[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 98 (Tuesday, May 23, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23604-23605]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-10500]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; 
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) DOL-Only Performance 
Accountability, Information, and Reporting System

AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Labor.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (DOL), Employment and Training 
Administration (ETA) is soliciting comments concerning proposed 
extension for the authority to conduct the information collection 
request (ICR) titled, ``Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) 
Performance Accountability, Information and Reporting System.'' This 
comment request is part of continuing Departmental efforts to reduce 
paperwork and respondent burden in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

DATES: Submit written comments to the office listed in the addresses 
section below on or before July 24, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice should be 
submitted electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
http://www.regulations.gov by selecting Docket ID number ETA-2017-0002 
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. A copy of 
the ICR with applicable supporting documentation; including a 
description of the likely respondents, proposed frequency of response, 
and estimated total burden may be obtained free of charge from http://www.regulations.gov or by contacting Herman L. Quilloin III by 
telephone at 202-693-3994 (this is not a toll-free number) or by email 
at [email protected]. Individuals with hearing or speech 
impairments may access the telephone number above via TTY by calling 
the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1-877-889-5627 (TTY/
TDD). Fax: 202-693-2766.
    Mail and hand delivery/courier: Send written comments to Herman L. 
Quilloin III, Office of Policy Development and Research, Room N5641, 
Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210. Due to security-related 
concerns, there may be a significant delay in the receipt of 
submissions by United States Mail. You must take this into 
consideration when preparing to meet the deadline for submitting 
comments.
    Comments submitted in response to this comment request will become 
a matter of public record and will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of the 
information collection request. In addition, comments, regardless of 
the delivery method, will be posted without change on the http://www.regulations.gov Web site; consequently, the Department recommends 
commenters not include personal information such as a Social Security 
Number, personal address, telephone number, email address, or 
confidential business information that they do not want made public. It 
is the responsibility of the commenter to determine what to include in 
the public record.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Herman L. Quilloin III by telephone at 
202-693-3994 (this is not a toll-free number) or by email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The DOL, as part of continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance consultation program to 
provide the general public and Federal agencies an opportunity to 
comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information before 
submitting them to the OMB for final approval. This program helps to 
ensure requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting 
burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection 
instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection 
requirements can be properly assessed.
    Section 116 of WIOA requires States that operate core programs of 
the publicly-funded workforce system to comply with common performance 
accountability requirements. As such, States that operate core programs 
must submit common performance data to demonstrate that specified 
performance levels are achieved.
    The data collections in this ICR fulfill requirements in WIOA Sec. 
116(d)(1) which mandates that the Secretaries of Labor and Education 
develop a template for the annual performance reports to be used by 
States, local boards, and of training services for reporting on 
outcomes achieved by the WIOA programs. Pursuant to WIOA sec. 
116(d)(2), required annual data for the core programs include, among 
others, those related to primary performance indicators, participant 
counts and costs, and barriers to employment. The Department proposes 
to amend the information collection by making changes to the 
Participant Individual Record Layout (ETA-9172), (Program) Performance 
Report (ETA-9173) and the Pay-for-Performance Report (ETA-9174) to 
facilitate State quarterly performance reporting.
    This notice includes several documents--the ETA (Program) 
Performance Report, the WIOA Pay-for-Performance Report, the 
Participant Individual Record Layout (PIRL), and the WIOA Data Element 
Specifications. The Department requires states to certify and submit 
the ETA (Program) Performance Report to ETA on a quarterly basis and 
the Pay-for-Performance report(s) will be collected annually. ETA will 
aggregate the information the States submit through the PIRL to 
populate the ETA (Program) Performance Report, which ETA will then send 
to the States to confirm their accuracy. Each program included in this 
ICR will generate its own quarterly Performance Report.
    The ETA (Program) Performance Report and WIOA Pay-for-Performance 
Report have been designed to maximize the value of the reports for 
workers, jobseekers, employers, local elected officials, State 
officials, Federal policymakers, and other key stakeholders. The PIRL 
has been designed to reflect the specific requirements of the annual 
reports as described in WIOA section 116(d)(2) through (4).
    ETA will use the data to track total participants, characteristics, 
services, training strategies and outcomes for employed, unemployed and 
long-term unemployed participants. This data collection format permits 
program offices to evaluate program

