states to overcome the loss of legacy industries 
or persistent employment challenges and work towards a clean energy 
economy, helping to ensure steady employment opportunities into the 
future.
                    regional apprenticeship program
    Question. A primary focus of the Department of Labor's budget 
request for fiscal year 2022 is a significant increase of Federal 
funding for the Registered Apprenticeship Program of $100 million, 
totaling $285 million for the program, which is a 154-percent increase 
from fiscal year 2021. Apprenticeship programs add to the important 
workforce development role in helping people succeed in learning for 
the jobs of today and tomorrow. Many states, including Vermont, must 
connect jobseekers to better paying jobs that are in high-demand in 
order to continue to have a healthy economy. More than 90 percent of 
apprentices find employment after completing their programs, with 
graduates earning an average starting salary of more than $60,000.
    The fiscal year 2022 budget request highlights the need for the 
Registered Apprenticeship Program to focus on expanding access to the 
model for historically underrepresented groups, including women and 
people of color, and in high-growth sectors where apprenticeships are 
underutilized. Despite the need for innovative programs to stem the 
demographic trends of aging and shrinking rural areas, small rural 
states such as Vermont have struggled with meeting some of the criteria 
for the Department's Apprenticeship program. Expanding the Department's 
partnership with regional commissions would ensure that small rural 
areas can also build long-term community capacity and increase economic 
competitiveness.
    What is the Department's plan for ensuring that the increased 
funding request for the Registered Apprenticeship Program also benefits 
people who live in small rural states where the program's criteria has 
historically been a barrier to access?
    Answer. The Department is acutely aware of the need for improving 
conditions in rural areas and reaching underserved populations and has 
previously invested in the expansion of Registered Apprenticeships in 
states, including small rural states, and is committed to continuing 
these efforts through future grant funding.
    Previously, the Department awarded several grants supporting 
efforts to address access barriers to Registered Apprenticeship 
Programs in rural areas. These include Registered Apprenticeship grants 
awarded to states in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020 \34\ to support 
building state capacity to expand Registered Apprenticeship. The 
Vermont Department of Labor was a recipient of these awards in each of 
those 4 years. Since 2016, according to the Department's records the 
State of Vermont has seen a nearly 70 percent increase in the number of 
active apprentices in Registered Apprenticeship programs, including 
over 2,600 new apprentices during this period. In addition, in January 
2021, the Department awarded nearly $40 million in grants as part of 
the H-1B Rural Healthcare grant program, focused on addressing 
healthcare workforce shortages by creating sustainable employment and 
training programs in healthcare occupations serving rural populations. 
This funding opportunity allowed applicants to propose a wide range of 
training models, including Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) 
to, meet the healthcare workforce needs of rural areas.
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    \34\ https://www.apprenticeship.gov/investments-tax-credits-and-
tuition-support/active-grants-and-contracts.
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    Most recently, the Department awarded more than $99 million to 
states as part of the State Apprenticeship Expansion, Equity, and 
Innovation \35\ grants to bolster states' efforts to expand programming 
and inclusive recruitment strategies to attract a diverse workforce. 
The awards include more than $85 million for states that demonstrated a 
commitment to increasing their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. 
These grants also aim to develop partnerships with new industries and 
non-traditional occupations, including industry sectors hardest hit by 
the pandemic, and align Registered Apprenticeships with other work-
based learning opportunities within state education and workforce 
systems. In addition, to ensure this funding opportunity could support 
the diverse needs of small rural states, medium-sized, and large states 
the funding opportunity allowed for a broad funding request range (from 
$2 million up to $10 million) with performance outcome targets that 
were commensurate with the amount of funding requested.
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    \35\ https://www.apprenticeship.gov/investments-tax-credits-and-
tuition-support/active-grants-and-contracts.
