[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 168 (Thursday, August 29, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 45449-45452]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-18496]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
20 CFR Part 686
[DOL Docket No. ETA-2019-0006]
RIN 1205-AB96
Procurement Roles and Responsibilities for Job Corps Contracts
AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (Department) proposes two procedural
changes to its Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Job
Corps regulations to enable the Secretary to delegate procurement
authority as it relates to the development and issuance of requests for
proposals for the operation of Job Corps centers, outreach and
admissions, career transitional services, and other operational support
services. The Department proposes to take this procedural action to
align regulatory provisions with the relevant WIOA statutory language
and to provide greater flexibility for internal operations and
management of the Job Corps program.
DATES: Comments to this proposal and other information must be
submitted (transmitted, postmarked, or delivered) by September 30,
2019. All submissions must bear a postmark or provide other evidence of
the submission date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Regulatory
Information Number (RIN) 1205-AB96, by 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: Written comments, disk, and CD-ROM
submissions may be mailed to Heidi Casta, Deputy Administrator, Office
of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Labor, 200
Constitution Avenue NW, Room N-5641, Washington, DC 20210.
Instructions: Label all submissions with ``RIN 1205-AB96.''
[[Page 45450]]
Please submit your comments by only one method. Please be advised
that the Department will post all comments received that relate to this
NPRM on http://www.regulations.gov without making any change to the
comments or redacting any information. The http://www.regulations.gov
website is the Federal e-rulemaking portal, and all comments posted
there are available and accessible to the public. Therefore, the
Department recommends that commenters remove personal information such
as Social Security Numbers, personal addresses, telephone numbers, and
email addresses included in their comments, as such information may
become easily available to the public via the http://www.regulations.gov website. It is the responsibility of the commenter
to safeguard personal information.
Also, please note that, due to security concerns, postal mail
delivery in Washington, DC may be delayed. Therefore, the Department
encourages the public to submit comments on http://www.regulations.gov.
Docket: All comments on this proposed rule will be available on the
http://www.regulations.gov website, and can be found using RIN 1205-
AB96. The Department also will make all the comments it receives
available for public inspection by appointment during normal business
hours at the above address. If you need assistance to review the
comments, the Department will provide appropriate aids, such as readers
or print magnifiers. The Department will make copies of this proposed
rule available, upon request, in large print and electronic file on
computer disk. To schedule an appointment to review the comments and/or
obtain the proposed rule in an alternative format, contact the Office
of Policy Development and Research at (202) 693-3700 (this is not a
toll-free number). You may also contact this office at the address
listed below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Heidi Casta, Deputy Administrator,
Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Labor,
200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room N-5641, Washington, DC 20210;
telephone (202) 693-3700 (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 1-800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Department is proposing to amend two provisions of 20 CFR part
686, which implements subtitle C of title I of WIOA. Through these
amendments, the Department proposes to align these regulatory
provisions with the language in WIOA by broadening the authority to
issue contract solicitations from the Employment and Training
Administration (ETA) to the Secretary of Labor. The Department proposes
to make this procedural change to the WIOA regulation to provide
greater flexibility in the management and operation of the Job Corps
program by allowing the Secretary of Labor to designate the component
of the Department that is authorized to issue requests for proposals
(RFPs) for the operation of Job Corps centers, outreach and admissions,
career transitional services, and other operational support services.
This change will provide the Department with the flexibility to more
efficiently manage the Job Corps procurement process, which will in
turn allow greater economies of scale and operational efficiencies.
This proposed rule is consistent with the President's Management Agenda
with respect to Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal Number 5--Sharing
Quality Services. The Department is implementing this CAP goal in part,
via the Department's Enterprise-Wide Shared Services Initiatives whose
primary goals are as follows:
1. Improve human resources efficiency, effectiveness, and
accountability;
2. Provide modern technology solutions that empower the DOL mission
and serve the American public through collaboration and innovation;
3. Maximize DOL's federal buying power through effective
procurement management; and
4. Safeguard fiscal integrity, and promote the effective and
efficient use of resources.
This proposal will assist the Department's implementation of its
Enterprise-Wide Shared Services Initiative.
This proposed rule is not an Executive Order 13771 regulatory
action because this proposed rule is not significant under Executive
Order 12866.
II. Consideration of Comments
ETA requests comment on all issues related to this proposed rule.
As discussed more fully below, this proposed rule is the companion
document to a direct final rule (DFR) published in the ``Rules''
section of this issue of the Federal Register. If ETA receives no
significant adverse comment on the proposal or DFR, ETA will publish a
Federal Register document confirming the effective date of the DFR and
withdrawing this companion NPRM. Such confirmation may include minor
stylistic or technical changes to the DFR. For the purpose of judicial
review, ETA views the date of confirmation of the effective date of the
DFR as the date of promulgation. If, however, ETA receives a
significant adverse comment on the DFR or proposal, the Agency will
publish a timely withdrawal of the DFR and proceed with the proposed
rule, which addresses the same revisions to procurement authority for
the Job Corps program in the development and issuance of requests for
proposals for the operation of Job Corps centers, and for outreach and
admissions, career transitional services, and other operational support
services.