[[Page 23605]]

effectiveness, monitor compliance with statutory requirements, and 
analyze participant activity and grantee performance while complying 
with OMB efforts to streamline Federal performance reporting.
    Under WIOA section 116(d)(6), the Secretary of Labor is required to 
annually make available (including by electronic means), in an easily 
understandable format, (a) the State Annual Performance Reports 
containing the information described in WIOA section 116 (d)(2) and (b) 
a summary of the reports, and the reports required under WIOA section 
116 (d)(6) (the State Performance, Local Area, and Eligible Training 
Provider Reports), to the Committee on Education and the Workforce of 
the House of Representatives and the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.
    The reports and other analyses of the data will be made available 
to the public through publication and other appropriate methods and to 
the appropriate congressional committees through copies of such 
reports. In addition, information obtained through the Workforce 
Performance Accountability, Information, and Reporting System will be 
used at the national level during budget and allocation hearings for 
DOL compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act and 
other legislative requirements, and during legislative authorization 
proceedings.
    Under this collection, participation will be measured based on the 
count of individuals who meet the definition of a ``participant''--
e.g., those who have received staff-level services within the program 
year. An individual should be considered to have exited after they have 
gone 90 days without service, and with no future services scheduled. 
Should they return for additional services after the 90 days--within 
the same program year and exit in that same program year--the 
individual's exit date will be changed to reflect only the last exit 
date in that program year. If the individual exits in a subsequent 
program year, they would be counted as a new participant for purposes 
of that subsequent program year. Counting unique individuals in this 
manner will allow an unduplicated count of participants in the 
accountability and reporting system. The Department understands that 
this may affect quarterly reporting results and counts of services 
rendered early in the program year, particularly for programs whose 
current reporting practices differ from what is described above. As 
such, we greatly encourage your comments on the potential impact on 
individual states and local areas of this and all other items discussed 
in this package.
    As mentioned above, as part of its effort to streamline program 
performance reporting, the Department added the performance information 
collection requirements for the SCSEP to this information collection. 
The Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016 (OAA-2016) amended 
the SCSEP core indicators of performance, and it requires those amended 
indicators to be implemented by regulation by December 31, 2017. SCSEP 
will retain its current ICR (under OMB Control Number 1205-0040) for 
non-performance data elements and will implement the OAA-2016 
performance measures' information collection under this ICR upon 
completion of rulemaking. This ICR may receive OMB approval before 
Final Rules implementing the OAA-2016 SCSEP measures are published. If 
this occurs, the Department will submit another ICR for this collection 
to OMB to incorporate the Final Rule citations, as required by 5 CFR 
1320.11(h). Those citations currently do not exist and, therefore, 
cannot be included at this time. The Department plans to review and 
analyze any comments received in response to this Federal Register 
Notice in order to finalize the substantive information collection 
requirements to the extent legally possible.

II. Review Focus

    The Department as part of its effort to streamline program 
performance reporting is (1) making grammar edits, code fields, and 
instructions revisions; (2) deleting data elements no longer required 
by ETA, (3) adding data elements needed by ETA, and (4) adding the 
performance information collection requirements for the Senior 
Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).
    The Department is particularly interested in comments that:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
     can further help to create an integrated data element 
layout between ETA-funded programs;
     enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology (e.g., permitting 
electronic submissions of responses).

III. Current Actions

    Type of Review: Revision.
    Title: Workforce Performance Accountability, Information, and 
Reporting System.
    OMB Number: 1205-0521.
    Affected Public: State, Local, and Tribal Governments; Individuals 
or Households; and Private Sector--businesses or other for-profits and 
not-for-profit institutions.
    Frequency: Quarterly, Annually.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondents: 947.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 17,360,446.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 4,495,212.
    Total Estimated Annual Other Costs Burden: $17,100,000.
    Approval of this information collection request is required so that 
the states, locals, and other entities can begin programming their 
management information systems in order to enable them to collect the 
necessary data to implement the data collection and reporting 
requirements of section 116 in accordance with the WIOA statute.

Byron Zuidema,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration, 
Labor.
[FR Doc. 2017-10500 Filed 5-22-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4510-FN-P