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    Further, to better facilitate the expansion of Registered 
Apprenticeship, including in rural areas, the Department also awarded 
nearly $31 million through cooperative agreements to establish four 
Registered Apprenticeship (RA) Technical Assistance (TA) Centers of 
Excellence \36\ to provide technical assistance to key apprenticeship 
stakeholders. These RA TA Centers of Excellence will provide technical 
assistance on a national scale focused on: (1) diversity and inclusion; 
(2) strategic partnership and system alignment; (3) apprenticeship 
occupations and standards; and (4) data and performance best practices. 
Rural areas, as well as all states, will benefit from the technical 
assistance being provided by these centers.
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    \36\ https://www.apprenticeship.gov/investments-tax-credits-and-
tuition-support/active-grants-and-contracts.
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    A focus of all of the Department's investments awarded in 2021 is 
to fund opportunities to support innovation in Registered 
Apprenticeship expansion efforts allowing states maximum flexibility 
for determining where they should target resources. Such efforts may 
include creating access for underrepresented populations; developing 
distance learning approaches; identifying promising practices with 
employer incentives that could bring employers on board, especially in 
rural areas; and ensuring industries or occupations negatively impacted 
by the COVID-19 pandemic are supported.
    In fiscal year 2022, the Department will prioritize investments 
that continue to expand the capacity of states to build and expand the 
apprenticeship model to new sectors and occupations, increase access 
for historically underrepresented groups; and address access barriers 
to Registered Apprenticeship Programs in rural areas. The Department 
will continue looking for additional opportunities to further these 
efforts.
    Question. Has the Department considered further utilizing its 
partnerships with regional commissions and authorities to expand access 
to vital workforce development programs such as the Regional 
Apprenticeship Program? How can these partnerships best be utilized?
    Answer. The Department believes partnerships that support workforce 
system integration are critical to expand access to Registered 
Apprenticeship Programs. This includes building partnerships with 
governors, workforce agencies, workforce development boards, and 
interdepartmental Federal leaders to further align registered 
apprenticeship with other work-based learning opportunities within 
state education and workforce systems.
    As these partnerships are critical to expanding access to 
Registered Apprenticeship Programs, the Department has and will 
continue to fund activities that support building strategic 
partnerships and system alignment. Most recently, the Department 
awarded more than $99 million to states as part of the State 
Apprenticeship Expansion, Equity, and Innovation \37\ (SAEEI) grants to 
bolster states' efforts to expand programming and inclusive recruitment 
strategies to attract a diverse workforce. Under these grants, states 
must explore new and expanded opportunities with industry, employers, 
education and training providers, the workforce system, state and local 
governments, labor organizations, and other entities, to better 
coordinate and maximize resources and assistance across Federal, state 
and local funding streams, as well as from the private sector 
enrollment in and access to apprenticeship opportunities that support 
workforce system integration.
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    \37\ https://www.apprenticeship.gov/investments-tax-credits-and-
tuition-support/active-grants-and-contracts.
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    Additionally, the Department also awarded nearly $31 million 
through cooperative agreements to establish four Registered 
Apprenticeship (RA) Technical Assistance (TA) Centers of Excellence 
\38\ to provide technical assistance to key apprenticeship 
stakeholders. One of the RA TA Centers funded will support strategic 
partnerships and system alignment. Specifically, this center will focus 
on establishing, building, and sustaining partnerships that support 
system alignment of the national workforce and education systems to 
accelerate Registered Apprenticeship Program adoption and expansion. 
This RA TA Center of Excellence will provide technical assistance on a 
national scope to Registered Apprenticeship Program sponsors, and will 
also support state and local workforce development boards, American Job 
Center programs and operators, governors and other essential 
stakeholders that drive and inform economic and workforce development 
policies and programs.
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    \38\ https://www.apprenticeship.gov/investments-tax-credits-and-
tuition-support/active-grants-and-contracts.
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    The Department is constantly striving to find new and better ways 
to connect with the workforce system and its partners.

                           SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS

    Senator Murray. With that, the subcommittee is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:12 a.m., Wednesday, July 14, the hearings 
were concluded, and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene 
subject to the call of the Chair.]