III. Direct Final Rulemaking
As noted above, in addition to publishing this NPRM, ETA is
concurrently publishing a companion DFR in the Federal Register. In
direct final rulemaking, an agency publishes a DFR in the Federal
Register, with a statement that the rule will go into effect unless the
agency receives significant adverse comment within a specified period.
The agency may publish an identical concurrent NPRM. If the agency
receives no significant adverse comment in response to the DFR, the
rule goes into effect. ETA plans to confirm the effective date of a DFR
through a separate Federal Register document. If the agency receives a
significant adverse comment, the agency will withdraw the DFR and treat
such comment as a response to the NPRM. An agency typically uses direct
final rulemaking when an agency anticipates that a rule will not be
controversial.
For purposes of the DFR, a significant adverse comment is one that
explains why the amendments to the regulatory provisions identified
below would be inappropriate. In determining whether a comment
necessitates withdrawal of the DFR, ETA will consider whether the
comment raises an issue serious enough to warrant a substantive
response. ETA will not consider a comment recommending an additional
amendment to this regulation to be a significant adverse comment unless
the comment states why the DFR would be ineffective without the
addition.
The comment period for this NPRM runs concurrently with that of the
DFR. ETA will treat comments received on the NPRM as comments also
regarding the companion DFR. Similarly, ETA will consider comments
submitted to the companion DFR as comment to the
[[Page 45451]]
NPRM. Therefore, if ETA receives a significant adverse comment on
either the DFR or this NPRM, it will withdraw the companion DFR and
proceed with the NPRM. In the event ETA withdraws the DFR because of
significant adverse comment, ETA will consider all timely comments
received in response to the DFR when it continues with the NPRM. After
carefully considering all comments to the DFR and the NPRM, ETA will
decide whether to publish a new final rule.
ETA determined that the subject of this rulemaking is suitable for
direct final rulemaking. This proposed amendment is procedural in
nature and does not impact the operation of Job Corps centers, the
operational support services, or the delivery of career transitional
services and other operation, the process by which offerors respond to
solicitations, the substance of their responses, or the criteria upon
which the solicitation will be evaluated. Finally, the revisions would
not impose any new costs or burdens. For these reasons, ETA does not
anticipate objections from the public to this rulemaking action.
IV. Discussion of Proposed Changes
Sec. 147(a) of WIOA authorizes the Secretary of Labor to enter into
agreements with eligible entities to operate Job Corps centers and to
provide activities to a Job Corps center. Two provisions in the
regulation implementing subtitle C of Title I of WIOA implement section
147(a). 20 CFR 686.310(a) broadly states that the Secretary selects
eligible entities to operate contract centers on a competitive basis in
accordance with applicable statutes and regulations and 20 CFR
686.340(a) states that the Secretary selects eligible entities to
provide outreach and admission, career transition, and operational
support services on a competitive basis in accordance with applicable
statutes and regulations. However, both provisions also specifically
require ETA to develop and issue RFPs for these Job Corps contracts.
These provisions are narrower than section 147(a) and constrain the
Department's authority to assign the authority to develop and issue
RFPs to whichever component of the agency it determines appropriate.
This proposed rule amends Sec. Sec. 686.310(a) and 686.340(a) by
replacing ``ETA'' with ``the Secretary.'' Through this proposed rule,
the Department is aligning the text of sections 686.310(a) and
686.340(a) with the statutory language in section 147(a) of WIOA and
eliminating the inconsistency between the regulation and the statute.
This change also affords the Department greater flexibility to manage
and oversee the Job Corps procurement process in a manner that it
determines appropriate, which in turn will aid in the implementation of
the Department's Enterprise-Wide Shared Services Initiative described
above.
V. Rulemaking Analyses and Notices
Executive Orders 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review), 13563
(Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review), and 13771 (Reducing
Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs)
Executive Order 12866 requires that regulatory agencies assess both
the costs and benefits of significant regulatory actions. Under the
Executive Order, a ``significant regulatory action'' is one meeting any
of a number of specified conditions, including the following: Having an
annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; creating a
serious inconsistency or interfering with an action of another agency;
materially altering the budgetary impact of entitlements or the rights
of entitlement recipients, or raising novel legal or policy issues. The
Department has determined that this proposed rulemaking is not a
``significant'' regulatory action and a cost-benefit and economic
analysis is not required. This regulation merely makes a procedural
change to allow flexibility to manage and oversee the Job Corps
procurement process in a manner that the Department determines
appropriate. This rule is not an Executive Order 13771 regulatory
action because this rule is not significant under Executive Order
12866.
Executive Order 13563 directs agencies to assess all costs and
benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is
necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits
(including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety
effects, distributive impacts, and equity). Executive Order 13563
emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits,
reducing costs, harmonizing rules, and promoting flexibility to
minimize burden.
