[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 104 (Thursday, May 30, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25071-25073]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-11262]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Job Corps Center Proposal for Deactivation: Comments Requested
AGENCY: Office of Job Corps, Employment and Training Administration
(ETA), Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Employment and Training Administration of the U.S.
Department of Labor (DOL) is issuing this Notice announcing a new
criterion for selecting Job Corps centers for deactivation, and
proposing the deactivation of nine Job Corps Civilian Conservation
Centers (CCC). The centers are Anaconda CCC in Anaconda, Montana;
Blackwell CCC in Laona, Wisconsin; Cass CCC in Ozark, Arkansas;
Flatwoods CCC in Coeburn, Virginia; Fort Simcoe CCC located in White
Swan, Washington; Frenchburg CCC in Frenchburg, Kentucky; Oconaluftee
CCC located in Cherokee, North Carolina; Pine Knot CCC in Pine Knot,
Kentucky; and Timber Lake CCC located in Estacada, Oregon. This Notice
seeks public comment on the proposed deactivation of these CCCs using
the discretion provided to the Secretary of the Department of Labor in
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
DATES: To be ensured consideration, comments must be submitted in
writing on or before July 1, 2019.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket Number ETA-
2019-0003, by only one of the following methods:
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
website instructions for submitting comments.
Mail and hand delivery/courier: Submit comments to Debra Carr,
Acting National Director, Office of Job Corps (OJC), U.S. Department of
Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 200 Constitution Avenue
NW, Room N- 4459, 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 consider this when
preparing to meet the deadline for submitting comments. DOL will post
all comments it receives on http://www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided. The http://www.regulations.gov website
is the Federal e-rulemaking portal and all comments posted there are
available
[[Page 25072]]
and accessible to the public. Commenters should not include personal
information, such as Social Security Numbers, personal addresses,
telephone numbers, and email addresses, in their comments if they do
not wish to make this information public. Comments submitted through
http://www.regulations.gov will not include the email address of the
commenter unless the commenter chooses to include that information as
part of his or her comment. It is the responsibility of the commenter
to safeguard personal information.
Instructions: All submissions received should include the Docket
Number for the Notice: Docket Number ETA-2019-0003. Please submit your
comments using only one of the available submission methods. Due to
security concerns, postal mail delivery in Washington, DC may be
delayed. Therefore, DOL encourages the public to submit comments on
http://www.regulations.gov.
Docket: All comments on this Notice of the proposed deactivation of
the identified CCCs will be available on the http://www.regulations.gov
website. DOL will also make all of the comments it receives available
for public inspection by appointment during normal business hours at
the Office of Job Corps provided above. Upon request, individuals
requiring assistance reviewing comments will be provided appropriate
aids such as readers or print magnifiers. Copies of this Notice are
available, upon request, in large print and electronic file on computer
disk. To schedule an appointment to review the comments and/or obtain
the Notice in an alternative format, contact the Office of Job Corps at
(202) 693-3000 (this is not a toll-free number). You may also contact
this office at the address listed below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Debra Carr, Acting National Director,
Office of Job Corps, ETA, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution
Avenue NW, Room N-4463, Washington, DC 20210; Telephone (202) 693-3000
(this is not a toll-free number). Individuals with hearing or speech
impairments may access the telephone number above via TTY by calling
the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at (877) 889-5627 (TTY/
TDD).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background on the Job Corps Program
Established in 1964, Job Corps is a national program administered
by ETA within DOL. Through its network of 123 centers in 50 states,
Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, Job Corps seeks to create
career pathways and provide access to meaningful employment
opportunities. Job Corps serves at-risk young people, ages 16 to 24,
seeking to overcome barriers to employment. These barriers can include
poverty, homelessness, or aging out of the foster care system. The
program provides the academic, career technical, and employability
skills these young people need to enter the workforce, enroll in post-
secondary education, or enlist in the military. The Job Corps program
is the nation's largest federally-funded, primarily residential skills
instruction program.
Various entities, including large and small businesses, manage and
operate 98 of the Job Corps centers through contractual agreements with
DOL. These contracts are awarded pursuant to Federal procurement rules.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the U.S. Forest
Service (FS), operates an additional 24 Civilian Conservation Centers
(CCC) through an interagency agreement with DOL. CCCs are located
predominantly in rural, and sometimes remote, locations. As with other
Job Corps centers, these facilities provide skills training for
disadvantaged young people to aid their entry into the American
workforce, but with additional focus on conserving the United States'
natural resources and providing assistance during natural disasters.
II. Criteria for Proposing a Different Approach
As part of the Department's ongoing efforts to ensure that Job
Corps' resources are used to deliver the best possible results for
students, it may determine that a different approach will allow Job
Corps to serve its students effectively.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), directs DOL to
``establish written criteria that the Secretary shall use to determine
when a Job Corps center supported under this part is to be closed and
how to carry out such closure[.]'' 29 U.S.C. 3211(c). Consequently, DOL
previously published criteria for making this determination:
1. A methodology for selecting a center for closure based on its
chronic low performance, first described in an August 2014 Federal
Register Notice (FRN) (79 FR 51198), and updated in a March 2016 FRN
(81 FR 12529);