This rule makes only a procedural change to allow flexibility to
manage and oversee the Job Corps procurement process in a manner that
the Department determines appropriate; thus this rule is not expected
to have any regulatory impacts.
Regulatory Flexibility Act/Small Business Regulatory Enforcement
Fairness Act
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), at 5 U.S.C. 603(a), requires
agencies to prepare and make available for public comment an initial
regulatory flexibility analysis, which describes the impact of the
proposed rule on small entities. Section 605 of the RFA allows an
agency to certify a rule, in lieu of preparing an analysis, if the
proposed rulemaking is not expected to have a significant economic
impact on a substantial number of small entities. This proposed rule
does not affect small entities as defined in the RFA. Therefore, the
proposed rule will not have a significant economic impact on a
substantial number of these small entities. Therefore, the Department
certifies that the proposed rule will not have a significant economic
impacts on a substantial number of small entities.
Paperwork Reduction Act
The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3507(d)) requires
that the Department consider the impact of paperwork and other
information collection burdens imposed on the public. The Department
has determined that this rule does not alter any information collection
burdens.
Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)
Section 6 of E.O. 13132 requires Federal agencies to consult with
State entities when a regulation or policy may have a substantial
direct effect on the States, the relationship between the National
Government and the States, or the distribution of power and
responsibilities among the various levels of government, within the
meaning of the E.O. Section 3(b) of the E.O. further provides that
Federal agencies must implement regulations that have a substantial
direct effect only if statutory authority permits the regulation and it
is of national significance.
This proposed rule does not have a substantial direct effect on the
States, the relationship between the National Government and the
States, or the distribution of power and responsibilities among the
various levels of Government, within the meaning of the E.O. This
proposed rule merely makes a procedural change for internal
Departmental operations and management for Job Corps procurement.
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995
This regulatory action has been reviewed in accordance with the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (the Reform Act). Under the Reform
Act,
[[Page 45452]]
a Federal agency must determine whether a regulation proposes a Federal
mandate that would result in the increased expenditures by State,
local, or tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the private
sector, of $100 million or more in any single year. This proposed rule
merely makes an administrative change to the name of the Departmental
entity authorized for Job Corps procurement responsibilities. The
requirements of Title II of the Act, therefore, do not apply, and the
Department has not prepared a statement under the Act.
Executive Order 13175 (Indian Tribal Governments)
The Department has reviewed the NPRM under the terms of E.O. 13175
and DOL's Tribal Consultation Policy, and have concluded that the
changes to regulatory text which are the focus of the NPRM would not
have tribal implications, as these changes do not have substantial
direct effects on one or more Indian tribes, the relationship between
the Federal government and Indian tribes, nor the distribution of power
and responsibilities between the Federal government and Indian tribes.
Therefore, no consultations with tribal governments, officials, or
other tribal institutions were necessary.
List of Subjects in 20 CFR Part 686
Employment, Grant programs--labor, Job Corps.
For the reasons stated in the preamble, the Department proposes to
amend 20 CFR part 686 as follows:
PART 686--THE JOBS CORPS UNDER TITLE I OF THE WORKFORCE INNOVATION
AND OPPORTUNITY ACT
0
1. The authority citation for part 686 continues to read as follows:
Authority: Secs. 142, 144, 146, 147, 159, 189, 503, Pub. L. 113-
128, 128 Stat. 1425 (Jul. 22, 2014).
0
2. Amend Sec. 686.310 by revising paragraph (a) to read as follows:
Sec. 686.310 How are entities selected to receive funding to operate
centers?
(a) The Secretary selects eligible entities to operate contract
centers on a competitive basis in accordance with applicable statutes
and regulations. In selecting an entity, the Secretary issues requests
for proposals (RFPs) for the operation of all contract centers
according to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (48 CFR chapter 1) and
Department of Labor Acquisition Regulation (48 CFR chapter 29). The
Secretary develops RFPs for center operators in consultation with the
Governor, the center workforce council (if established), and the Local
WDB for the workforce development area in which the center is located.
* * * * *
0
3. Amend Sec. 686.340 by revising paragraph (a) to read as follows:
Sec. 686.340 How are entities selected to receive funding to provide
outreach and admission, career transition and other operations support
services?
(a) The Secretary selects eligible entities to provide outreach and
admission, career transition, and operational services on a competitive
basis in accordance with applicable statutes and regulations. In
selecting an entity, the Secretary issues requests for proposals (RFP)
for operational support services according to the Federal Acquisition
Regulation (48 CFR chapter 1) and Department of Labor Acquisition
Regulation (48 CFR chapter 29). The Secretary develops RFPs for
operational support services in consultation with the Governor, the
center workforce council (if established), and the Local WDB for the
workforce development area in which the center is located.
* * * * *
John P. Pallasch,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2019-18496 Filed 8-28-19; 8:45 am]
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