2. An agreement between the Secretaries of Labor and Agriculture to
close a CCC, as described in the March 2016 FRN; or
3. An evaluation of the effort required to provide a high-quality
education and training program at the center, as described in the March
2016 FRN.
Through this Notice, the Department is announcing a fourth
criterion--program reform and streamlining operations. The Department
is engaged in an effort to reform and strengthen the overall management
and operation of the Job Corps program, including USDA's recently
announced decision to withdraw from the role of operating Job Corps
centers. The deactivation of a center or group of centers may advance
these efforts by focusing program resources on higher performing
centers and improving student access to these centers, increasing cost
efficiency, and enhancing the geographic match between student demand
for the program and center availability. While the Department will
continue to use the existing criteria to close centers when
appropriate, the Department may propose a center for deactivation or
repurposing when doing so furthers the Department's broad reform and
streamlining efforts. In applying this criterion, the Department will
not consider the Additional Considerations first discussed in the
August 2014 notice and amended in a September 2017 FRN (82 FR 44842).
These considerations do not appropriately reflect the importance of
operational and structural management, financial management, cost
efficiency, and long-term program priorities when pursuing broad agency
program reform and streamlining of operations.
DOL may make its closure determination based on any one of the four
criteria, and it may apply a single criterion independent of the
others. Thus, while a center may qualify under more than one criterion,
DOL may choose to rely on only one criterion when making its
determination. The written criteria were previously established;
therefore, DOL is not seeking comments on them in response to this
Notice. The Department is also not seeking comment on the new, fourth
criterion.
Prior to making a decision under any one of the first three
criteria, DOL also applies the Additional Considerations first
discussed in the August 2014 notice and amended in a September 2017 FRN
(82 FR 44842).
III. Job Corps Centers Selected for Deactivation
On May 24, 2019, DOL received a letter from USDA expressing its
intent to terminate its role in operating Job Corps CCCs to allow the
Forest Service to prioritize its core natural resource
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mission to improve the condition and resilience of the nation's
forests. Moreover, the letter established an expectation that by
September 30, 2019, each FS Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center will
be transitioned out, or on an established plan to transition out, of
the Job Corps program.
As part of the CCC phase-out activities, DOL plans to continue Job
Corps center operations at all CCC locations except nine. The nine
centers proposed for deactivation are Anaconda, Blackwell, Cass,
Flatwoods, Fort Simcoe, Frenchburg, Oconaluftee, Pine Knot, and Timber
Lake. While the existing second criterion identified above provides for
closures based on the mutual agreement of the Secretaries of Labor and
Agriculture, it does not pertain to the Department's broader interest
in program reform and how that can be executed through center
deactivations, repurposing, consolidations/mergers, and other measures.
The proposed deactivation of the nine CCCs is pursuant to the
program reform and streamlining criterion. In light of the USDA's
decision, the Department considered several factors to determine how to
move forward, including how to provide the highest quality services to
students; how to leverage efficiencies to serve more students; and how
to maximize the capacity of higher performing centers, including those
formerly operated by the USDA.
Based on that review, the Department determined that deactivating
these nine centers would advance broad program reform and streamlining
of operations, while also serving more students. Some of the centers
suffer from a variety of problems, including operating under-capacity,
not achieving long-term student outcomes, and operating in an
inefficient manner. Others are located in close proximity to other
higher-performing centers where increasing the student capacity of the
nearby center would better serve students. Deactivating these centers
would give Job Corps participants access to higher quality services,
allow the program to serve more students, streamline and make effective
use of existing facilities, reduce student transportation costs, and
eliminate the need for costly facility construction and rehabilitation
activities. Accordingly, the Department proposes to deactivate the nine
CCCs identified above.
IV. Request for Public Comments
Because it is using the fourth criterion, DOL is not applying the
Additional Considerations as amended in the September 2017 FRN.
However, DOL contemplated the Additional Considerations and concluded
that, if applied, they would not preclude the proposed deactivation of
the identified CCCs.
DOL requests public comments on its proposal to deactivate the
Anaconda CCC in Anaconda, Montana; Blackwell CCC in Laona, Wisconsin;
Cass CCC in Ozark, Arkansas; Flatwoods CCC in Coeburn, Virginia; Fort
Simcoe CCC in White Swan, Washington; Frenchburg CCC in Frenchburg,
Kentucky; Oconaluftee CCC in Cherokee, North Carolina; Pine Knot CCC in
Pine Knot, Kentucky; and Timber Lake CCC in Estacada, Oregon.
V. The Process Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
The process will follow the requirements of section 159(j) of the
WIOA, which include the following:
Announcing the proposed decision concerning a particular
center in advance to the public through publication in the Federal
Register or other appropriate means;
Establishing a reasonable comment period, not to exceed 30
days, for interested individuals to submit written comments to the
Secretary; and
Notifying the Member of Congress who represents the
district in which the center is located within a reasonable period in
advance of any final decision concerning the status of the center.
This Notice serves as the public announcement of the proposals
associated with the following CCCs: Anaconda, Blackwell, Cass,
Flatwoods, Frenchburg, Fort Simcoe, Oconaluftee, Pine Knot, and Timber
Lake. DOL is providing a 30-day period--the maximum amount of time
allowed for comment under WIOA sec. 159(j)--for interested individuals
to submit written comments on the proposed decision. DOL will announce
its final decision following the conclusion of the comment period.
Signed in Washington, DC.
Molly E. Conway,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2019-11262 Filed 5-24-19; 4:15 pm]
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